Ep.25: A feature on F#, connecting brands to consumers through music (DMT 1-2-1)

This week on the DMT 1-2-1 show I had the pleasure to welcome Dan Merritts and Pete Jimison, respectively CEO and COO at the company F# (http://www.efsharp.com).F# connects brands and consumers through music in an advertising environment. The company has worked closely with Spotify and other platforms to create interesting, engaging campaigns for the likes of One Direction, Adidas, Absolut, Pitch Perfect, Twix, Marriots, Best Buy and World of Warcraft. We talk about the evolution of the company, the types of advertising campaigns they run, the mobile experience and much more...Here a few links to some of the company's recent campaigns:- One Direction- Absolut Ireland- Poland SpringI really hoe you enjoy the show, have a great week and 'till next time!–This week’s show is sponsored by media law firm Sheridans, at http://www.sheridans.co.uk, we thank them for their support of Digital Music Trends.–Andrea Leonellihttp://www.digitalmusictrends.comhttp://www.twitter.com/digimusictrends00:20 introduction00:40 What is F#?01:05 Music is at the core of the company, what spurred you to start F# and what was the gap in the market you spotted when you started the company?02:15 The company started out in New York in the midst of a big bubble of startups working in media and tech, how did you find that experience?02:57 You work closely with Spotify and this has given you a good perspective on what works and what doesn't with music fans and users of the platform. Based on that you developed a number of different ad types to be served on the platform, can you talk us through a few of the most popular ones?07:00 Talking about personalisation and targeting I was wondering what your approach is on Spotify as far as demographic and geographic targeting and how does that affect the accounts that you take on? Do you work only with big brands or are you able to work with smaller, more localised companies?08:20 On that front you work closely with Spotify's advertising team who in turn is in touch with a number of ad partners right?09:20 Large corporate brands usually have a hard time relating to individual consumers, do you find that's why your approach offering personalised playlists is seeing so much engagement?10:40 How does the engagement of users in a cultural product like an album or a movie release differ from their engagement on the campaigns of large commercial brands?12:45 How do you manage to deliver a music-centered experience on websites that don't have the same access to music as Spotify?14:40 The mobile advertising experience is not great yet, do you have any thoughts on how that could be improved by interacting with music on a mobile level?