u2’s bigger game

November 30, 2005 by Mary Wynne-Wynter 

This is a good NYT article ($), Media Age Business Tips From U2 about the band’s phenomenal and enduring success.  Tip #1 is: MEET THE CONSUMERS WHERE THEY LIVE.  The band’s audience (consumers) live on the Web and the band has an extensive Web site.

"We always said it would be pathetic to be good at the music and bad at the business," said Paul McGuinness, the band’s manager since the beginning. And while U2 hasn’t become a Harvard Business School case study (at least not yet) it offers an object lesson in how media can connect with their customers.

Tip #3 is:  EMBRACE TECHNOLOGY

While other big acts were scolding and threatening fans for downloading music or, in the case of Metallica, suing Napster, U2 was busy working on a new business model.

A collaboration with Apple yielded a U2 special edition iPod that was a smash hit and gave visibility to the band at a time when most radio station playlists don’t extend much beyond a narrow selection of pop singers.

Tip #10 is about U2’s Bigger Game:    AIM HIGH

During the concert last Tuesday, Bono asked the audience to send, via text message, their full names to One, an organization that fights AIDS and global poverty. They happily complied and their names were flashed on screen between encores. MTV’s "Total Request Live" may attract a wider audience, but its members probably aren’t made to think they are part of something bigger.

For more than a decade I considered the big research firms (Forrester, Jupiter, Yankee) as the ‘thought leaders’ of strategy.  But now I’m finding lessons from rock bands and makeover shows more useful, practical and fun.

Filed under: Consciousness, career, going solo
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