Igor Stravinsky once famously said that “a good composer does not imitate; he steals."
And today, with most musicians in charge of their own brands, it's important to note that Stravinsky's wisdom applies to marketing, too.
Over the weekend, the veteran French Touch production duo known as Cassius released the above video teaser for their new EP, The Rawkers, their first for Ed Banger Records.
To the average viewer, the video's juxtaposition of blabbing mouths on club-going faces is little more than a weird little slice of smartphone fun. But to people that work in digital advertising, it looked fairly familiar.
The reason it looked familiar is that it is a great, big, fat flaming rip-off of iBanter, an app developed by creative agency POKE London for Cobra Beer about a year ago. Then, just a few months after that video was uploaded, a creative agency called the Evolution Bureau ripped the idea off when they launched Sweet Talk for Juicy Fruit. The promotional tool was so successful for both parties that the Evolution Bureau even turned it into a case study on their website.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that all three of these campaigns are built on the same idea. From a technological standpoint, there are probably more similarities between the three designs than there are differences. But to Chris Boardman, one of the developers who built iBanter at POKE, this is not cause for concern. “There's always people doing stuff like this," Boardman said via e-mail. “Other variations, similar projects, different times for different reasons, etc. It's all just generally great fun, isn't it."
In cases like these, it's typical for clients to retain the rights to whatever their developers come up with (Boardman is unaware of who owns iBanter as intellectual property). It's also, according to a media executive who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak about competitors' practices, highly unusual for a client to license that IP to another company.
So how does Ed Banger or the Evolution Bureau get away with stealing Boardman and POKE's idea? According to the same executive, “These things tend to be 'squishy.'
“If you allege that your product was developed for something else, and that it is different in some way, it can be very difficult to make charges stick," the executive said.
n other words, if you see a widget or an ad campaign or a video online that you think would fit great with your band, don't try to think of something just like it. Just get “squishy" and steal it!
This one random little idea for an app succeeded in drawing people toward three very different kinds of products. So if you know that an amazing app that some mouthwash company made will resonate with your fans, go find a developer who will make you your own version.
Stravinsky would be proud.
And today, with most musicians in charge of their own brands, it's important to note that Stravinsky's wisdom applies to marketing, too.
Over the weekend, the veteran French Touch production duo known as Cassius released the above video teaser for their new EP, The Rawkers, their first for Ed Banger Records.
To the average viewer, the video's juxtaposition of blabbing mouths on club-going faces is little more than a weird little slice of smartphone fun. But to people that work in digital advertising, it looked fairly familiar.
The reason it looked familiar is that it is a great, big, fat flaming rip-off of iBanter, an app developed by creative agency POKE London for Cobra Beer about a year ago. Then, just a few months after that video was uploaded, a creative agency called the Evolution Bureau ripped the idea off when they launched Sweet Talk for Juicy Fruit. The promotional tool was so successful for both parties that the Evolution Bureau even turned it into a case study on their website.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that all three of these campaigns are built on the same idea. From a technological standpoint, there are probably more similarities between the three designs than there are differences. But to Chris Boardman, one of the developers who built iBanter at POKE, this is not cause for concern. “There's always people doing stuff like this," Boardman said via e-mail. “Other variations, similar projects, different times for different reasons, etc. It's all just generally great fun, isn't it."
In cases like these, it's typical for clients to retain the rights to whatever their developers come up with (Boardman is unaware of who owns iBanter as intellectual property). It's also, according to a media executive who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak about competitors' practices, highly unusual for a client to license that IP to another company.
So how does Ed Banger or the Evolution Bureau get away with stealing Boardman and POKE's idea? According to the same executive, “These things tend to be 'squishy.'
“If you allege that your product was developed for something else, and that it is different in some way, it can be very difficult to make charges stick," the executive said.
n other words, if you see a widget or an ad campaign or a video online that you think would fit great with your band, don't try to think of something just like it. Just get “squishy" and steal it!
This one random little idea for an app succeeded in drawing people toward three very different kinds of products. So if you know that an amazing app that some mouthwash company made will resonate with your fans, go find a developer who will make you your own version.
Stravinsky would be proud.
