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MDNA Promo Discussion - "non-traditional campaign"?


Apples388

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Ain't no one doubting that the tour will end careers, that's for sure. :wow:

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I have to say this. GimmeSomeMo you've made my day with that Kids Choice Awards remark having Madonna perform GGW as Knight! I'm drying. :lol:

The only radio hits Madonna will ever have again will be overseas where ageism is a non-issue. The album debut at number one in several countries but that isn't enough for these Stans who want to pretend it's 1989 all over again. Madonna's 53, and now seen exclusively as a legacy act.

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Ain't no one doubting that the tour will end careers, that's for sure. :wow:

Mmmm hmmm....and although some may not "get it" right now as they are all panicky about GGW barely making a blip and MDNA falling the 2nd week....but trust...where Madonna is even at this very moment is where they ALL want to aspire to be eventually. Nobody who is "hot" on Top 40 radio right now has the clout Madonna does and that says a lot.

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Great post!!

One thing I think we forget is that the one thing Madonna has ALWAYS been MOST passionate about is executing her songs for the stage. She's always been a PERFORMER first and foremost so in a lot of ways focusing on the tour and perhaps even recording songs having a plan on how she's going to execute it on stage in mind during the process of making it is kind of her going back to basics in a lot of ways.

And Hipster let me fill u in on a little secret.....

All this talk about promo promo promo that she USED to do is just slightly exaggerated. As a long time fan (like over 20 years) I can tell you that seeing Madonna perform on talk shows, award shows etc was very very RARE and an event when it happened. People reference COADF as some era that had HUGE promo but from my perspective being in the US, it wasn't that great of promo for the album. When she went on Letterman the album wasn't even dropping for another month and HU had LONG been gone from the top 10 by the time she performed it on Grammy's and that is the only promo I remember. I know the EMA's were a huge deal but here in the US that barely was on the radar (unless you're a hardcore fan of course).

Yes, I've heard about the Confessions promo not being as much as it's always claimed to be. It would be cool if she did a little more like she did during that era, but it's not that big of a deal. In fact, she did a lot of interviews and a photoshoot for W.E. That may have affected her in terms of wanting to repeat that process for MDNA, but I just loved turning on the television everyday to see her talking about WHATEVER. Not to mention, that brought MANY pop culture moments, with the hydrangea "scandal", the Elton feud, and the "reductive" comments. With "molly", M.I.A.'s middle finger and the performance, the GGW and Truth or Dare "controversies", and the music itself, Madonna has been everywhere and I've enjoyed it. Who can complain?

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Let's just flash back to COADF please -

UK

* Parkinson full hour interview + 2 musical performances

* Interview with Dermot O'Leary

Europe

* MTV EMAs performance

* Pulse interview (Holland)

* Star Academy - 2 musical performances (France)

Australia

* Andy G interview

* Molly Meldrum interview

US

* David Letterman interview

* Grammys performance + Ellen interview

Japan

* SMAP

* TV performance

etc. etc.

+ generic junket type things...

I'm just SAYING...

That's how you promote an album. Its all very well saying "let the music speak for itself" that's fine for the hardcore fans but she needs to attract the casual buyers

for chart longevity. I think they thought GMAYL would take off being her first single in ages and the Superbowl appearance. They forgot one important factor -

the song is shit. In this day and age if the lead single isn't up to scratch it pretty much seals the albums fate.They were completely caught out when GMAYL started falling of the charts and got bad reviews. They should have lined up a bit of promo

to fall back on. A couple of mini concerts to create a hype Sorry, sitting at your computer answering questions on twitter doesn't connect with the general public. If you add in the mess of remixes not being released to the clubs in advance and taking forever to appear on i tunes (is it any wonder people find the remixes elsewhere?).

They are living in La La land if they think this "non traditional promotion" is working. Even when they see the singles falling down the chart they could reduce the

price to attract a few sale at least it would be something. This whole "we are focused on the tour" doesn't cut it either. They should have planned things better. The whole campaign is ill thought out.

So many good songs, so many missed opportunities.....

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i think this non-traditional campaign has flopped, and the only thing stopping mdna from flopping hard is madonna as a brand. the thing is if they want a non-traditional promo to work, they have got to have the goods to back it up so that the momentum can roll on. true, mdna is a good album, but the singles released are just subpar. the first contact anyone will ever have with the album is the single. if the single is mediocore, it just pulls down the desire of the general public to want to get the album. m's team has so many better songs on mdna to choose from, why did they have to choose what they chose?!! if they recognise madonna as a strong brand name, they should know that as long as the song they throw out is very good, people will go for it no matter how uncommercial it may sound, cause well, it's madonna! what's more, do they really intend to rely all on the non-traditional promo? they need to at least have a fall back plan, to promote it with performances and interviews on tv. they can do less of it, but still do it! how can the tour be a reason to cut down on these? the tour can start a month later, and the tickets can still be sold right after superbowl. there would be almost no effect since they can continue to add shows into 2013. the promo however can't wait. once it loses steam it's hard to pick up. and they also lose the chance to hit at any of the chart records. since madonna holds so many records, the right thing to do should be to extend and/or break these records, cause there's no more madonna after she dies. if madonna promoted to death her love child w.e, then why can't she promote mdna? is it not her love child too? is she too love spent from w.e? if only madonna could list herself as a stock and we can own a piece of her lol.

:clap: Excellent post

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I don't see how club gigs would build any more hype outside of her core fanbase than the Superbowl gig or the good reviews of the album did. People would need to seek them out to see/read about them and I always thought she viewed them more as warming up for the actual tour than promo events. Most were super exclusive anyway (apart from that festival one in England for Hard Candy).

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That's how you promote an album. Its all very well saying "let the music speak for itself" that's fine for the hardcore fans but she needs to attract the casual buyers

for chart longevity. I think they thought GMAYL would take off being her first single in ages and the Superbowl appearance. They forgot one important factor -

the song is shit. In this day and age if the lead single isn't up to scratch it pretty much seals the albums fate.They were completely caught out when GMAYL started falling of the charts and got bad reviews. They should have lined up a bit of promo

to fall back on. A couple of mini concerts to create a hype Sorry, sitting at your computer answering questions on twitter doesn't connect with the general public. If you add in the mess of remixes not being released to the clubs in advance and taking forever to appear on i tunes (is it any wonder people find the remixes elsewhere?).

They are living in La La land if they think this "non traditional promotion" is working. Even when they see the singles falling down the chart they could reduce the

price to attract a few sale at least it would be something. This whole "we are focused on the tour" doesn't cut it either. They should have planned things better. The whole campaign is ill thought out.

So many good songs, so many missed opportunities.....

Again, it sounds like you can't see the forest cuz the trees are blocking your view. It's beyond that now, she's beyond that now. Do you HONESTLY think she could be doing "COADF" style promo when she's 65 years old and reap significant return?? It's like some of you want her to compete with Lady Gaga and Katy Perry on the pop charts it's so beyond that at this point. She's trying to set the foundation so she CAN remain relevant throughout her very quickly approaching "golden years".

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The only radio hits Madonna will ever have again will be overseas where ageism is a non-issue.

Darling, ageism is an issue everywhere - not just in the USA. Why do you think Radio 1 in the UK are not playlisting her music?

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I don't see how club gigs would build any more hype outside of her core fanbase than the Superbowl gig or the good reviews of the album did. People would need to seek them out to see/read about them and I always thought she viewed them more as warming up for the actual tour than promo events. Most were super exclusive anyway (apart from that festival one in England for Hard Candy).

Well in the UK at least I remember the HUGE buzz with the Confessions promo shows. She did one show at GAY (a huge queue formed overnight for free tickets) and one at KoKo. They gave away tickets for Koko through competitions which the newspapers and internet reported. Then the reviews after the shows created more interest and got people talking. I guess the COADF promo was a exception though.

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Guest bluejean

I'm not really buying this hope that there's a bigger plan here. They have basically failed at promoting the album properly. They fucked up the singles. But its also quite possible that it was a lost cause to begin with. Had they released GGW or TUTR first there's no evidence to suggest they would have done much better than GMAYL.

In terms of longterm goals and the "Madonna brand," I don't believe that's ever been a consideration. The Madonna brand is strong enough regardless of what she does. Infact, as was stated that is a big part of what is pushing this album because there is always interest in her especially after a 4 year hiatus.

I do think the absence of magazine interviews is quite suspicious. It does actually seem hard to believe its not a deliberate strategy. But I can't imagine in 6 months we will be sitting here saying "Oh NOW it all makes sense." The tour will start and the album will fade away quicker than you can say 'Hard Candy.' Oh well. At least it in this case we got a great album.

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Darling, ageism is an issue everywhere - not just in the USA. Why do you think Radio 1 in the UK are not playlisting her music?

They don't like the song? She's not doing any formal promotion there?

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Again, it sounds like you can't see the forest cuz the trees are blocking your view. It's beyond that now, she's beyond that now. Do you HONESTLY think she could be doing "COADF" style promo when she's 65 years old and reap significant return?? It's like some of you want her to compete with Lady Gaga and Katy Perry on the pop charts it's so beyond that at this point. She's trying to set the foundation so she CAN remain relevant throughout her very quickly approaching "golden years".

Well she managed to do plenty of tv and magazine interviews for mega FLOP W.E so why not for her music?

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Guest bluejean

It's like some of you want her to compete with Lady Gaga and Katy Perry on the pop charts

That's because she's clearly trying to compete with them. Just watch the first 2 videos and listen to the 1st few singles if you don't believe me :lol: Thank God the rest of the album isn't.

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It's like some of you want her to compete with Lady Gaga and Katy Perry on the pop charts

That's because she's clearly trying to compete with them. Just watch the first 2 videos and listen to the 1st few singles if you don't believe me :lol: Thank God the rest of the album isn't.

:chuckle:

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Tbqh, I don't think MDNA was ever meant to be an Adull blockbuster type record which is all good for me. The only one that SCREAMS hit is TUTR (songs that mention the radio practically beg for play anyway), possibly I'm Acockted in Europe.

Nonetheless, it's so good that it should still do pretty well if it was handled properly - albums that are this good kind of sell on their own as quality means something, awareness has to be created though.

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That's how you promote an album. Its all very well saying "let the music speak for itself" that's fine for the hardcore fans but she needs to attract the casual buyers

for chart longevity. I think they thought GMAYL would take off being her first single in ages and the Superbowl appearance. They forgot one important factor -

the song is shit. In this day and age if the lead single isn't up to scratch it pretty much seals the albums fate.They were completely caught out when GMAYL started falling of the charts and got bad reviews. They should have lined up a bit of promo

to fall back on. A couple of mini concerts to create a hype Sorry, sitting at your computer answering questions on twitter doesn't connect with the general public. If you add in the mess of remixes not being released to the clubs in advance and taking forever to appear on i tunes (is it any wonder people find the remixes elsewhere?).

They are living in La La land if they think this "non traditional promotion" is working. Even when they see the singles falling down the chart they could reduce the

price to attract a few sale at least it would be something. This whole "we are focused on the tour" doesn't cut it either. They should have planned things better. The whole campaign is ill thought out.

So many good songs, so many missed opportunities.....

You know what? She did a lot more promotion for American Life and Hard Candy than she did for Confessions. Crap albums or not (and quite subjective to many), it doesn't matter. It shows that no amount of promotion she does is going to still sell her albums more. Yes, it may get her a little more exposure, but at what extent. I agree with what Kurt said... the promotion she did in the past that people are going on and on about is over exaggerated. And like Kurt said... a long time fan myself, I remember the days during the 80's, that a performance and an interview was RARE. When she did it, it was huge... yet rare. But back then she did have radio and MTV backing her. She doesn't have that same sort of support and other than the internet there really isn't a vehicle anymore that showcases artists visually like MTV and VH1 did. So for Madonna, she's going back to basics. Make an album. Let the music speak for itself. Let the record company do their thing and she heads out on the road. I agree in this day and age, a tour doesn't necessarily generate more album sales, but the end result the tour does "support" the album. Though, the touring business has grown. This is where her bread and butter will be made. Doing a few appearances hear and there isn't going to change much, other than waste valuable resources which can be used for the tour. We know this tour is going to be huge.

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If they released 'Turn Up The Radio' as the first single from the album and had Madonna perform this track at the Superbowl I think the album would have fared even better in the long run. Yes, Madonna achieved another #1 album which is a great feat, but judging from the swift drop in sales already this doesn't bode very well. I think that Madonna has a tendency to work very quickly on projects which doesn't always work in her favour (hence the poor lyrics of GMAYL - although I love the single and video!). There wasn't enough of a gap between the release of W.E. and the Superbowl performance. There has been zero promotion for the singles from an album that is otherwise one of the strongest albums of her career creatively, artistically and in terms of the diversity Madonna has to offer as a performer. I hope that Guy O'Seary and M's marketing team have a few surprises in store for us in terms of promoting some of the other singles from the album but I won't get my hopes up high. I'm just looking forward to the tour and I'm grateful for M giving us one of her greatest albums. I absolutely love MDNA. It's one of the few albums of hers that I can listen to from beginning to end without skipping tracks.

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Guest bluejean

You know what? She did a lot more promotion for American Life and Hard Candy than she did for Confessions.

:confused: She did?? I seem to recall almost zero promotion for Hard Candy and loads for Confessions. American Life I would say was on par.

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The promo for the album is a joke ! :thumbsdown:

It´s a shame.....because MDNA is one of her best albums ever with a lot of strong songs. I will never understand why she chose GMAYL for first single :nocomment:

I think the biggest mistake is to go on tour right after the release so soon. IMO She should`ve promote the album first ! Something like heavy promotion from March to April !

May and June for rehersals and then July starting the tour !

I still dance to MDNA :confessions:

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:confused: She did?? I seem to recall almost zero promotion for Hard Candy and loads for Confessions. American Life I would say was on par.

Bull. She did loads of PR for Hard Candy. She did a number of radio interviews which was something rare for her even at that time. And American Life, she whored that album out and did a lot of promotional performances, including at record stores (Virgin Records), MTV On the Record, and lets not forget the morning show (GMA I think?) interview along with singing an acoustic version of Mother And Father. Both Hard Candy and American Life got more promotional appearances and interviews than I recall for any album before them.

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