All I want for Christmas is …..EMI Music UK to provide online shoppers with gift profiling service

This week, EMI Music UK launches a new gift profiling service for Christmas shoppers to drive online sales of music and merchandising.

GIFT-O-MATIC is available at www.giftomatic.co.uk, and is an interactive service, which takes the headache out of Christmas shopping, in a creative and funky way using profiling technology to create cartoon style characters and gift recommendations, which can then be emailed, used on Messenger or sent to a mobile.

To help find or receive that perfect Christmas gift, customers are asked to answer a series of short, lighthearted questions about themselves or for whom the gift is intended.

Based on the answers provided, GIFT-O-MATIC creates an avatar of the individual, along with a recommendation of CDs, DVDs and merchandise items that this person may like. The character can then be emailed to the person they are buying the gift for, used as an Instant Messenger icon or stored as a profile on a mobile phone.

Each of the 400 items that are available on the database have been individually cross-checked against a set of values, gender, age groups and genre styles. Taking the key demographic and target audience of each of the artists, a focused search has been created giving accurate results on what certain groups of people, might like for Christmas.

Shai Eilon, customer relation manager at EMI Music, comments: “As part of our CRM strategy, we aim to offer our consumers the best experience when interacting with our websites and receiving our email marketing. Our end goal is to introduce them to more music from EMI.

“The Christmas GIFT-O-MATIC will achieve just that by offering our consumers a fun and cool experience presenting them with a personalised choice of gifts for them and/or their friends and family.

“We believe that with our strong and extensive offering this year which includes releases as diverse as Live 8 to Lennon, we have that perfect gift selection for any music fan this Christmas.”

The new service is available at the following sites: www.giftomatic.co.uk (a dedicated microsite), www.emimusic.co.uk, EMI’s aggregate news site www.the-raft.com, www.nowmusic.com, plus various other sites.

Artists available on GIFT-O-MATIC include Robbie Williams, Kate Bush, Live8 DVD, Coldplay, Gorillaz, The Magic Numbers, KT Tunstall, John Lennon, Now That's What I Call Music! 62 , Depeche Mode, Goldfrapp, Kylie Minogue, Now Music, David Bowie platinum collection, Cliff Richard and Chas & Dave, to name a few.

Editor’s notes

About EMI Music – Digital Media Division

EMI Music was the first major record company to establish a dedicated Digital Media division in 1998. The division, headed up by Danny Van Emden, the Digital Media Director, is responsible for the digital activity of EMI Music UK and Ireland and its individual music labels. In addition, each of EMI Music’s record labels – the Angel Music Group, EMI Records, Parlophone, Virgin and the catalogue division - has a Digital Media Manager responsible for developing artist specific new media opportunities, promotions and web presence.

The Digital Media division develops many of the company’s digital cross-marketing and artist promotions; providing exclusive content; managing data capture and eCRM systems; and monetising EMI Music’s assets across the digital media. The division is also responsible for the EMI Music aggregate site, www.the-raft.com, which has been running for 11 years and won multiple awards.

Working with EMI’s Commercial Digital team, Digital Media has worked with retail, brand, online and mobile organisations. This year alone, the division has agreed a number of crucial deals with high profile partners including OD2, i-Tunes, mycokemusic, Napster, Orange and Vodafone Live.

Websites developed for well-known artists include Kylie.com, Kelis.co.uk, thethrills.com, nerduk.com, thedivinecomedy.com, doves.net and jamelia.com. The team is also responsible for creating artists’ web shops, selling physical products and exclusive merchandise, as well as developing mobile shops and download platforms.

EMI Music UK is part of The EMI Group, one of the largest music companies in the world and listed on the London Stock Exchange.

www.emimusic.co.uk

About EMI Catalogue Marketing

EMI Catalogue Marketing is an umbrella that covers a broad range of EMI labels and issues in excess of 400 albums every year.

EMI Catalogue is responsible for the development and re-promotion of EMI’s back catalogue of over 100 year’s worth of music. This includes re-issues, re-masters, special editions, tracks never previously released, rarities and collectors’ editions.

For further information, please contact:
Oliver Parrish
immediate future Ltd.
0845 408 2031
pressoffice@immediatefuture.co.uk