LSTN To This!

This morning I'm loading my iPod a load of free mp3s from the 9th installment of Urban Outfitters' brilliant LSTN series. Every couple of months UO compiles a playlist of 25 tracks and gives it away free to whoever wants it. And I always want it, because it's free. And usually pretty cool.

The LSTN series formula is a mixed bag of tracks promoting new releases from artists of different genres. I have the last seven LSTN releases on my iPod, and there are at least 3 or 4 excellent songs on each one of them. Not only do I get some free tunes but I get introduced to a bunch of under-the-radar acts I may never have otherwise discovered.

I find this to be one of the most intriguing marketing/CRM campaigns out there. It's right in line with Urban Outfitters' concept of engaging with their customers, a concept that is heavily weighted towards social identification and feather-light on the prodding of their community to convert a sale. It's so soft-sell that it's almost in the realm of subliminal marketing, but a very benign strain of it without the devious aspects of subliminal stimuli.

The concept of LSTN is a winner for everyone: The UO faithful get free music at the click of a button. The artists who gift a track of their music to UO get a ton of free exposure for their new release. Urban Outfitters gets a dynamite CTR on the email that promotes the free music, bringing a flood of potential customers to the website where they are likely to see some new goodies for sale. And these customers - suffused with the fuzzy glow of just having gotten something for free - may just feel benevolent enough to pop something in the cart while they're passing through and push the item(s) through checkout.

Last but definitely not least, there's the marketing coup de grace of magically funneling the music played at their store locations into the mp3 players of their customers, creating a cross-channel brand + consumer bonding that other retailers can only envy.

If you can't wait for the next LSTN release, UO serves up another free file sharing opportunity with "Music Mondays" - five free tracks for download offered at the beginning of every week. The addition of another music download program would suggest that the LSTN program is doing very well for UO.

Which I suppose is why once again I'm here on a Sunday night listening to the latest from Lali Puna on my Shuffle and looking at a landing page chock full of slim-cut madras plaid shirts just in time for summer.