It’s Lady Gaga lesson-time again. After all, she is a marketer who consistently goes viral. And her results ring loud: Gaga’s the first artist to hit 1 billion YouTube views. And she’s turned quite a handy-dandy profit: 11.5 million albums sold in two years, including through digital media (where she was 2009’s bestseller, with 15 million tracks sold). Clearly, she’s doing something right. Brand marketers apparently can learn a lot from her cinematic, but approachable, persona.
Lady GaGa’s Branding Tip;
Tell a consistent story. Define a character and vision. Make sure your strategic team knows it fluently and supports it.
Engage fans in conversation. Provoke, listen, react! But don’t just head-nod; offer quality content that people will appreciate.
Connect the content. Keep your story consistent across media. Build relationships with brands/content providers that complement your persona. Discovery is part of a relationship’s pleasure; your personality should be multifaceted, its glint reflecting where the light bounces.
Fish where the fish are. Free content should be spreadable! Take time to produce work that’s contagious: It’s your foot soldier. Let users embed, revamp, comment and share where they want. (This sounds like common sense, but it isn’t always followed.)
Reinvent business. Find a way to seal deals that makes long-term sense. Gaga leverages touring, merchandise sales and advertising revenue. She has sponsored MAC lipstick, designed headphones for Heartbeats by Dre, and is creative director of Polaroid. (She also used her online store as a 24-hour donation filter. For a day, 100% of the profits from Gaga e-merch went to Haiti. She promoted it through Twitter.)
The Po!nt: Write a “bad romance” a la Gaga! That is, find ways to stand out remarkably, and commit to them 100%. How else will you be heard in today’s world?