Please review the following list of proposed Action Plan items designed to lead the next generation of music lovers to high-performance audio.
All Action Plan items will be brought to a vote mid-2014. To participate in the vote, please click here and complete the Save The Stereo survey.
While Save The Stereo Project is independently funded and participation is free, the following Action Plan, including the StereoForLife.com campaign website, public relations, and advertising, will require significant industry funding. This funding will be generated through an industry-wide crowd funding campaign tentatively scheduled to launch late 2014 following industry and community approval of the Action Plan.
If you have an idea to propose for the Save The Stereo Action Plan, click here.
Save The Stereo Project Action Plan
Updated February 16, 2014
Action Plan Item 1: Save The Stereo Project
The first Action Plan item for Save The Stereo Project is the continued formation, development, and management of Save The Stereo Project itself.
The priority of Save The Stereo Project is to bring the industry and community together to focus – and stay focused – on the challenges of leading the next generation of music lovers to high-performance audio.
If successful, Save The Stereo Project will be the centerpiece initiative to take on these challenges and turn them into growth opportunities for the future of high-performance audio.
Action Plan Item 2: Social Media / Save The Stereo Project
Save The Stereo Project will employ Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ to network the high-performance audio industry and community via social media. Project updates, industry and community feedback, Action Plan item votes, and initiative surveys will be announced through these social media channels as well as the Save The Stereo Project opt-in email list.
Action Plan Item 3: The StereoForLife.com Campaign
Accomplishing the objective of leading the next generation of music lovers to high-performance audio will require a multifaceted marketing approach including, but limited to, public relations, social media, and search engine advertising.
In order to maximize the effectiveness of these efforts, Save The Stereo Project will develop and deploy a separate campaign website to focus the message and the response. Every press release, social media post, and search engine ad will link directly to this campaign website.
The campaign website will be titled StereoForLife.com. The very name of this campaign and website address communicates both the health and wellness benefits of recorded music, and the enriching lifelong hobby of high-performance audio system ownership. These will be the principal themes of the StereoForLife.com campaign.
Action Plan Item 4: Media Response Plan
After the establishment of the project, a top priority for Save The Stereo is to address the “future of stereo” debate in the audio and mainstream media. Examples of this debate are cataloged in the Articles section of this website.
As part of a media response plan, Save The Stereo Project will contact the journalists responsible for content related to this debate and request their active participation with the project.
Moving forward, the Save The Stereo Project will monitor audio and mainstream media for articles addressing high-performance audio and, if necessary, publicly respond via professionally distributed press releases to support or refute the published content.
The media response plan will eliminate the “open net” situation that exists now where any journalist can write anything about high-performance audio without a positive-points response from the affected industry and community.
Action Plan Item 5: Public Relations / StereoForLife.com Campaign
Addressing misguided press is a good start, but the bigger media opportunity is to cultivate positive press through the constructive engagement of audio and mainstream journalists and the publications, websites, and news organizations they represent.
As part of the StereoForLife.com campaign, Save The Stereo Project will actively engage the audio and mainstream media with a variety of high-performance audio content ideas and opportunities including invitations for media to experience component-based high-fidelity stereo, regular press releases on the unique health and wellness benefits of recorded music in the home, and industry-coordinated stereo system loans for stereo lifestyle stories and reviews.
The focus of the StereoForLife.com public relations campaign will be to generate wide-reaching online, print, and broadcast media that educates and excites the next generation of music lovers about high-performance audio systems.
Action Plan Item 6: Social Media / StereoForLife.com Campaign
The StereoForLife.com campaign will utilize Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ to connect and interact with next generation of music lovers. This communication will include ongoing dialogue about high-performance audio, addressing identified challenges (see Challenges To Stereo), promoting emerging trends and opportunities (analog/LP, computer audio, headphones, and affordable components), and encouraging participation in StereoForLife.com campaign contests, polls, and surveys.
Additionally, StereoForLife.com will employ YouTube and Pinterest to post videos and pin images and articles related to high-performance audio and, whenever appropriate, link back to the StereoForLife.com campaign website. Finally, MeetUp will be activated to assemble local StereoForLife.com stereo music enthusiast groups.
Each of these social media outlets offers StereoForLife.com a significant number of potential participants and is critical to the success of the Save The Stereo project.
Action Plan Item 7: Search and Social Media Advertising / StereoForLife.com Campaign
A key method by which the StereoForLife.com campaign will attract next generation music lovers is through search engine advertising (Google, Yahoo, and Bing) and social media advertising (Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube).
These advertising opportunities allow the StereoForLife.com campaign to target next generation music lovers who are either searching for or have already expressed interest in topics directly related to recorded music and/or consumer audio.
Action Plan Item 8: Traditional Advertising Campaign / StereoForLife.com Campaign
A traditional mass-media advertising campaign would require the assistance of an advertising agency for creative, media planning, and insertions. Interest and funding permitting, the StereoForLife.com campaign could be expanded in this direction including television commercials, radio spots, billboards, direct mail, and magazine print advertising.
In the mean time, the next generation of music lovers are available via more affordable and efficient means of communication; the web, social media, and online public relations. Until these efforts prove successful, Save The Stereo Project will keep traditional advertising on the table, but has no intention of pushing it forward.
If you have an idea to propose for the Save The Stereo Action Plan, click here.
