INDIANAPOLIS (Clarus Communications) --Almost 15,000
Dierks Bentley fans received phone calls from the platinum selling recording artist on the street date of his new album release, Long Trip Alone. The marketing strategy was created and executed by Nashville-based echomusic (http://www.echomusic.com), who partnered with permission voice messaging provider Vontoo (http://www.vontoo.com). The pre-recorded calls resulted in 99.9 percent positive market response and a flurry of new fan club subscriptions on www.dierks.com. The week of the promotion, Long Trip Alone reached #1 on BillboardĒs Country Album chart and #5 across all music genres.
The “Win a Phone Call From Dierks” promotion included a two-step approach: a recorded voice message from Dierks went out to all of his mobile messaging opt-ins on the same day that Dierks made a live call to the winner. More than 4,000 fans registered for the contest, in addition to thousands of fans that already opted-in to receive information from Dierks via their handheld devices.
The promotion was a big success for Dierks in a number of ways. “Hearing DierksĒ voice continues to build brand loyalty with his audience,” said Mark Montgomery, CEO of echomusic. “In addition, it continues to show Dierks as a forward thinking artist, who understands the idea of building direct relationships to his consumer.”
The calls were enabled by VontooĒs permission-based on-demand voice messaging, which allows organizations of all sizes to create, send and track voice messages to people who want to hear from them.
Marketers access the Vontoo solution through any web browser, anytime or any where. Online they can import customer lists, create a library of audio messages, schedule delivery and track results. The solution is entirely Do-IT-Yourself Voice Messaging™ and requires no training.
All messages were delivered on the day DierksĒ new album was released. The winner of the live call with Dierks Bentley was called shortly after noon Central time and information on the winner was posted on www.dierks.com soon after.
Echomusic set aside a dedicated phone number just for this promotion. Once the Dierks messages started going out, the number started ringing and text messages started coming in. “Fans were curious if they really had captured DierksĒ cell phone number,” said Montgomery. “The phone didnĒt stop ringing for three days and DierksĒ fan message board included posts that were overwhelmingly positive.”
"The entire echomusic and Dierks teams are very pleased with the results of this first campaign with Vontoo,” said Montgomery. “There was a great spirit of teamwork from everyone involved, the promotion went off without a hitch, and we are looking forward to our ongoing relationship with the Vontoo team."
“Nothing can convey emotion, enthusiasm and energy like the human voice, and Vontoo helps organizations capitalize on this,” said Dustin Sapp, co-founder and chief technology officer at Vontoo. “Vontoo voice messages were the perfect addition to echomusicĒs marketing efforts for Dierks.”
In addition to entertainment, Vontoo has customers in a wide array of industries, including retail, publishing, consumer services, business-to-business, government and non-profit. The Vontoo system uses voice over IP technology and can send from one to millions of audio messages to any type of phone.
