Geeks meet rockers as Cisco helps the Doobie Brothers launch new album

This month marks the 35th anniversary of The Doobie Brothers' platinum album Takin' It To the Streets. The songs from this album seemed to be always on the radio when I was in High School.

Bands that have been around for decades sometimes struggle to maintain their existing fans and grow new ones. So I was interested to see how that the Doobie Brothers took a page from fellow San Francisco band The Grateful Dead’s marketing playbook when they launched their new album World Gone Crazy.

The Doobie Brothers wanted to launch using social media and teamed up with Cisco to hold a free concert broadcast via Cisco TelePresence and USTREAM, performed at Cisco HQ in San Jose.

Partners AT&T provided the business exchange network communication that delivered the show live to a dozen cities and Marriott made available public suites where people can rent the technology by the hour.

During the TelePresence session, there was time available for people to ask band members questions.

Around that time, I was San Francisco for a keynote and had a chance to talk to Xander Uyleman to find out how Cisco pulled the gig off. (Yes, my interview was filmed for real with this stunning backdrop – this is not faked!)

This interview is delivered using technology from VisibleGains.

Xander told me that teaming up with the Doobie Brothers not only helped the band reach 20,000 people with the free streaming show but also drove visibility for Cisco, AT&T and Marriott.

The band also used this occasion to drive fans to the Doobie Brothers Facebook page. From an initial fan base of just 1,000 people, they moved to 50,000 around the time of the launch and 100,000 fans now, a few months later. Upon release, the album debuted at #39 on the Billboard charts no doubt helped by this interesting launch.

Watch the entire performance.

Check out the San Francisco area NBC affiliate's report on the show.

Doug Webster writes more about the gig in the Cisco SP360 Service Provider blog.

Disclosures: I have done consulting work with Cisco and I am on the board of advisors of VisibleGains.

Comments

[Tony Faustino]

You don't know me but I'm your brother ... Ok, I'm no Michael McDonald.

I love how the Doobie Brothers not only made this a free concert to reward their loyal fan base but also as a way to introduce new fans to their music.

They recognized they can't successfully launch this album through a shot-gun, mass media approach. Competing directly for attention with the Lady Gagas, the Justin Biebers, and U2s isn't practical at this stage of their careers.

However, they're demonstrating real marketing savvy by exploiting their niche with this type of event. Classic, long-tail marketing. Bravo!

P.S. My favorite Doobie Brothers song - "What a Fool Believes" from the Minute by Minute album.

[David Meerman Scott]

Tony -- you're right. When you've got a band that were at the peak of popularity decades ago, success comes from excellent marketing. And I think this is a clever approach both for the band and for Cisco.

[aluminium kozijnen]

REally nice album.. Its very helpful..

[Danny DeMichele Entrepreneur]

Well this songs from this album seemed to be always on the radio this interesting launch.Thanks for great ideas

[sky cards]

I agree with David:

"I think this is a clever approach both for the band and for Cisco."

[gatehouse academy review]

Any album launch requires hard work and some ideas too,something creative...for making it a great success...Doobie Brothers launched new album using social media and teamed up with Cisco to hold a free concert broadcast via Cisco TelePresence and USTREAM,its nice..

[Pepe Fanjul]

That's really great that Partners AT&T provided the business exchange network communication that delivered the show live to a dozen cities and Marriott made available public suites where people can rent the technology by the hour.

[Salesrootsgrm]

Love the Doobies and all the new technology is so exciting. Thanks for keeping us up to date. Just finished your New Rules book. Following in the path of your other books, this one had great information and case studies.