Sunday, July 27, 2008

Creating the LAME Studios Concert: Part 1

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one company, three bands

facebook marketing is viable!  i’ve been experimenting with marketing strategies targeting certain demographics, and because facebook is well connected with grand rapids college and high school kids, i centered my marketing campaign around this online tool.  i invited my friends at LAME Studios to merge their company launch with my concert, and they put some serious work into getting the word out.  i’m very grateful for the work they did, and i’m looking forward to the next collaboration because we know we’ll do even better.  LAME Studios was started by local high schoolers, so they really got the word out to their high school friends.  as expected, a lot of high schoolers showed up, but the number that showed up was still less than the confirmed guest list on the official facebook event. 

that leads me to my first lesson: mass invitations don’t produce as accurate results as speaking with someone in person and asking for confirmation in a facebook event invitation sent later.

LAME Studios and their friends put in a lot of hard work on promotions, which freed me up to ensure that the experience was great.  that wasn’t too difficult; i can just imagine myself as one of the concert-goers.  if i went to a concert, what would i expect?  affordable tickets, great performances, great music by bands that i liked, water that doesn’t cost $5 but is free like it should be (i hated how some venues turn off their water fountains so people are forced to buy drinks… people just get annoyed and drink from bathroom faucets), good food priced reasonably, and good sound.  i gave it my best shot, and i know i came up short on a few things. 

so, the second, multi-part, lesson: first, popcorn should not cost $3, even if it’s a heaping bowl.  we didn’t sell a single bowl of popcorn.  second, we had great drinks that were priced at $1 for a tall glass.  good value, yum yum, many purchases, will do it again.  third, we had two ticket options, online pre-sale e-tickets for $3.50 or pay $5 at the door.  although pre-sale tickets were cheaper, only 4 people bought them, while everyone else paid at the door.  i know that over 30 people visited the link to purchase tickets, and my guess is that no one bought any because (1) the ticket dealer wasn’t a reputable one like ticketmaster, so they thought it was sketchy, or (2) they weren’t given a credit card payment.  i highly doubt that number 2 is the reason, because i picked the dealer because they accepted credit cards.  so i should either find a reputable ticket dealer that doesn’t rip buyers off (like ticketmaster does with absurd service fees), build a reputation with my ticketing system over time, or just scrap cheaper pre-sale e-tickets and get everyone to buy at the door.  actually, i just remembered this technique by a battle of the bands promoter somewhere.  bands are given a stack of tickets, and they must sell a minimum to play the show.  promoters are also given stacks of tickets to sell.  we skip ticket dealers that charge ridiculous service fees, fans and buyers get cheaper tickets, bands know their friends will show up, and the venue can pay the staff that ensures a hospitable environment.  everyone wins.  food for thought, and i may adopt this strategy in the future.

because of the lessons i’ve learnt, i can almost guarantee a better sophomore effort.  in the meantime, i’m reflecting on my freshman effort and crying over my mistakes.  well, i’m not crying, but i’m not afraid to admit that i failed financially; i lost a substantial amount of money (i won’t reveal the amount because my parents will read this and they’ll think i’m broke, which will lead to a phone call where they’ll want to send me money, and then i’ll refuse their generosity because i want to stick it out on my own and learn from my own mistakes, not because i’m proud, but because some lessons need to be learned the hard way to really stick), but i know that money isn’t everything, and what’s more important is the experience.  from preliminary feedback, people had a blast and really enjoyed themselves.  i need to remember that the core of live entertainment is ENTERTAINMENT, not “let’s milk as much money as we can out of the crowd.”  i don’t want that kind of reputation as a concert-promoter, nor do i want people helping me out to be linked to such a reputation.

Posted by Nehe555 on 07/27 at 03:29 PM
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