Digital Trail

As perverse as it is, the death of Michael Jackson will be widely regarded by those out to make a buck as the perfect marketing platform. Marketing around an event is exactly the focus that is needed to drive sales. Some will view it as sickening cynicism so close to the event of his passing but it has been said before that death can be the greatest career move in terms of finance generation.

The upcoming series of gigs at London’s O2 were in part somewhat likely to have added to the downfall of MJ but were essential in order to pay off the vast debts he had accrued in life. For those who paid for their tickets through legitimate sources, a refund will be forthcoming. For those who paid through the nose on Ebay and by other means-a refund may not be so readily available. Now this isnt attributable to the power of marketing, but it would be a safe bet to see ticket sales of the concerts increase slightly even in death. Why would anyone want to part with serious money for something that has no return? This is where we come round to the memorabilia bandwagon that was taking a good oiling to the axle during the hours of confusion over whether or not the death of Michael Jackson was truth or hearsay.

It is known from a friendly source, HMV issued an e-mail that was in the Inbox of branch manager’s across the nation come Friday morning that any Michael Jackson stock should be moved to the front of house and that additional stocks would be in place for the weekend.

Of course, much like radio stations across the land, the only playlists in stores that sold Jackson products were the songs of Michael Jackson through the years. The weekend’s online commercial activity appears to have been dominated by the sale of his music. Back catalogue packages on iTunes saw Jackson’s chart ranking soar akin to his physical format success in his prime. By Sunday Jacko was topping nearly every possible chart.

According to CNN, “Almost 20,000 items were up for sale after his death on the popular auction site eBay, where collectors could snap up everything from the rare to the ridiculous.”

As of Saturday morning, the BBC had shipped out a team to LA (despite the fact they have one based there already) to cover the public mourning and invited a street dance troupe to perform a tribute-said dancers were all wearing various boxfresh Jackson t-shirts bearing messages of ‘RIP’ and ‘We Miss You.’ It is dificult to put a finger on what may have been the more likely reality-was merchandise printed up before death or was it a frighteningly rapid turn around of product conception to product launch?

As a tweet by Harriet Crosse (Director of Bristol PR Specialists 72point) explained, for those in the PR game looking for column inches come the first Saturday after his death, they need not bother chasing around after journos and editors. On that Saturday, in many instances, the first 10+ pages of tabloids were devoted to the troubled star and his demise.

As a Royal wedding sees commerative plates and other related frippery and tat become common place in shops and newspaper’s readers offers, a Michael Jackson plate may not be too far off.