The digital experience gap in music and entertainment
Something I've noticed working across both worlds: getting timeline and budget for digital experience is a different fight in traditional industries than it is with our other tech clients, even though what's at stake (revenue, loyalty, brand) is just as high.
A few conversations with different music artists and entertainment brands this summer got me thinking about what we learned from our ongoing digital fan activation work.
A few things I keep hearing:
🙉 "Why invest into digital? We drop stuff on social."
A web-based experience isn't restricted by format, interaction, or someone else's rules. Done right, it can move as fast as culture and memes. On top of that, it is built entirely around one artist, one fanbase, one moment: a riddle or a game, a wardrobe visualizer, a UGC gallery, a message board, a surprise drop, and more. It's about giving fans more ways to engage. We've even shaped updates around things we've spotted in the fan club's comments. Def. not the same experience as a 15-sec reel.
🙊 "We just need amazing products in the shop, the website is not the priority."
The web-native experience is part of the brand, not a support piece next to it. Fans expect it to match the performance or the event itself, and that consistency is what turns attention into loyalty, and loyalty into new followers. It's not just the merch that matters, it's how it's presented, and how fans decide to buy into the brand. The experience is the product, too.
🙈 "We've never made this before. Our fans didn't ask for it."
Being creative and staying innovative is hard, and it's an investment. So often, you're trying to gain a new fanbase or extend brand interaction and engagement well before, or well after, the premiere or event itself. I think that's the real reason Lady Gaga's digital presence has stayed alive for her fans this long. It was never one big launch. It was the ability to keep dropping something new, fast, over and over.
More often than not, ecomm, one-off seasonal interactives, and digital campaigns get treated as an afterthought. In practice, they're often one of the clearest paths to new revenue and to deeper fan love, for artists and entertainment brands alike. This is why I get really excited when I see more and more interesting web work happening in this category, slowly but surely.
A digital Jurassic Park trail for Universal Pictures? A KATSEYE digital dance contest? An official post-season Valkyries chat room with the players? We will keep dreaming!
