Alex
Really disappointed.
I chose Forbid Media to run a campaign for an artist because I’m a fan of Andrew's YouTube content. I spent $7,000 on an ad campaign with Forbid Media, fully understanding that results from advertising aren’t guaranteed. However, after several months, I've seen zero growth on the song or ongoing engagement from the campaign, with the artist’s Spotify metrics quickly reverting back to what they were before. This experience has made me feel like the campaign was largely a waste of time and money. Unfortunately, Forbid Media’s service didn’t feel personalised or responsive to my needs. Most communication was done over email (no virtual meetings), with days between responses, and I wasn’t asked about important details like whether I had video assets available or what my target audience would be. I received minimal input on the campaign itself and was only informed it was live after a week with little consultation. It was also concerning that I wasn’t shown the ads before they went live, especially since the artist I was promoting has a distinct brand identity. Not knowing how they were being represented online left me feeling uncomfortable about the campaign's direction and effectiveness. I see Forbid Media's ads on instagram a lot (as well as videos under their different alias accounts). It seems they rely heavily on the same template: videos featuring copyrighted content (like Spiderman or The Notebook) with yellow text overlaid reading “100% comic book vibes” or “100% sad vibes,” followed by a list of (questionably) similar artists. This approach is so low-effort and disappointing given the high cost of $7,000 for what appeared to be templated ads with minimal customisation. Since the campaign ended, I have started running ads myself, and I've seen far better results for a fraction of the cost. The growth and engagement for the artist has increased dramatically. This has only reinforced my view that Forbid Media’s service didn’t deliver the value I was expecting. For $7,000, I anticipated a level of expertise that would outperform what I could do on my own.
Response from Forbid MediaNov 13, 2024
Hey Alex, Thank you for for this information. We asked for additional information but unfortunately did not receive a response. We have no records of a campaign of this size under under your name. Please reach out to us via email at [email protected] with your campaign details and we'd be happy to look into this for you. We provide all clients with a 15-min onboarding call, and respond to most emails inquiries within 24 hours on business days. I believe the days in between responses you are referring to are weekends. It's important for us to take some time and recharge, as I'm sure you understand. We are fully transparent with our campaigns are conducted. We make custom-made ad visuals for each campaign and run what we believe will add the most value to the campaign. All of this is supervised directly by Andrew. If you had any input re: ad creatives prior to launch, we would have taken that into account. We are also happy to run your supplied visuals alongside our own, and many clients choose this route. We're sorry your campaign did not meet your expectations. There are no guarantees when it comes to music marketing and we try to make this as clear as possible before accepting campaigns. Unfortunately it's not possible for us to investigate further as we don't know which campaign this is about. We are committed to providing a transparent and professional service; please reach out to us with your details and we will do everything we can to make this right. Thanks again, Wes