Creative Solutions to Getting Noticed in Music
Katharina Scholtz
Biting off a bat's head just won't get you the publicity it used to. It obviously helps if you can shred better than The Great Kat (no, that isn't me), but even the biggest bands have to work on overdrive to stay in the public eye.
Keeping with our mix of South African flavour and a dash of the globe (and hinting at our next brief) I decided to check out what creative things bands have been doing to get themselves noticed, here's what I found:
aKing are a Bellville based rock band made up of Laudo Liebenberg, Hunter Kennedy, Hennie Van Halen and Snakehead Venter (hot names guys). They brought together some artists and designers to design limited edition band t-shirts - an excellent evolution in band merchandise. You can learn more about the shirts here. (**Update: While aKing were involved in conceptualising the range, the intiative was developed and executed by Pierre Coetzee & Brendan Sterley, who are the Project Managers / Creative Directors of the aKing Limited edition brand. I'm looking forward to some more great stuff from these guys).
Well loved local band SugarDrive have set up a site where fans can share their favourite memories involving the band. The top voted stories will win "the ultimate fan experience". It's a cute idea that works well for a band with as loyal a following as Sugardrive.
Not that Radiohead have to do much to get themselves noticed, but this excellent music video made with "geometric informatics" (bleh) certainly got them some headlines.
The Grid, a location based social network you can access via your phone, did some interviews with local artists in Soweto outside Johannesburg. Senyaka, Vikinduku and Hempza, local musicians, got involved in the short video clips that users can download and watch on their phones.
Mobikasi Promo Video from Cow Africa on Vimeo.
Earlier this year iGoogle commissioned a range of artists to design their own iGoogle themes. Coldplay was one of the bands chosen to do this, and they came up with the nifty designs below.
British Indie band Hamfatter (yes, that's really their name) went on a reality show called The Dragon's Den to promise away 30% of their future royalties for a 75 000 pound investment. I feel honour-bound to point out that reviews say their music is, well, crap (Matt seems to agree with this). Whether the stunt was a good move given they need that 'oh so not mainstream' Indie thing to work for them is debatable, but it certainly got them noticed.
And finally, while this is maybe not strictly related, I thought it was so rad it has to be shared. Lastminute.com set up this random musical performance at London Stansted Airport to advertise their discounted theatre tickets. My favourite moment is the shot of the angry guy who just wants to read his paper.
Comments
Thanks Duncan. They have a really nice site too. If anyone from the band wants to throw some info my way that would be nice
matt@ideabounty.com
Hey! Thanks for mentioning our Sugardrive competition. It's a little idea I had because I'm a huge fan and I wanted to tell my story about the band.
It's very hard to promote music in any conventional ways, so we have to come up with small but effective ideas.
Cheers
Paul
No problem Paul, I enjoyed reading the stories. Simple and unconventional ideas definitely prove effective. Well done. :)
u43ctc Thanks for good post
Hey, you have a great blog here! I'm definitely going to bookmark you!
Taxi Violence ran a cleverly integrated marketting drive in conjunction with sponsors 24.com at last year's Up The Creek Fest (this year's creek about to crack, get your lilos!)
They ran a competition allowing fans dare them. apart from the obvious requests that they play naked and do pole dances, the actual winners asked them to swap instruments and do a cover. (taxi never do covers). they did so at the Creek, with louis on guitar, former bassist loedi van renen on mic, rian on bass, and george on sticks, they covered a renowned rock anthem. the winning fans spent the weekend wallowing in the creek waters with them, and imbibing lots of alcohol. obviously.
a great way to connect sponsors, fans and the music, and it offered audiences a new perspective on Taxi Violence's sense of committment to their fans .. and their sense of humour!
Cape Town feel-good rockers THE PLASTICS embarked on a "novel" means of promotion (at a time when they were unknown beyond their bedrooms), by printing up a professionallly produced EP (good enough to be racked in shops, that kind of quality) and simply leaving piles of them all over the place for people to help themselves to. The result? A diverse and wide-ranging fanbase of people who discovered them when they might not otherwise have and were inspired by the EP to ask questions and go find out more. I don't mean to be the voice of dissension, but
I notice that you only highlight examples from bands already well-known, with established fanbases. These bands don't really have to "do" anything to "get noticed", besides rock up. They "got noticed" thru making great tunes and playing them everywhere they could. Not much new in that methodololgy.
There is a slew of unknown "up- and-coming" (wince at that term) bands doing some REALLY creative things to get noticed. The fact that not many people have taken notice..maybe sez something for the length of our concentration spans... or lack thereof...now, what was I talking aobut again...?
T
ooh, and whilst I am it, unmissable in ALL of the examples you cite as being noteworthy, is the fact that all of these acts have a degree of label intention (indie or major) behind them, driving (funding) these innovations forward, so perhaps the caption should be not so much what bands are doing to get themselves noticed, but what their record labels are doing to get their bands noticed? In an era where the true, unreleased indie band is king and MySpace is the green kingdom. Listen closely enough and you will see and hear some REAL innovation, 100% record label free.. it is out there...
@Monsoon Excellent commentary. And fair enough a lot of these bands have some serious backing. I spent hours looking for examples - and was frustrated not to find more of small bands..but then it's worth asking why they were so tough to find. Please please share any examples you have. If the post just works as a starting point for finding some real innovation in this area I'd be pretty pleased..
@jezebel I wish I was there! Thanks for sharing.
@all you other lovely people thanks for the positive feedback!
thanks Kat,
I agree with you that finding out about new bands, however innovative they may be, is a chore. it requires a thorough knowledge of the current "hot" online places where these bands and their fans hang out (last.fm - for example - an excellent and essential online resource for discovering new bands! in agenre that you like!)
and here is the thing - as innovative as a young band may be, their campaign is not worth the Rizzla it's rolled in if people (read as: "potential fans") like yourself can't find them! Bands need to get educated on how to effectively market themselves using online resources (specifically) like last.fm and the other music discovery portals like podshow.com and them..that's also where the real innovation is...in simply using these (freely available) tools to promote yourselves.
Most bands have come up with creative ways to get noticed-take Jax Panik (http://www.myspace.com/jaxpanik) as an example-he started out online only (via mxit and myspace) but has branched out as demand for him to do live shows has grown (as with the aforementioned Z&G)...it takes some marketing savvy to get noticed thses days! but the bands seem to have it sorted. :)
The Plastics are awesome!! i heard they brimging out a new cd soon?
duncan brown on 27/11/2008
an interesting model to look at is that of Zebra & Giraffe, a local Jhb band who recorded, released and marketed a full cd recently. They have built up a very solid following and have toured the country to acclaim over the past couple months. But their following was created before they played their first gig. The first gig was at oppie koppie. http://www.zebraandgiraffe.co.za/