Pumpkins manager thrills to “Beginning Is the End” sales 11:35 am // Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Posted by jjb in amusing, interview, marketing.trackback
Gus Wenner of Rolling Stone today gets a quote from a member (above, center) of “the Smashing Pumpkins organization”:
“The Smashing Pumpkins organization is thrilled with the immediate results they have seen for their song ‘The End Is The Beginning Is The End’ being chosen for Watchmen,” says Pumpkins manager Jared Paul. “This is a good example of the future of The Smashing Pumpkins. We are looking for great marketing alliances to support the band’s past and present musical offerings.”
As a guy who’s marketing the music of an alternative rock band, Jared Paul has wicked insight into the sort of quotes that should be given to Rolling Stone. I mean, Mr. Paul may have (understandably) flubbed the song title, but otherwise, I think he sounds so rock and roll! I’m sure Rolling Stone readers will agree, trampling over themselves in their hurry to buy the music of and otherwise identify with the vehicle of cool that is The Smashing Pumpkins. Kudos to you, Mr. Paul. Way to leverage that brief interview to enhance the band’s brand positioning as you move forward into a new era.
Being a manager of a rock’n’roll band: Cool.
Publicly using the term “marketing alliances” in regards to said rock’n’roll band: Not Cool.
Exactly — no one wants to see sausages being made. I’m all for marketing the band, but it should be done intelligently plz kbai
(reCAPTCHA: “materials drifting”!)
ouch…
kudos for hitting the number one spot tho pumpkins.
P.S. get a new manager
Gus Wenner………relative of Jaan Wenner (Rolling Stone founder/chief editor)? Nepotism!
Oh come on he’s not that bad
The Smashing Pumpkins will be announcing their Q2 earnings results in a conference call tomorrow after the closing bell via conference call.
Extraordinary Maura (i never knew the ordinary maura)
A good marketer should be seen and not heard, especially when from all other accounts the director of Watchmen approached the band’s management, not the other way around.
“Retail 45″
I’ve read this quote at least five times now because I still find it hard to believe I’m not being trolled. This can’t be right, can it? It still elicits a snarky laugh every time, much to the chagrin of my coworkers (who I hope have learned to ignore when I laugh at my desk).
Perhaps we should do a full-scale analysis of the last fiscal year’s ROI vis-a-vis future plans for total commercial domination. We really need to learn to segment the market better between the old and new fanbase. I think this analysis really must accompany what Jason suggested – a full Q2 earnings report for all fan shareholders.
Wow. Just wow.
“Are those the Q2 results? How are our musical offerings doing?”
“OMG It’s a race-off between Blue Zeitgeist and Orange Zeitgeist! First one to the 100K sold line!”
(I can’t even make this up: reCAPTCHA: worst workers)
Chris: A good marketer should be seen and not heard, especially when from all other accounts the director of Watchmen approached the band’s management, not the other way around.
You want to take the irony further? Notice that we posted the iTunes story, SP.com (which has an established record of taking cues from us) followed a couple days later with their version of it, and Rolling Stone obviously got the story from SP.com and then called the band for an interview. So we probably are responsible for getting the Pumpkins onto Rolling Stone’s website — and the guy they pay to promote their work turned that opportunity into a laughingstock. It’s a disgrace.
One thing that bugs me about the SP.com article is the misleading title: “The Beginning is the End is the Beginning #1 on iTunes”. If you read the article, you can see that they really meant that it is #1 amongst all Pumpkins songs, but if you just saw the title you would naturally think that it is #1 overall, or at least #1 in the alternative category. I’m not sure whether it was intentional or not, but it comes across as a cheap stunt.
A cheap stunt indeed, and one that worked on the Richmond Times-Dispatch…
MAN. Three days later and I still can’t get over this idiocy.
reCAPTCHA: “77 7/8 Richmond” (ooh! a fraction!)
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