Promoting a Concert with IM + help

[alexshelton]

Hello all,

having a good day I hope.

Myself and a good friend are hosting a concert/gig down at the Electric Ballroom in London later on this year and I could do with some ideas/advice.

So far the marketing plan looks like this

Online:

-Forums (Myspace,Unsigned based)
-Facebook (targeting groups + making one of our own)
-Twitter (Targeting those that show an interest in London based gigs)
-Blog/website
-Ticket master
-Venue website
- possibly some SEO as we have 3-4 months

Offline:

-Flyers
-Posters


Can you see anywhere we may be missing out?

Also I'm hoping to have a website designed a bit like the Reading festivals, but hosted on wordpress for ease of editing + it's cool.

Reading 2009 Festival :: Home

Has anyone created or seen any themes like this that may be suitable? I've had a good look and only really found a couple!

All being wellI hope to sell 1000 tickets but it'll require some hard work, really excited to get it going

Thanks in advance

Alex

[Pat Jackson]

If you released your own product you'd be looking to find affiliates, right?

So, if you're running a party find some promoters.. give them a $ amount for every ticket sold..

Then you can have a competition amongst them, prizes for most sold etc etc, in the same way you'd run an affiliate contest.

I used to do a bit of work in clubs and this was always the best approach.

[Bruce NewMedia]

Alex, one technique you could employ would be to have a Contest to Win Free Tickets.

You could detail the rules on your blogs and in all the other advertising. You could make it so participants have to blog about the event and why they want to go, or something like that.
Even if you gave away 40 or 50 tickets it shouldn't change the profit much out of a 1,000 ticket sales.....good luck with your concert!
_____
Bruce

[CanadianChickXO]

I was just going to say... have a contest.

Let the viral element of the internet do some work for you. If the bands have a big following offer some backstage passes also.

Some video marketing as well.

Good luck

Originally Posted by brucerby

Alex, one technique you could employ would be to have a Contest to Win Free Tickets.

You could detail the rules on your blogs and in all the other advertising. You could make it so participants have to blog about the event and why they want to go, or something like that.
Even if you gave away 40 or 50 tickets it shouldn't change the profit much out of a 1,000 ticket sales.....good luck with your concert!
_____
Bruce

[GarrieWilson]

Contact local radio stations about sponsoring it.

It could be as simple as free tickets to giveaway on air in exchange for a mention or they do a live broadcats from the show, hand out radio merch, and other stuff and you get free radio ads.

[Martin Luxton]

Alex,

It depends on your budget but, T-shirts and car stickers. We got 100 good quality T-shirts from T-shirt printing and clothing embroidery services - Tshirt printers & promotional clothing embroiderers - SHIRTWORKS LTD : shirtworks for 500 quid (a few years ago now).

Band name on the front and on the back album details and/or concert details.

Then give them out to friends and ask them to wear them when they go to gigs and music shops. The Saturday before the gig, try and get as many of them together at the venue. It looks pretty impressive when you've got scores of people wandering around in your shirt.

On the night of the gig, send a couple of pretty girls to the pubs near the venue and get them to give out a few T-shirts on condition the guys wear them right away (put a TONIGHT!! sticker on the shirts).

Martin

[igorhelpsyousucceed]

Originally Posted by alexshelton

Hello all,

having a good day I hope.

Myself and a good friend are hosting a concert/gig down at the Electric Ballroom in London later on this year and I could do with some ideas/advice.

So far the marketing plan looks like this

Online:

-Forums (Myspace,Unsigned based)
-Facebook (targeting groups + making one of our own)
-Twitter (Targeting those that show an interest in London based gigs)
-Blog/website
-Ticket master
-Venue website
- possibly some SEO as we have 3-4 months

Offline:

-Flyers
-Posters


Can you see anywhere we may be missing out?

Also I'm hoping to have a website designed a bit like the Reading festivals, but hosted on wordpress for ease of editing + it's cool.

Reading 2009 Festival :: Home

Has anyone created or seen any themes like this that may be suitable? I've had a good look and only really found a couple!

All being wellI hope to sell 1000 tickets but it'll require some hard work, really excited to get it going

Thanks in advance

Alex

Hey Alex,

maybe you can set up a JV promotion?
Look for similar products(like audio cds, music, etc) and contact the
owners.

Igor

[Mar]

I saw an item on BBC Breakfast yesterday. It was about kids who volunteered to do 4 hours of voluntary work and who then got free tickets to a concert.

Why not set aside X number of tickets, get some publicity from your local press, and see if you can tie into this scheme.

Mar

[alexshelton]

Sorry guys, been away for a few days...

Really appreciate the feedback within the thread and the suggestions.

I'll look into getting a press release put together and some free tickets also, radio coverage would be very helpful indeed. The concept itself isn't entirely new, but by showcasing the new talent to record labels we hope to get the bands working hard to promote the event also.

[stevereel]

Check out Brown Paper Tickets - The first and only fair-trade ticketing company!

I've used them for several shows we did. Cheaper and easier to use than ticketmaster. They are used by a lot of big venues now.

[alexshelton]

Will do Steve, if anyone else knows of any more UK based ticket/payment processors that'd be awesome!

Many thanks

[Rob Anderson]

"+) i was reading all the good advice and realised you needed to start defending "all the lies that there are going to be 100 topless cheerleaders at the show" tweet all day telling people that the rumours are not true, as far as you know the topless girls have been told they are not allowed to do their protest thing at your show. hehehe.

just kidding, take the more serious advice above. and use that. never trust dirty viral ideas from me.
oh, was it the rumour that xxx was going to be there to double check that you were not the guys that stole his new song.... hehehe,

[alexshelton]

LOL i like it Rob, I heard it was more like 200 though