The jukebox brings color to life
The new Swisscom Napster campaign from Publicis is mobile and colorful.
The new Swisscom Napster campaign from Publicis is colorful and mobile. The golden age of mobile operators is over. Telephone calls alone no longer generate dream sales. Prices are eroding. Customers want more and more for less and less money. The companies are trying to retain customers with convergence strategies. Suddenly a cell phone is also a television. Suddenly a cell phone is also a jukebox. Swisscom wants to cash in on music and is entering into a partnership with the music exchange Napster. Every consumer can access songs regardless of time and place. Customers have access to more than 3 million pieces of music via cell phone. Hobby DJs can search for a hit on the go, listen to it first, then download it and play it immediately.
Publicis advertisers are now also making the jukebox cell phone a topic. The centerpiece of the current Swisscom campaign is a TV spot by director Uwe Falde, who has already shot clips for bands such as Depeche Mode, Franz Ferdinand and Rammstein. The agency uses the play button to communicate the new music feeling. In the commercial, the button is the trigger for music, which becomes visible on the streets with lots of color. The illustrations brought to life are the independent key visual of the campaign and are integrated into advertisements, posters and other advertising materials. The graphics were drawn by Timo Böse. The spot is accompanied musically by the Berlin electronica producer Dishwasher Junior.
Despite the creative campaign, the partnership between the music exchange Napster and Swisscom has met with little enthusiasm. The download practice of the new service is criticized in forums and weblogs. Although consumers can avoid the detour via a computer and access a huge range of music, the price of a download is relatively high. A single song costs 2.50 francs. By comparison, the price on iTunes is 1.50 francs. The rights management is also questionable. Buyers can only play their songs on cell phones and PCs with a Windows operating system. Playback on the popular MP3 player iPod is only possible with special computer skills. In addition, the claim "Live music with Napster Mobile and 3 million songs" currently only applies to 600,000 of the 4.5 million cell phone customers in the country. The rest do not have a compatible device for Swisscom's latest service.
Uncertain future It remains to be seen how the business with digital music on cell phones will develop. Like Orange and Sunrise, which have been active in this market since 2005, Swisscom has high hopes for the Napster strategy. Whether it will succeed in launching a music revolution, as the headphone cat Napster did years ago, is questionable. According to the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper, sales are tiny. In 2006, digital music worth 7 million francs was sold, which is 3.6 percent of the total market. If downloads remain so expensive in the future and usage rights are subject to restrictions, the three local mobile operators will probably have to wait a long time for the big money.
Christian Lüscher
Publicis advertisers are now also making the jukebox cell phone a topic. The centerpiece of the current Swisscom campaign is a TV spot by director Uwe Falde, who has already shot clips for bands such as Depeche Mode, Franz Ferdinand and Rammstein. The agency uses the play button to communicate the new music feeling. In the commercial, the button is the trigger for music, which becomes visible on the streets with lots of color. The illustrations brought to life are the independent key visual of the campaign and are integrated into advertisements, posters and other advertising materials. The graphics were drawn by Timo Böse. The spot is accompanied musically by the Berlin electronica producer Dishwasher Junior.
Despite the creative campaign, the partnership between the music exchange Napster and Swisscom has met with little enthusiasm. The download practice of the new service is criticized in forums and weblogs. Although consumers can avoid the detour via a computer and access a huge range of music, the price of a download is relatively high. A single song costs 2.50 francs. By comparison, the price on iTunes is 1.50 francs. The rights management is also questionable. Buyers can only play their songs on cell phones and PCs with a Windows operating system. Playback on the popular MP3 player iPod is only possible with special computer skills. In addition, the claim "Live music with Napster Mobile and 3 million songs" currently only applies to 600,000 of the 4.5 million cell phone customers in the country. The rest do not have a compatible device for Swisscom's latest service.
Uncertain future It remains to be seen how the business with digital music on cell phones will develop. Like Orange and Sunrise, which have been active in this market since 2005, Swisscom has high hopes for the Napster strategy. Whether it will succeed in launching a music revolution, as the headphone cat Napster did years ago, is questionable. According to the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper, sales are tiny. In 2006, digital music worth 7 million francs was sold, which is 3.6 percent of the total market. If downloads remain so expensive in the future and usage rights are subject to restrictions, the three local mobile operators will probably have to wait a long time for the big money.
Christian Lüscher
