Gamestop Update

Via Madelyn Scarpulla

As promised, here is the Dragonforce clip that airs in all GameStop locations for the month of March. It's also streamed on the Channel M (GameStop TV) website. This was originally a :60 piece featuring the video and some of the interview footage edited by GameStop. As you will see, Channel M gave us more than TWICE what was committed: a full minute of intro from the host as well as 1:30 of video/interview footage for a total of 2:30 minutes of Dragonforce!

Enjoy: http://www.channelm.com/gstv/march2/dragonforce.html

Additionally, GameStop cameras conducted their own interviews with Airbourne last week in LA. Airbourne will be featured in a similar way for the month of April. Stay tuned!

DragonForce in GameStop

With over 3800 locations in the US and monthly traffic of 70 million, GameStop is the world's largest video game and entertainment software retailer.

GameStop DOES NOT carry music products, but their customers are our fans. There are several effective instore advertising vehicles to reach GameStop's core audience of 18-34 year old males, most of which are beyond cost prohibitive for normal record companies, but Roadrunner is NOT normal!

With the excitement surrounding Dragonforce in Guitar Hero III, GameStop's instore TV network has agreed to feature the band in their one-hour program that continually repeats for the entire month of March.

As a rule, Channel M only airs game-related programming (no music video or performance), but as Dragonforce is one of the stand-out artists in GameStop's top selling guitar game, they will feature a :60 clip of the "Through The Fire And Flames" video, plus a short clip of guitarist Herman Li discussing Guitar Hero III with comedian Brian Posehn. Also, the program's hosts will mention the band and album once an hour. (I will circulate the clip once it's edited and approved).

Channel M's research indicates average instore TV program awareness is 90%. Average unaided commercial recall is 48%, aided is 64%. We have found a great non-traditional way to identify our Guitar Hero enthusiasts and make them aware of Dragonforce.

This of course paves the way for other Roadrunner artists. Artists that are featured in a video game who deliver us game-related content (i.e. Airbourne talking about their favorite games, or comparing Guitar Hero to Rock Band, etc.) can be featured on Channel M in the future.

Our next step will be exploring video game-related music products or gifts-with-purchase that could possibly be carried in GameStop locations. However, the stores are currently video game purists, so this is a work in progress.

NY TImes Podcast featuring DragonForce!

Jeff Leeds of the NY Times interviewed Herman last week about "Through The Fire and Flames" and Guitar Hero III. MP3 of this week's podcast is attached; the interview starts at 18:30.

To download directly from the site, go to http://www.nytimes.com/ref/multimedia/podcasts.html and click on this week's Music Popcast.

Top 10 Marketing Hits

10. Within Temptation and imeem.com created an artist playlist where the band was interviewed about each of their favorite songs. imeem created an embeddable widget for it here. The list will be featured on the main page of imeem.com starting the 21st.

9. Roadrunner Records proudly launches The Scrap Yard.

http://metalscrapyard.blogspot.com/

The Scrap Yard is our one-stop location to keep track of and comment on our digital and mobile marketing. Check it daily for up-to-the-minute news of what's going on, or subscribe to the RSS feed to have the news come to you right away!

8. Megadeth announces the exciting line-up for this year's Gigantour - In Flames, Children of Bodom, Job for a Cowboy and High On Fire. The tour will run from April to May.

7. The Cavalera Conspiracy completed their video for "Sanctuary" and a photoshoot in Paris, France this week...stay tuned!

6. On the heels of being named the #1 record of 2007 in numerous UK publications (Kerrang!, Rocksound, Daily Record) Biffy Clyro's Puzzle gets nominated for a ShortList Award (the US equivalent of the UK Mercury Prize). Other nominated albums include Against Me!, Fiest, Arcade Fire, MIA and more. The nominees and winners are chosen by critics, industry and artists.

5. Airbourne will be featured in Spin's 'New Noise' segment in the March issue. The band will complete a photoshoot in Adelaide, Australia today.

4. Nickelback's "Rockstar" comes in at #100 on Rolling Stone's '100 Best Songs Of 2007.'

"One of the best, funniest songs on the radio." - Rolling Stone

3. Theory Of A Deadman complete a stellar photoshoot with Eric Estrada in Los Angeles. See attached image!

2. Airbourne's "Stand Up For Rock n' Roll" will be the official theme song of the WWE's Royal Rumble! The event takes place at Madison Square Garden on 1/27 and will air on Pay-Per-View. The band is also recording the theme song for WWE Superstar Ken Kennedy. Joel recently spoke to WWE.com about the new album, upcoming tour, the band's love of wrestling and what's in store for 2008. The interview will run week of 1/14.

And the #1 HIT for Roadrunner Records for the week ending 1/11 is...

1. DragonForce's "Through The Fire And Flames" debuts at #84 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart! DragonForce continue to tear up digital sales with over 32,000 tracks sold this week and over 145,000 since Guitar Hero 3's release. The track is the #1 requested song at Q101 in Chicago and was added to KOMP in Vegas and KHTQ in Spokane.