Roundtables
Grassroots & Lifestyle Marketing
(Moderator) Maria Brunner (Insight Management)
Lisa Burlingham, (Hollywood Bowl/Walt Disney Concert Hall)
Maria Brunner’s always-popular marketing panel included something special this year: a performance by Ventura, Calif., band Rey Fresco.
That was just one reason about 50 people had to be turned away from Grassroots & Lifestyle Marketing. Those who made it in ranged from delegates from Royal Albert Hall down to clubs.
Brunner and Lisa Burlingham discussed how social media is important to create a buzz, but to reinforce it with print media. For Rey Fresco, Brunner’s Insight Management reached out to head shops, surf shops and snowboard shops in every city where the band was touring. Stores were provided with “register-to-win” boxes, free MP3s to give to cus-tomers and e-cards. Brunner found an almost 70 percent in-terest from the campaign. Burling-ham explained how she markets shows at Hollywood Bowl and Walt Disney Concert Hall. She learned, for example, that Pat Metheny has an affiliation with ethnic groups and she marketed a recent Metheny show by reach-ing out to them on Facebook. Burlingham noted she does this for every show.
If you thought 3D was just for the movies, think again. According to John Rubey, who moderated Getting Your Concert DVD Shoot for Free, it’s a powerful marketing and distribution tool that artists are jumping all over.
For instance, at Lollapalooza, Perry Farrell was backstage watching Jay-Z on a feed from All Points West, and talking to a 3D technician when the light bulb went off, AEG Network Live’s Rubey explained. “We can do better,” Farrell said, and he was soon immersed in learning about lighting and cameras for Jane’s Addiction.
“Same at Mile High with Ben Harper,” Rubey said. “Ben watched an entire performance, he was so fascinated.” With artists on board and beginning to insist on such recordings, it’s conceivable that 3D and standard DVD recording of live shows will become a routine part of show production rather than the exception.
Rubey came equipped with a basket full of polarized 3D glasses he handed out to the audience before running an example on the HD flatscreen in the room. “It creates a buzz and interest among fans – advertising doesn’t. Content creates its own distribution,” Rubey said.
CAA’s Rod Essig moderated the Country Music 2010 roundtable discussion that’s always lively and standing-room-only.
To no one’s surprise, the merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster was a hot topic, as was Taylor Swift and the general state of country music in the age of “American Idol.”
One audience member expressed his frustration with what he called “cookie-cutter bands” and marketing, lamenting Nashville’s current emphasis on “technical proficiency” and using the Zac Brown Band as an example of how “what’s real” still works.
Essig acknowledged that “what’s worked for Taylor Swift won’t work for anyone else” and that it’s tough for singers to get through the showcase circuit. “Nashville showcases start at
6,” Essig said. “If they are off pitch for the first three songs, I’m gone.” Yet technical proficiency isn’t enough, Essig said. “Tim McGraw was one of those,” he added, drawing laughter.
As for questions about the merger, Essig didn’t see the sky falling or the sun dawning on a new day, either. “[The industry] is going to stay static
for a while,” he said. “It’s about relationships, relationships, relationships. People like [Out-back Concerts’ Mike] Smardak. People like AEG. People like Front Line.
“It will stay like that for a while, because a good deal is a good deal for everybody,” Essig advised people to remember.
And that applies to the vertical integration aspect of the deal, too.
“No one’s going to have a bad night and go home, look at himself in the mirror, and haggle to get his own money back.”
The Effecting Social Change roundtable moderated by Chris Baumgartner of Effect Partners was packed. Here’s some exam-ples of what his company does to pioneer sustainability at live events. One was setting up water stations at U2 concerts. Fans can fill reusable water bot-tles at water stations instead of creating waste by purchasing and throwing away water bottles.
Baumgartner noted that in coming up with initiatives like these, artists need to be passionate about the cause. This creates much needed authenticity with fans, which fans react to. And with all the fuss over fans not knowing exactly what they’re paying for with all the added fees that go into a ticket, Baum-gartner had an interesting stat: Fans are will-ing to pay to offset emissions produced by concerts. He said that 70 percent of fans opted to pay a surcharge of 50 cents.
Substance Abuse on the Road had an intimate session. Helping drug and/or alcohol-dependent artists stay sober, especially when there’s a lull in their tour schedule, can be a challenge for those who care. Sobriety can be more frightening to the artist than the destructive habit itself, plus there’s the illusion that an artist is more “creative” when drunk or high. Screaming crowds pro-claiming their undying love just add to the ruse and keep the vicious cycle going. Until an artist acknowledges his or her dependency and wants to change, there’s only so much those who care can do.