When iTunes launched in the UK last year, you couldn't find the likes of Travis or The White Stripes, or anyone else on an independent label. But TuneTribe.com, a new music service from John Strickland, chairman of agency Interesource (left), and Tom Findlay, half of dance act Groove Armada, aims to change the market for indie stars by offering them a place to sell their digital wares.
Labels and artists will be able to market, promote and sell their music online under their own commercial terms, and receive - after sales tax, VAT and processing fees - some 65 per cent of profits from download sales.
This, says Strickland, compares with the traditional 15 per cent offered by the majors and will give smaller players the chance to profit from downloads, which the big labels dominate. "To date," he says, "it has been the big labels and their artists who have benefited from the growth in music downloading. Our vision is one where TuneTribe becomes a natural breeding ground for aspiring and up-and-coming artists, and a natural talent pool for A&R."
In time, the larger labels will be welcome as well. The aim, explains Strickland, "is that in five years' time we will be the world's largest online record label".
TuneTribe consists of three key areas and functions. First is the artist and label upload area, where industry players and artists can upload tracks themselves and specify the categories in which they should appear and the price, and sign their online contract with TuneTribe. Second is the consumer-facing site where users can listen to and buy music. Third, the billing engine, which lets artists track downloads and generates an automated payment based on sales.
When the service launches in April, features will include a suite of community tools to evolve the way artists and consumers interact, including forums. A team of journalists will write daily news in a similar style to music online newsletter like JockeySlut (www.jockeyslut.com). "We want to create the feeling of going into a record shop online," explains Strickland. Several big music names will act as band ambassadors on the site, and publish playlists and comments. And users will be able to customise their own playlists as well.
"We are looking at ways we can aggregate content on to different platforms," says Strickland. Mobile downloads will be available and there are plans for offline events. A festival in August will feature big names like Groove Armada and three of the most downloaded artists from the site. A partnership with rock act Kill All Hippies will see tracks from their set made available to fans as MP3s by the following day.
So far, 500 indie labels and unsigned artists are on board, including V2, One Little Indian and Hospital Records, and deals have been signed with The Libertines and Morrissey. TuneTribe will play a big part in marketing its featured artists, who will supply their databases and release schedules for email promotions that will alert fans to releases.
So, does Strickland fear competition from the bigger, more established players in the market? No. "It's another shop window for fans," he says.
A brand that doesn't make its web site accessible is building roadblocks preventing users from getting to its content.
Some users will be unable to understand information or purchase anything online. The size of this audience is bigger than you possibly think. There are two million blind or partially sighted people in the UK, and the collective purchasing power of disabled audiences online in the UK is estimated to be £45 billion a year.
But that constitutes just a fraction of the users that need to be accounted for. There are also those who are using mobile devices, have a slow browser, those who just aren't web-savvy and office workers without sound cards.
And then there are dyslexic customers, older users, those with numeracy difficulties and those with registered disabilities.
It amounts to an enormous potential audience but, besides the commercial considerations, there are also moral and legal requirements to make web sites accessible.
Social responsibility
Catriona Campbell, founder and chairman of The Usability Company, says: "Inclusive access comes under the social and corporate responsibility of any organisation in the UK. They are breaking the law otherwise, with the same disregard as not including disabled wheel ramps on a building," she warns.
Brands need to fully understand how different audiences consume information on the internet, what sort of accessibility barriers they face and how they can overcome them. With those issues in mind, accessibility should be addressed at the start of a web site's development, and it's time brands woke up to their duties, says Campbell.
She blames a lack of education in understanding what accessibility issues need to be addressed on a consumer-facing (or internal) web site. And, if that's so, let the agencies do the work. "Clients should include a clause in contracts to reserve the right for all web sites to be independently audited for accessibility," she says. This way, it is part of the criteria that a web site must be accessible - and stand up to a third-party audit.
The legal obligations are clear. The UK Disability Discrimination Act of 1995 states that it is unlawful for a service provider to discriminate against a disabled person. In 1999, this was amended to include information services, and, in 2002, a Code of Practice confirmed that web sites were included as well.
The internet accessibility body, the Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C), has laid down guidelines with 65 technical checkpoints for users. These web accessibility guidelines (WAI) award sites with different levels of accessibility, from the basic level, A, up to the highest category, AAA. The law states that marketers should take reasonable steps to ensure their site is equally usable and accessible to disabled users. Not complying has consequences.
Simon Halberstam, partner and head of e-commerce and web law at Sprecher Grier & Halberstam LLP, explains: "It is a commercial own-goal not to employ the purchasing power of the disabled community. From a legal point of view, companies can be sued if they commit an offence under the act."
Bad publicity
He refers to the case of Bruce Maguire, who successfully sued the Sydney Organising Committee of the Olympic Games for dollars AU20,000 (£8,213), following a complaint he made in June 1999 that the web site was inaccessible to a blind person.
Halberstam says: "I can envisage fines of between £5,000-£10,000 for an offence under the Act, but users can also claim for damages, such as injury to feelings, which could be more substantial." However, "the worst thing that can happen is bad publicity", he adds.
Brands should start by learning how different audiences consume information online. Aspasia Dellaporta, user experience specialist at Cimex, suggests that brands learn how disabled people use the internet in order to be able to communicate more effectively to them.
"They need to know more about the function of a screen-reader and how blind people use talking prompts," she begins. A screen-reader will scan a page and read out all the headers, all the links and text tags. A blind person relies on this audio information. "Companies need to supply clear links and descriptions so that the information makes sense out of context."
Partially sighted audiences use special software to magnify the site by five or six times. "A site that requires too much scrolling becomes a really big problem," says Dellaporta.
Blind customers don't use a mouse; they navigate a page using a keyboard, whereas the partially sighted use both a mouse and a keyboard. Therefore, the site's navigation design should allow for the use of alternative equipment.
Users with other disabilities might use other input devices, such as head-tapping equipment. With this in mind, brands can look at overcoming the barriers presented to audiences.
Halberstam points out the starting points. Any information conveyed through images (including video) or audio should be accompanied by a text equivalent: visually impaired users can then access the content through screen-readers.
It should be remembered that deaf and hard-of-hearing users can miss out on information that's conveyed via audio if there is no accompanying text summary. The same goes for workers who don't have speakers on their PCs. By adding a text-label summary for forms, graphs and tables, brands can guide users with numeracy difficulties through transactions and online research. If information is conveyed with colour, it should also make sense without colour. Sites should avoid flicker - some people may be unable to cope with it, while others may find it distracting. Again, features should be adjustable.
The next point is plain common sense: always use clear language. Information that is concise, clearly laid out and divided into logical headings is easy to consume. It will also save the brand time and money when farming out pages from a content management system to other platforms like WAP.
Accessibility could be summed up as handing the power to the individual to control the way information is displayed on a browser. Happily, the common issues are straightforward to correct. However, the big problem is fixed user settings: some users have difficulty reading certain typefaces.
Julie Howell, digital policy development manager at the RNIB, expands on this: "Make sure the font size and colours can be altered by the person using the site. This doesn't mean you should make the text big or small, but make sure the web site is flexible."
Brand translation
Firms should make sure their branding translates well over the web. Colours that are rendered differently on screen can cause problems for some users.
"In simple terms, a user should be able to change all the features of a web site and choose their own settings, if necessary," says Howell.
Confusing navigation and layout are the result of poor design and will affect usability for every single user that visits the web site, as well as alienating the disabled. "It is important to include a logical tabbing order," continues Howell. "Whoever is designing the web site will use code called the 'tab index', which allows users to navigate in a way that makes sense. Poor tabbing is a big reason why blind people will be put off buying anything online. They will be reluctant to give credit card details if they aren't sure what a site is asking."
At this stage, a brand could be let down by a third party; for example, the company handling a retail site's payment services. So, even if a web site is accessible, it could still miss out on sales during the transaction process.
Tim Malbon, creative director at agency Interesource, adds: "A lot of people might get to the stage where they've entered their credit card details but can't go ahead and buy something because they're directed to a payment site that's inaccessible."
To develop clear navigation, the brand should get the basics right. Dr Jon Dodd, director and founding partner of usability and accessibility agency Bunnyfoot Universality, suggests that to make form-filling and content usable, all information should be structured semantically - build a page as a basic document and look at the structure of it before adding any style features.
The navigation design should enable users to scan a page, from top to bottom, with content in context. Are the headings clear? Is it in plain English? And can a user skip sections of information easily? Users should be able to jump straight to the main content via a 'skip link'. "It doesn't appear visually," says Dodd. "Just to the people who need it."
James Box, web interface specialist at Cimex, describes the process of 'grey boxing' or analysing the basic 'wireframe' structure of a web site. By examining a stripped down version of the site, and looking at pages with no design but all the features, you can see how easy it is to navigate. "How many clicks does it take to get you to the desired position?" he asks.
Those are the basics, but implementing accessible features doesn't need to result in a web site that looks boring or institutional. An accessible site can be creative and rich media can also be used in an accessible way, says Paul Dawson, head of multimedia at agency Conchango.
Dawson points to the use of Flash technology. It's a serial media that tells a story, one step after another, but users who are unable to view the animation will be able to understand the message through subtitled text. "This isn't just addressing disabled audiences - there should also be a facility to stop a flashing or repetitive animation."
Bunnyfoot's Dodd points out: "There is no problem in using Flash as long as you recognise that a lot of people won't be able to access it. Using Flash across all interfaces is not a good idea."
Test stage
After taking all these measures to incorporate accessibility into a site, the next challenge is to put it to the test. Brands need to be aware how to test and audit a site, to make sure they are complying with the law. This is where agencies can help. They bring experience of constructing web sites in an accessible way and can provide user-testing suites that will analyse the difficulties faced by different audiences.
Yet, a lot of firms fall short at the testing stage by relying solely on checks made by automated software. The RNIB's Howell says: "It's not as straight-forward as running software on your site - it's crucial to include user-group testing and focus groups."
Software has its place and there is a range of free and commercial automated tools available, points out Dodd. Software such as Bobby or Aprompt is free to download, but can only be used on one page at a time. Commercial software, such as Watchfire, contains more features but some types can be expensive - up to £700.
This checking software spiders through a web site to check for accessibility features, including broken links, and text labels, but it cannot interpret if the information is relevant. Put simply, if a picture of a dog was labelled with text reading 'cat', the software would provide the green light even though the information would be useless to a blind user.
Carol Monoyios, director of marketing and membership at the RNID (see case study, p67), concludes: "A web site is a platform of continuing development and needs to be continually revised to make sure the content management system constantly turns out accessible content. Accessibility doesn't stop once the site has launched."
For more information, visit www.drc-gb.org or www.rnib.org/WAC.
MASTERCLASS PANEL
Julie Howell is digital policy development manager at the Royal National Institute of the Blind. She works with policy makers, companies and the Government to ensure all digital information, products and services are accessible to disabled users.
Catriona Campbell is founder and chairman of The Usability Company. She became vice-chairman of British HCI Group in 2004, which owns and runs daily online newswire Usability News. She is also a founding board member of the UK Usability Professionals Association.
Dr Jon Dodd is director and founding partner of People Behaviour at usability agency Bunnyfoot Universality. After working at IBM, he spent 10 years in academia at St Andrews and Oxford University, where he gained his doctorate in visual neuroscience.
RNID RETHINKS NAVIGATION MAP TO IMPROVE ONLINE OFFER
The RNID, the charity for the deaf and hard of hearing, commissioned agency Interesource to rebuild its web site (www.rnid.org.uk) to improve its look, feel and accessibility.
One aim was to redesign the shop, which sells £100,000 of equipment each year. For some users, it's the only source of hard-to-find devices like flashing doorbells. The charity also wanted to boost online donations.
The site holds a lot of information that the revamp aimed to present in a more user-friendly way to people who work with the deaf. This group makes up 60 per cent of the site's users and the original structure just didn't cater for them.
Carol Monoyios, director of marketing and membership, explains: "The original web site had grown organically. With the redesign, we wanted to restructure the information and make sure the navigation was clear. We want it to be more intuitive."
Tim Malbon, creative director at Interesource, printed out the original web site's navigation map and "we couldn't fit it in the office", he reveals.
And Monoyios says: "It was a moment of truth for us when we saw that structure for the first time." It was very easy for users to get lost, she says. Links and information had been added in an ad-hoc way to the homepage, resulting in a cluttered and confusing site with an overwhelming number of links.
"It had outgrown its structure," she adds. In some cases, it took 40 clicks to find a certain piece of information.
The agency employed user testing all the way through the development of the new site and tested accessibility in a special suite across a range of disabilities. These included users with dyslexia, those who couldn't hold a mouse and blind users.
"This allowed us much more control over the end product - accessibility is all too often an afterthought," explains Malbon.
"User testing at the start is also less expensive - there is less likelihood of changes being made."
TOP TIPS ON ACCESSIBILITY
1. Provide alternatives to the web site's media content. If information
is inaccessible on one site, provide links to another site where it can
be accessed. Check that content can be navigated using alternative input
devices.
2. Make the web site flexible, with adjustable browser settings.
3. Include a search facility and site map, skip links, text-only version
and accessibility page.
4. Make sure the architecture is logical - go to the start and check the
basic structure of a page, with style stripped away. Check the number of
clicks it takes to find the desired information.
5. Get users involved in the creation of the site from the start. Look
at those with a range of disabilities and the investment will pay for
itself long-term. Any problems picked up by a disabled user will cover
all the common usability issues.
6. Remember that all the automated tests are not the answer. Think about
subjective issues, such as contrast, colour and font combinations.
7. Innovation can often be something quite simple - a telephone contact
is more valuable than complex technical solutions.
8. Accessibility must be integrated into your organisation. It shouldn't
be an afterthought.
9. Use the W3C WAI guidelines to set your accessibility goals after the
web site has been user tested.
10. Consider quality assurance as part of the workflow in a site's
development. Ask for third-party audits as part of a creative contract.
Thanks to Marcos Richardson, European director, WebtraffIQ
CHECKLIST
Questions that should be considered when thinking about using
accessibility
- Can users enlarge the text?
- Are there alt-tags to describe any information conveyed through
graphics and audio?
- Is there an alternative to Flash-based work?
- Are videos also offered in audio format and accompanied by a text
description?
- Does the site avoid drop-down menus and can users see the next level
at one click?
- The recommended colour is yellow on black, as it's easier for people
who are partially sighted. Can users adjust tone and colour?
- Can users access different languages?
- Does the page look good when printed?
- Consider the bandwidth of large files as most users give up on a slow
site. Some information won't be available to users with slow bandwidth.
- Abide by the rules but keep your site creative.
Thanks to Elina Berzina, interactive designer, Kugel
One of the notable effects of the rise of the internet in terms of marketing has been its ability to give new relevance to below-the-line disciplines - and none has benefited more from this refreshment than that of sales promotion.
In the offline world, on-pack competitions and point-of-sale eye-catchers have long been a steady companion to direct marketing. But, as more advertisers come to recognise the almost limitless versatility of the internet, sales promotion is becoming a default option for online campaigns.
"Almost everything that online marketing agencies do for clients these days is sales promotion, given that the store is now online," says Mike Teasdale, creative partner at Harvest Digital, the digital agency behind campaigns like Norwich Union's 'Before my next birthday ...' prize draw and Tesco Personal Finance's 'Get your finances in shape'. "In fact, a lot of online advertising could be more promotional," he adds, "especially when so many companies are shouting similar messages and a promotional offer would give cut-though."
Teasdale sees the future of prize draws online, but competitions are by no means the only way to drive traffic. Essentially, sales promotions are marketing activities that offer customers an incentive to buy a product or service. Often, as is the case with sponsored content or advertorials, they are also co-operative campaigns that enlist the support of third parties to drive a transaction or build a more general customer relationship.
In the online space, where many different kinds of information have value, not every online promotion needs to focus on driving sales. Some are designed to build databases of names or collect information; others deliver traffic to a homepage.
"We define a promotion as a marketing campaign where the consumer is offered something extra in return for taking action of some sort," comments Mark Whitmore, managing director at promotions agency Swordfish. "The action required can vary considerably, from visiting a web site to making a purchase, registering for an email list, forwarding something to a friend, answering research questions or simply having a meaningful interaction with the brand."
The definition of 'something extra' can vary enormously. It might be a free item in the finest tradition of 'buy-one-get-one-free' promotions or it could be the chance to win something through a prize draw. It might reward the consumer with entertainment perhaps, in the form of a game or free movie cup.
"We always advise clients to be very specific about their objectives before the campaign is devised," continues Whitmore. "It is sometimes tempting to attempt to achieve too many different aims with one campaign when a really focused push would invariably produce the best results."
Accordingly, some of the best online sales promotions are like movies in that they can be explained in a one-line pitch. For Direct Debit, Swordfish incentivised consumers to pay their household bills direct in return for the chance to win a holiday to Las Vegas. A BBC Worldwide email promotion for What To Wear magazine invited consumers to see if they could cut it as a celebrity stylist by answering questions about celebrity fashion dilemmas. The game, another Swordfish creation, was played by 100,000 people, 8,000 of whom entered a prize draw to win a £500 shopping spree.
When it launched the England football team's new away kit in March 2004, sportswear manufacturer Umbro collected prospects and raised awareness by running overlay ads on key football sites, offering users the chance to win Michael Owen's shirt. "The average clickthrough rate was 20 per cent and on the peak day we were getting more than 60 per cent. And that wasn't built into the media owner's site - that was just an overlay," says Ally Shuttleworth, media and research manager at Leeds-based agency swamp, which devised the promo.
The popularity of online sales promotion is reflected in the increasing number of both standalone web promotions and integrated off- and online campaigns. Frequently, a wholly traditional sales promotion on a chocolate wrapper or in a newspaper will be redeemable online, and many offline-led initiatives also make the most of the web's ability to spread a message.
Penguin spearheaded its 'Good Booking' campaign through the web last year, using an email database and offline PR to drive traffic to an online microsite (www.goodbooking.com). "It was designed to encourage more men to read books and the main aim was to generate sales instore," says Trevor Rudder, managing director of agency Angel London. "But the online element was right at the front, encouraging consumers to interact with the promotion before they would see it in a retail space."
Online agency bd-ntwk has carried out integrated campaigns for brands including Carling, Coca-Cola and Orange, whereby a youthful market is easily converted from an offline impression to an online activation.
"What we are currently doing for Coca-Cola are traditional sales promotion campaigns - on-pack promotions and 'buy this, get that' - but, typically, they are activated through digital channels," explains Drew Burdon, head of digital at bd-ntwk.
"Last season, we did a Coca-Cola football campaign where you could win a chance to play at a top stadium in Europe. That is a very traditional on-pack concept, but it could be activated through mobile and online microsites. It gives you an opportunity to take a concept from a pack, where you just have a single graphic, and turn it into more of a visual and creative campaign that will interest people a bit more."
Burdon reports that the credibility of interactive campaigns among clients has risen dramatically in recent years. Typically, the web now takes 20-30 per cent of all responses. "A few years ago, that would have been one to five per cent," he notes.
Long before the web began to take hold, the most frequent assertion among sales promotion experts was that good campaigns do not just incentivise purchase but they also support and strengthen a brand. The ability to run such promotions online demonstrates and extends that ability.
"We do brand-tracking for all the work we do for Tesco and it's clear that it does make an impact," says Teasdale. "Classic sales promotion definitely has a branding effect as well."
But, although major brands appear to be happily combining off- and online work, there are still tensions between the two worlds. Digital agencies roll their eyes at the over-enthusiasm of traditional offline sales promotion agencies for straight mail campaigns, while classic sales promotion doesn't stop working if there isn't a web element.
Nonetheless, there are major logistical favours that each can do for the other. While on- and offline media speak to very different audiences at different times of the day, the internet also enables cheap and easy interaction between the brand and consumers, drawing out responses and even paving the way for offline sales.
Media owners that have both online and offline assets are leading the way in terms of integrated campaigns. And Mark Milner, chief operating officer at Associated New Media, says the gradual transition of redemption mechanisms to online channels can save a fortune in fulfilment. "We do a lot of vouchers in our newspapers," he says. "They are a very good mechanism for selling newspapers by creating loyalty. But, online, there is a huge opportunity because vouchers call for a vast fulfilment exercise and online is really stepping up the pace in terms of answering that need."
Associated Media frequently uses a code in its promotions, printed in its newspapers for redemption online. "There are all these stories about the web cannibalising newspaper sales, but you can actually create the opposite, where you create a fulfilment area on the web site with a prompt to purchase a paper for the next day's code," says Milner.
The rise of sponsored content means that, at times, the line between paid-for search advertising and sales promotion is a narrow one. Web sites such as UK Net Guide build large sections of their editorial content in sponsored sections, where advertisers sit alongside the copy or at the end of it. "If it is a particular type of complex, financial product, it is no good having a text link or a banner," points out Paul Mead, UK sales and marketing director at UK Net Guide, an online guide that offers consumer information and provides a platform for relevant advertising, including sponsored content.
"Trying to explain something like a guaranteed equity bond in a few words is difficult, but if the client can sponsor an article that talks about that kind of product, that's great for them. From an advertiser's point of view, someone who has just read an article about the kind of product they want to promote and then clicked on their link is a much better prospect than someone who has only seen a fairly basic banner," says Mead.
Advertisers can opt for traditional, eye-catching banners or skyscraper ads, but Mead says the most effective device is often a simple text link at the bottom of the guide. Effectively, the less promotional a promotion looks, the more likely it is to be trusted in an editorial context.
Financial institutions and travel companies take advantage of a different kind of advertising to build their services into UK Net Guide. Alliance & Leicester has integrated its calculator into the site's mortgage pages, while consumers can initiate flight searches through a range of travel sponsors.
"When you do a calculation or run a search, you will go straight through to that company's web site, but you will be a much more qualified user because you've already interacted before you clicked through," says Mead.
The concept of promotions that work hard to refine their audience before the prospect has clicked through is a crucial one in online sales promotion.
With most sites operating on a pay-per-click basis, the onus is on the media owner to offer a promotional package that delivers the best possible leads.
Increasingly sophisticated profiling techniques can help companies to start targeting potential customers with the most applicable promotions, as soon as they arrive at their web site.
ATG provides e-commerce platforms for clients including B&Q, BestBuy, Royal Mail, Orange, InterContinental Hotels and Louis Vuitton. According to Ian Davis, ATG's product marketing director, personalisation techniques enable advertisers on the company's e-commerce platforms to only show a particular promotion or ad if the consumer's behaviour indicates that he or she might be interested.
"The main thing is to use the current context - a consumer's current web session - to determine what is put in front of them," explains Davis.
"For example, if you've got a new visitor on a financial services web site and you notice that the kind of things he's clicking on are quite risky investments, you could change the content at the top of the page to be more representative of an aggressive consumer, as opposed to someone who is more conservative."
The strength of a sales promotion is the way in which it can shift to accommodate the varied challenges facing brands, particularly as they attempt to stand out from the legions of other banner advertisers.
"People are trying to figure out what is the very best way to deliver advertising," suggests Royal Farros, founder of San Francisco-based MessageCast, which delivers marketing of requested information through instant-messaging services run by MSN, AOL and Yahoo!
"When you ask people if they like advertising, they will almost always say no, but if you ask them whether they like yellow-page advertising, they will say 'well, yes, it's helpful'."
And, perhaps, that is, after all, the best definition of online sales promotion: web advertising that makes itself useful.
KLM TAKES FLIGHT OFFER ONLINE ONLY
It's vital to keep online sales promotions simple, but that's not to say they can't have many functions. Wary marketers talk of the dangers of a campaign being too 'good' and drawing in those who are interested in the promotion rather than the brand.
But, the key is to build the campaign in such a way that the advertiser can tell which respondents are genuine.
In mid-January, KLM launched an online-led 'Fly A Friend' promotion, inviting users to identify their dream destination and email a hypothetical invitation to a friend to stand a chance of winning flights there.
The viral nature of the push appealed to users seriously considering long-haul flights. The competition racked up about 3,000 entries within a week and, more importantly, it had a material impact on sales of real flights and KLM newsletter subscriptions.
"It's not necessarily the number of participants. Although it's great to get people to take part in the competition, we are really looking for newsletter subscriptions and clickthroughs to our homepage," says David Paice, KLM marketing communications manager.
"There is an increasing desire on our part to drive channel shift from offline to online," he adds. The push is the first to be led by its online agency, Imano.
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