So I'm from the St. Louis area and we barely get good metal shows around here, but we actually have Nightwish playing here in late May. I talked to the booking guy at the venue they are playing and he is new to the band but pretty excited to see what they are all about. The point is, he wants to try to promote this show in a more creative way. I don't work for the venue or anything, I just would love to see more people get into the band seeing as they are pretty accessible. Anyway, I figure there seems to be some knowledgable people here when it comes to that sort of thing, so any suggestions???
Creative ways to promote a show???
- Thread starter Anubisaxe
- Start date
Rider of Theli
The Hellequin
cheap but effective: get their music played on a local/regional college radio station if at all possible.
And if you're willing to invest a little time and money into helping promote the show street team style, then you can always print off a good amount of flyers to leave at places you think a metal crowd would frequent. I usually hit up all the tattoo shops in the area, as well as bike repair shops, music stores, cd/record stores, comics shops, electronic gaming stores, skate/surf shops, college commons, etc. I've been learning more and more places to go.
Make sure the flyer is colorful and eye-catching. In this case, use a great current promo shot of the band. Try to print a fair amount of them as 4 images to an 8X10 page. This would give you four times the amount of flyers to spread around. Plus business owners do not usually want big sheets of paper cluttering up their counter tops.
Always approach the business owner and ask permission to leave the flyers. A good tactic is to ask them for a business card, flyer, or leaflet in exchange for leaving a small stack of flyers with them, and offer to leave their card/flyer on a merch table at the venue the night of the show. I've not had a business owner turn me down yet.
Always go back within two days to check on the status of your flyers. Never leave more than 20-25 to start with. Because even if the business owner is cold-hearted and throws your flyers in the trash as soon as you leave out, you won't be out too much money. Typically all 20-25 flyers will not be taken within two days. And if a few are missing, then great! - leave a few more. If you check back a couple of days before the show and most or all of your flyers still remain, then it's a good idea not to waste your time or money returning to leave flyers there again.
One more item of interest I've found useful, but not sure the effect yet... print about a hundred business cards stating the pertinent info about the show and always have 10-20 of them on you or in your car. You never know who you'll meet on the street or at a bar or coffee shop who expresses an interest in your Nightwish shirt/hoodie/cd.
Besides, people tend to put a business card in their wallet or purse, whereas a flyer ends up in the trash 75-90% of the time.
sorry I kind of rambled on there, but these are some tips I've learned along the way. I hope it helps.
And if you're willing to invest a little time and money into helping promote the show street team style, then you can always print off a good amount of flyers to leave at places you think a metal crowd would frequent. I usually hit up all the tattoo shops in the area, as well as bike repair shops, music stores, cd/record stores, comics shops, electronic gaming stores, skate/surf shops, college commons, etc. I've been learning more and more places to go.
Make sure the flyer is colorful and eye-catching. In this case, use a great current promo shot of the band. Try to print a fair amount of them as 4 images to an 8X10 page. This would give you four times the amount of flyers to spread around. Plus business owners do not usually want big sheets of paper cluttering up their counter tops.
Always approach the business owner and ask permission to leave the flyers. A good tactic is to ask them for a business card, flyer, or leaflet in exchange for leaving a small stack of flyers with them, and offer to leave their card/flyer on a merch table at the venue the night of the show. I've not had a business owner turn me down yet.
Always go back within two days to check on the status of your flyers. Never leave more than 20-25 to start with. Because even if the business owner is cold-hearted and throws your flyers in the trash as soon as you leave out, you won't be out too much money. Typically all 20-25 flyers will not be taken within two days. And if a few are missing, then great! - leave a few more. If you check back a couple of days before the show and most or all of your flyers still remain, then it's a good idea not to waste your time or money returning to leave flyers there again.
One more item of interest I've found useful, but not sure the effect yet... print about a hundred business cards stating the pertinent info about the show and always have 10-20 of them on you or in your car. You never know who you'll meet on the street or at a bar or coffee shop who expresses an interest in your Nightwish shirt/hoodie/cd.
Besides, people tend to put a business card in their wallet or purse, whereas a flyer ends up in the trash 75-90% of the time.sorry I kind of rambled on there, but these are some tips I've learned along the way. I hope it helps.
sh0kr0k
Active Member
What Hoyt said, plus...
Chances are you made that flyer in a computer graphics program, so would also be able to use it on the internet. Post it on your profiles and blogs on myspace, livejournal, facebook, etc..
Get a few friends to help you out. Send e-mails to your local friends that you know would be interested in the show or the bands. Try to personalize the e-mails as much as you can because people are way more responsive if they are sure you took the time to contact them directly rather than just spammed them along with everyone else in your address book. This takes a little more time, but if you choose the right people (friends with a 75%+ chance of showing up) and ask them to help you spread the word about the event, you are extending your reach to their friends too, even if it's just two or three per friend of yours. Heck, make a deal with 5 of your pals that you KNOW will be there and will want to help you spread the word - give them a reason to help you Don't forget to put that graphic in the myspace comments of the bands playing the show. The fans will likely see it and some even seek these flyers (I do!), especially if the bands don't have their calendar information up to date. 
There are some other ways, but these are the cheapest.. and I can't give away all my secrets!
BTW, what show is this for? You've got me curious..
Chances are you made that flyer in a computer graphics program, so would also be able to use it on the internet. Post it on your profiles and blogs on myspace, livejournal, facebook, etc..
Get a few friends to help you out. Send e-mails to your local friends that you know would be interested in the show or the bands. Try to personalize the e-mails as much as you can because people are way more responsive if they are sure you took the time to contact them directly rather than just spammed them along with everyone else in your address book. This takes a little more time, but if you choose the right people (friends with a 75%+ chance of showing up) and ask them to help you spread the word about the event, you are extending your reach to their friends too, even if it's just two or three per friend of yours. Heck, make a deal with 5 of your pals that you KNOW will be there and will want to help you spread the word - give them a reason to help you
Don't forget to put that graphic in the myspace comments of the bands playing the show. The fans will likely see it and some even seek these flyers (I do!), especially if the bands don't have their calendar information up to date. There are some other ways, but these are the cheapest.. and I can't give away all my secrets!
BTW, what show is this for? You've got me curious..
Thanks for the input, this is actually for that Nightwish show. I work in one of the local cd shops and it seems some bands from the prog/power genre stand out to a wide variety of people. Nightwish is for sure one of them, I've sold their cds to all ages just from having the cd playing.
Jasonic
Doom On!
Flyer, flyer, flyer!
I see so many bands piss and moan that no one comes to their shows.
The first question I ask is:
"Did you flyer EVERY independent store in the city and burbs, as well as applicable stores?"
The answer is usually no.
In the age of the internet, I feel bands have gotten lazy, and just rely on making one post on a message board about a show.
The problem is in reality, you have covered maybe 5% of your potential local scene.
I have been in many bands over the years.
If I had a show coming up, the weekends before would be spent flyering at record stores, coffee shops, clothing stores that sell band merch, shows, etc, etc.
Maybe I am old school. I get more excited about seeing a cool flyer for a gig than just reading a post on line about a show.
I see so many bands piss and moan that no one comes to their shows.
The first question I ask is:
"Did you flyer EVERY independent store in the city and burbs, as well as applicable stores?"
The answer is usually no.
In the age of the internet, I feel bands have gotten lazy, and just rely on making one post on a message board about a show.
The problem is in reality, you have covered maybe 5% of your potential local scene.
I have been in many bands over the years.
If I had a show coming up, the weekends before would be spent flyering at record stores, coffee shops, clothing stores that sell band merch, shows, etc, etc.
Maybe I am old school. I get more excited about seeing a cool flyer for a gig than just reading a post on line about a show.
Rider of Theli
The Hellequin
that's damn true too. I see dozens of bulletins on MySpace from dozens upon dozens of local bands. And I've even posted bulletins myself. I can usually count on one hand (ok, sometimes both hands) how many people come to any shows I put together due to my efforts online.
I mean, check my posts here under any Pathfinder Promotions threads. There's about 35-40 people from the metro-ATL area who frequent these forums. Yet I can count on about 5-10 of them at most to come to any local/regional metal shows I promote. And yes, I realize that not everyone can always come to every show. But jeez - I haven't seen a majority of those folks at any shows for the past year unless it's ProgPower USA or a major national tour.
These are the same folks who sit around all the time complaining that there's no scene here. uh, helllloooo???
I'm working my tail off here for you. 
So yes, I agree with Jasonic - flyer the hell out of places! It's where you're going to receive most of your patrons from anyway.
Oh, and Tammy - why keep any 'secrets' from fellow Promoters? Do you not want to help the overall metal scene? No one's asking you to share your ideas on which bands you are lining up for the next Madfest.
We're in this together aren't we? Lighten up and help the new guys out. 
Pellaz
Tigron of Immanion
Oh, and Tammy - why keep any 'secrets' from fellow Promoters? Do you not want to help the overall metal scene? No one's asking you to share your ideas on which bands you are lining up for the next Madfest.
+1
What's the big deal? No-one's asking for secret contact info or band lineups here, just different avenues that can be used for promotion.
Also, if a store owner is really cool, he/she might let you put a larger version of your flyer (i.e., full page-size, not a qwuarter-page) in a front window. Back when I was helping to promote shows*, that happened more than once.
-=-=-
* for Ozric Tentacles
sh0kr0k
Active Member
Wow! Guys! I was joking! :zombie: I don't have any ultra-cool, hidden, uber-productive promotional secrets that I'm keeping from anyone! I was more being sarcastic to the fact that between Hoyt & I we pretty much covered all the basics - in detail!
Since when have I *ever* withheld help to a fellow promoter? I'm kinda insulted
but I guess with the recent rash of poor behavior on the forum we're all a little frustrated with jokes, regardless of who they come from. I hope that's the reason anyway... That or you really think I'm ready to hang the new guys out to dry!
Hoyt, I may be far away and not able to attend your shows, but I do believe I supported you the best I could when you were still the 'new guy' and still do!.... and "lighten up"?? I guess I have to in order to chalk this up to a misunderstood hint of sarcasm instead of an insult.
Trust me, I know full-well that we are all in this together. I would never withhold a cool idea from someone who is asking for help. Have faith in my honesty and desire to help the bands not myself.
The "other ideas" that I didn't include are because they can sometimes get quite pricey. I assumed Anubisaxe was putting forth the extra promotional effort on his own, but now I see that he could be just submitting the ideas only, in that case the person will have a bigger budget to work with. If that is the case then you could take out an ad on a local radio station, have the radio station do a remote-broadcast appearance, put together a tv commercial and submit it to local channels including the public access cable channels, print some wall-size posters to plaster around town and throughout the venue, see if you can get the band to do a station ID for the local radio channel and have it aired repeatedly, take out an ad in local and major music magazines, and lastly but not finally - rent an ad on the side of a bus or a billboard! None of these are very practical or affordable on a "I'm just doing this to help for the fun of it" budget, I assume.
Since when have I *ever* withheld help to a fellow promoter? I'm kinda insulted
but I guess with the recent rash of poor behavior on the forum we're all a little frustrated with jokes, regardless of who they come from. I hope that's the reason anyway... That or you really think I'm ready to hang the new guys out to dry! Hoyt, I may be far away and not able to attend your shows, but I do believe I supported you the best I could when you were still the 'new guy' and still do!.... and "lighten up"?? I guess I have to in order to chalk this up to a misunderstood hint of sarcasm instead of an insult.
Trust me, I know full-well that we are all in this together. I would never withhold a cool idea from someone who is asking for help. Have faith in my honesty and desire to help the bands not myself.
The "other ideas" that I didn't include are because they can sometimes get quite pricey. I assumed Anubisaxe was putting forth the extra promotional effort on his own, but now I see that he could be just submitting the ideas only, in that case the person will have a bigger budget to work with. If that is the case then you could take out an ad on a local radio station, have the radio station do a remote-broadcast appearance, put together a tv commercial and submit it to local channels including the public access cable channels, print some wall-size posters to plaster around town and throughout the venue, see if you can get the band to do a station ID for the local radio channel and have it aired repeatedly, take out an ad in local and major music magazines, and lastly but not finally - rent an ad on the side of a bus or a billboard! None of these are very practical or affordable on a "I'm just doing this to help for the fun of it" budget, I assume.
Rider of Theli
The Hellequin
sorry, but the sarcasm was probably missed with the '
' faces. And you'll notice in my reply there is a strategically placed '', so I was not attacking you or anything. I was just curious about these purported 'secrets'. So I apologize if you misinterpreted my own post. <--- please note smiley face = no anger. Besides, I'll be sending Halcyon Way, A Lower Deep, and perhaps Theocracy out your way in 2008 - so we'll need booking and promotional help from you when that happens.
