Folk Rocker Goes Straight To Mobile With Dialogue

Funk folk rocker, Julia Harris, is one of the first artists in the UK to take her marketing campaigns straight to mobile, with the support of interactive mobile specialist, Dialogue Communications.
Dialogue worked with creative agency Sonaa, providing them with a toolset to create a mobile content site for the up and coming artist from Cardiff, as she looks to build her fan base and promote her latest single through the mobile medium. The new mobile site went live last week before a gig in Cardiff and Dialogue is also looking to launch other marketing campaigns later in the year, as Julia tours the UK.
Paul Griffiths, Dialogue's Managing Director explained: "Julia has recognised the growing mobile market as the primary means to reach her fans; this is an area that many artists initially overlook, but Julia wanted to do something different to raise her profile. We have created and host her mobile site and by utilising our Text 2 Browse service through our Mobile Applications Portal (MAP), users are driven to the site through an advertised short code by texting "Julia" to 80010. We are also providing a database builder, so that Julia can communicate with her fan base, promoting relevant information and content."
Julia has had an incredible start to her career, supporting artists such as Damien Rice, receiving rave reviews and regular airplay. The Welsh singer/songwriter is now looking to increase her profile further through mobile campaigns. Dialogue has designed a site for the artist where fans can buy wallpapers, read the latest news from Julia and download her newest music tracks.
Bal Takhar, Development Director at Sonaa explains: "Our company has the creative skills to develop the look and feel of the site and Dialogue's platform makes it's easy for us to deliver premium mobile content and other text marketing campaigns to the customer."
The growing mobile market is becoming a popular channel for many artists looking to raise awareness of their music, along with providing a platform to generate extra revenues through premium downloads. As with most up and coming artists, Julia also has a MySpace site but over the coming months is focusing her marketing efforts on mobile campaigns.
Julia Harris explains why she has taken the mobile route to market: "The entertainment market is growing way beyond fans just buying CD's and the mobile market is now a key growth area. Fans want to buy ringtones and photos and interact with their favourite artists. Dialogue has provided me with different avenues to reach my fan base and help raise my profile and awareness of my songs.
"I'm really excited about being able to interact with those who're interested in me and what I do. I think mobile sites will open a whole new world for artists like me who want to interact with their fans"
Later in the year, Julia is hoping to expand her mobile campaigns with the help of Dialogue and offer her fans Text to Screen services at gigs and user generated content features so fans can share their content on Julia's WAP site.
(SP)