Traditional Advertising: Market Research.

I journeyed to Antone's in Austin, TX this past Thursday (Nov. 13) evening for my market research. My intentions were to discover how folks heard about their show, booked by C3 Presents, and to see if anyone saw the flyers C3 always hands out for their shows.

The band, The Lost Trailers (seen below), are a country act from Nashville with the hit song "Holler Back." They're a pretty hot little group right now and they'll be opening for Tim McGraw and Rodney Atkins, both big name country singers. So, needless to say, these guys are doing great.



The doormen and owners of Antone's were very welcoming of this little intern with my little notebook and pen ready to poll the concert attendees. So, here's how it went down: I sat at the front of the club and asked every single person (even the drunk ones who didn't know where they were) who came through the doors how they heard of the show. Once they gave me that answer I then asked if they had seen any flyers or posters about the show. And here are my results:



Out of all the concert-goers, the most popular way people heard of the show was in the "other" category, with 69 % of those polled. Some of the answers I got were they heard it through a friend or they were friends with the band. Next in line is that folks heard about the show through the Internet, either the Lost Trailer's Web site, MySpace or an e-mail, with 20 %. Radio and newspaper (The Chronicle was the paper of choice) both received 5 % each. And finally, there's the flyer/poster category with a whopping zero %. Of all those who came to the show, none of them were there because of a flyer or poster.

So, my next step was to see if anyone there even saw a flyer or poster, and here are those results...



Of every person at the show, only 1.8 % actually saw a flyer or poster. Since this was such a rare occurrence, I asked the woman to give me details. She had received a handbill at a Gary Allan show she had attended about a week before the Lost Trailers show. However, she had already bought her tickets to the L.T. show, so the handbill had no real influence on whether or not she was attending the L.T. concert. Interesting.

So, for these country music-lovin' folks, the main way they were reached was through word of mouth. Many of the folks there had heard through a friend or was a friend of the band, supporting the idea that sometimes word of mouth is the absolute best advertising. Next, the Internet had a hold on plenty of the attendees, with people checking out the Lost Trailer's Web site, MySpace page or receiving an e-mail from the band. The Internet has many opportunities for bands to get their tour dates out and about, so this method seemed effective or helpful for the L.T. The radio, KASE 101 to be particular, was helpful in getting the word out about the show. A few of the folks who heard from this method were actually ticket winners to attend the show for free. The Austin Chronicle drew in a few folks as well, with the show listing in their concerts section. A few of the Chronicle people I talked with were out-of-towners from NYC who had just opened the paper to find a good show, saw Antone's and knew of it's reputation as being one of the best venues in Austin, and came on over to enjoy the live music.

While my research gave some insight on the effects of flyers and handbills on concert-goers, there is plenty I'd look at differently. One, this show didn't have a huge turnout so my sample wasn't as hefty as I'd like. I would have wanted to look at a vast audience to get a better feel for how those folks heard about the show. Maybe country music fans don't use flyers or posters as their main determinant on show choice? Maybe there were other huge acts in town that evening?

My next step was to speak to the head of concert marketing at C3 Presents to hear how she believed flyers or posters and other forms of concert marketing help their artists and venues to have a successful show. The discussion was interesting and eye-opening...stay tuned...

(PS-Pat on the back for me for making big girl charts.)

Traditional Advertising: Flyers.

At C3, there is an extensive marketing team with lots of interns on designing flyers for shows that C3 books. As a part of my exploration of traditional artist and concert promotion I wanted to see if these flyers are beneficial (or not) for the artist, venue and promoter.

As you can see there is a clipboard right by all these flyers - this is for the C3 Street Team. Street Teams are efficient ways to get your flyers out around town without taking up your own time. Often, Street Team members are compensated for their time by getting free tickets to shows, posters, swag, etc., so if you're a student wanting to hit up great shows without having to pay for a ticket, a little time handing out flyers can get you in. Also, specific artists have street teams - Ben Kweller, for instance - who will be mailed posters, flyers, stickers or whatever else to hand out to pump up the artist in their area.





My next venture will be chatting with some Austin concert-goers to see how they learned of the show they're attending. Until then, my friends.

Traditional Advertising: Old Man.

I've been planning my next few blog posts about traditional advertising and getting things ready to go, but am haulted with a nasty cold. So, just a few more days, my friends, and we'll be back on track.

However, I do have a story today about traditional artist advertising. As I'm sure many of you have seen, musicians will plaster their name wherever they can - on street signs, light poles, sidewalks, trashcans, etc. I've illustrated that point in this post. Well, this morning as I made my way to the communications building I spotted an old man. Picture this. Ernest Hemingway with snow white hair, sunglasses, sneakers with mid-calve socks (somewhat scrunched), above-the-knee cargo shorts, a button-down collared shirt with a razor in hand. As soon as I saw him I started watching his actions. Why did he have a razor blade? What was the seemingly-normal man going to do with it? Slash students Freddy Krueger style? Nope. He was walking around Guadalupe Street scraping musician stickers off the poles, street signs and anything else in the city that had been molested by the musician.

I walked slower so I could watch his face as he scraped - it seemed like he was personally hurt by these musicians and their abandonment for any city aesthetics. He would shake his head in disappointment, much like a father would shake his head after finding out his daughter was dating the town's biggest thug. And then I had a sweet flashback to a poster-hanging assignment I was given.

At C3 I was given a stack of posters for a Black Joe Lewis show and told to go "plaster them in the city." So, I hesitantly took my stack and a roll of package tape. (I was hesitant because I try to save as much paper as possible or use recycled paper when I have the opportunity. This was just against my little green code I have. But oh well.) So, I walked to the Austin Convention Center and started putting up the posters on light poles. I felt like I was breaking the law, which I probably was. I felt sneaky, but not in a good way. I kept looking over my shoulder. It was probably really funny if you were a fly on the wall watching me creep around. After doing about 10 posters I started to head back toward my car - then a man started following me. He was a businessman, staring at me and saying things under his breath but loud enough for me to hear.

"You shouldn't be doing this." "This is defacing Austin." "This makes our city UGLY." "You suck."

OK, not that last one, but that's kinda how I felt. So, I pretended to be on the phone with someone having a really important conversation. So, needless to say, there are some people in the city who despise these flyers, stickers, posters, etc. and will say/do anything to get them down. Like Hemingway earlier today, this businessman was pretty passionate about the flyers - just in a different way.

So, for the promoters or musicians, what is the line you draw? Do you have a specific area to post your ads? Do you say f*** it and go on with your business? Is there another way to promote your show/band without paper? (This, by the way, is what I'm hoping to do in the business - find new and fresh ways to promote that are not on paper.) In the next few posts we'll see if little handbills and flyers actually get folks to shows. Stay tuned.