Why we should all be proud

OK, so Tom Waits didn't make it to Number One for Christmas, he didn't even make it to the top ten. That said, we should all be proud of what we've achieved here, and here's why.

• This blog and campaign is just two weeks old and yet in that time we've managed to get a 30 year old song into the Irish top 30 at the most competitive time of the year for singles, through online sales alone (just to put that in context, only a small percentage of the number 1's sales were bought online - just over 15% to be more precise).
• We managed to attract the interest (and maybe even capture the imagination) of The Irish Times, Today FM, 2FM, Phantom FM, The Star and a wealth of bloggers.
• While we failed to topple X-Factor, we managed to make a point in all of the above outlets about how boring the show has made things, and while it's still number one in 2007 you can't help but feel as though the worm is turning (even if this campaign has nothing to do with that).
• Paddy Power thought Tom Waits was the third most likely to get to the number 1 spot, behind X-Factor and The Pogues. They were way off, of course, but they certainly took us seriously.
• In the week leading up to Christmas we managed to make Tom Waits outsell the old reliables like 'Do they know it's Christmas?' by Band Aid, 'Driving home for Christmas' by Chris Rea, 'I wish it could be Christmas every day' by Wizzard, 'It's the most wonderful time' by Andy Williams and 'Santa Claus is comin' to town' by Bruce Springsteen.
  
• We managed to get Tom Waits played on daytime radio in Ireland for the first time in a long time (too long a time, if I do say so myself).
• We introduced a fantastic song and artist to at least a handful of new listeners and hopefully opened their eyes to the power of Tom Waits!
• And if we're really, really, really lucky, Tom Waits will notice slightly more royalties coming from Ireland this month and will decide to drop by on his next tour (chance would be a fine thing!).

A hundred thanks to the bloggers who gave us a mention, the people who visited and joined the facebook group and, most importantly, those who bought the song and got it where it is.

Proper thanks to come but I just wanted to say that there's no reason to be ashamed at the outcome, even if it wasn't the ideal one!

The final push

We're finally here - the last day of purchasing before the big day tomorrow.

As of this morning, 'Christmas card...' is 11th on the iTunes Ireland chart, climbing from nothing, to 29th to 19th to 11th in less than a week.

If you've not bought the song yet, now's the time - there will be no tomorrow (well there will, it's just your purchase won't count). If you've not told your friends, family and co-workers yet, now's the time. If you've not mentioned it on your blog or website, now's the time to do it.

If you have bought the song online this week, many thanks - you've done your good deed for Christmas. If you feel like you're in a festive enough mood to do one more, then by all means pick up another copy of the song (but do it from a different online outlet as it won't count otherwise)!

Remember - all purchases must be in by today or they won't count for tomorrow's chart.

Thanks again for your support and let's make this final push a good one!

Waits coming up the inside at 6-1!!!

I hadn't even noticed this but Tom Waits is now just 6-1 to make it to number 1 for Christmas in Ireland... wow!

That makes our campaign the third most likely to hit the top spot according to PaddyPower.com.

I think it's a pretty impressive achievement by all of us to make Tom Waits anything other than a complete outsider for a time like this, and we're only inches away from being favourite!

So if you're as confident as I am about Waits' chances maybe you might drop a few quid on the line - if we make it you'll be able to make your money back from the song purchase and maybe have enough left over for a scoop or two over Christmas!

Update: It looks like the page for Christmas Number 1 has been taken down for the time being - we'll keep an eye out to see if it comes back.

More coverage

I'm just back in the door having appeared on Phantom FM today to talk about the campaign and how it's going - many thanks to Simon Maher for giving us another mention and having me in to state my case. He even played out with the song itself - probably the first time Tom Waits has been on daytime radio in Ireland in a while!

The campaign also got some substantial coverage in today's Irish Star (scan coming later). It's on Page 18 if anyone has one nearby - thanks to Robert Cox for showing an interest and giving us a mention!

I was also told by one or two people that Ian Dempsey's Breakfast Show had a bit about the campaign - unfortunately I didn't have the radio switched on at the time but thanks to the crew in there for giving us a plug and hopefully your listeners will be making their way to iTunes to download it.

So a good day for coverage and there's more to come tomorrow, from what I understand.

Thanks to everyone who's helped promote the campaign so far and to everyone who's given in a mention where they can. Tomorrow is the second last day to buy and will be the start of our "end game" phase where me make the final push for support.

So in between buying online and harassing your friends and local radio stations about it be sure to keep your fingers crossed!

Higher and higher

"Christmas card..." has broken into the top 20 on the Irish iTunes chart as of this morning, and that may not even include all of Monday's sales (and certainly doesn't include any from today so far).

Big thanks to everyone who has bought the track so far and/or promoted it in their own way - it's clearly having an impact. The iTunes chart is the only real indicator we have to see how things are going and with 3 days or so of purchasing left I'd say it's going well.

There's plenty of time left to push it further up the chart and remember, even if it does amazingly well online we still need to counter-act physical sales so an extra push is needed.

If you've not bought already, now's the time to do it. If you have bought already, make sure you tell everyone you know about the campaign. If you're feeling extra generous at this festive time of year, log onto one of the stores you haven't already bought from and pick it up again!

Not got a credit card? Never fear

We need people to buy online to make Waits number one, but one limitation to this is that a credit card (or visa debit card) is required - not even the trusty Laser will work anywhere that we know of.

So what if you want to buy "Christmas card..." but don't have a credit card? Well why not follow the suggestion of Vincent Lacey on Facebook and invest in an iTunes voucher instead?

One place you can get these vouchers in the offline world is in a 3G store (locations here). You can also get someone you know with a credit card to buy you vouchers online and send them on to you to use.

(And if you know of anywhere else besides 3G where people can pick up an iTunes voucher in Ireland then leave a comment with details.)

Another solution is to get a 3V card, which is kind of like a temporary Visa card you can top-up in shops or through your phone. The problem here is that the charges are quite high, so you'll end up paying far more than 99c for one song.

So if you know of any other way that people without a Visa or Mastercard can buy a song online or if you know of any reason why either of the above won't work on iTunes (or anywhere else) then let us know.

Digg This!

Someone has started a Digg article on the campaign and it's in bad need of your Diggs.

Head over here and Digg if you can. Otherwise be sure to buy early and buy often - and spread the word!