Being a Promoter vs. a Marketer

What has changed in the world going from analog to digital media?

What really is the difference between the two? What has changed in the world going from analog to digital media? What is our strategy in trying to successfully reach our audiences? Of course, the answer is we need a bit of both promoter AND marketer, hustler AND data scientist, as well as a whole lot of intelligence on where people’s attention is today. But for the moment, let’s really examine what a promoter mentality is in live entertainment.

Back in the day when I started putting on shows (yes, before the internet, kids) the single most effective way to find a new audience was gorilla marketing. It was classic “targeting” an audience and “geo-fencing” in an old-school way. I wanted the people in the East Village who walked near CBGB’s, Tompkins Park and down St. Mark’s cluster of record stores (those were retail establishments that only sold Vinyl--big black discs with artwork, I know, they are hip again after 30 years). So, like many of my fellow promoters, we would compete for eyeballs wheat -pasting posters on telephone poles, mail boxes, and street corners very competitively. The most active corners in NYC might have people covering your posters within 30 minutes, Professional snipers from the big clubs would always win. But us indi pushers of music or dance or art would be sneaky. Regardless, the messaging had to be good to capture peoples ATTENTION.

For me managing the unknown band from Wisconsin, Swamp Thing in 1985, releasing their music, trying to get them gigs and putting posters up on anything that didn’t move, I was doing what I could to convince new audiences to come see the band at 8BC or the Peppermint Lounge. The measurement of success was clear, how many tickets can I sell to a show. I did the same thing when I opened the Knitting Factory a few years later, and would add postcards placed on every coffee shop counter, record store check-out, and handed out to audiences exiting a competitive show. The instinct was to target an audience and get their attention. The measurement was simple, sell them a ticket to a show. Targeted marketing was the technique, not the result. All I cared about was the sale. The promoter in me would use any means necessary to get the tickets sold. Piss off my fellow club owners by putting postcards at Wetlands, Irving Plaza, etc. They did it right back to us (remember Pete!). Then, could we capture home mailing addresses to send by snail mail our calendar--yes. Develop a brand, create a dedicated fan base, create momentum. But the core was to find where people looked for similar shows.

While not where the attention is today, at 11pm on Tuesday evening in the 80’s NYC, the Village Voice, a weekly paper would get distributed around town. The newsstand on 7^th avenue and Waverly was usually the first drop of the 200,000 copies the paper printed. 50 ravenous music fans would wait for the drop, pay the $1 (eventually in the 90’s the few weeklies that remained went free and by 2000, almost all papers around the country had disappeared). But on Wednesday morning, you knew what band would be playing what venue and many would go and try and buy advance tickets if they could. Others would just be in the know and line up at the venue for that week’s show. No email, no websites, no bandsintown.com telling you when your fav is playing, no search, insta ads, no algos, just reading about it, hearing about it, and word of mouth to sell out a show. It was hard, but the shows that were promoted well, sold well; those just marketed, they languished!

A promoter cares about the end result--the sale of a ticket. A marketer wants the perfect photo from a photoshoot, then A/B test which is more appealing to an audience, then spend time with graphic design arguing over copy, until they have the “perfect” advertisement or social media posting. A promoter skips over all of that and figures out where people’s attention is and communicates a sense of urgency to get them the product they are selling. I’m being dramatic because clearly, what we really want is a bit of both. An extraordinary piece of collateral material, the best possible ROI on it getting the attention of the audience we want, and selling out a show. But the key is word is selling. We don’t market to market. We market to sell.

To me, a promoter uses marketing as a tool, but ultimately, feels the responsibility of making the sale. Live Nation, AEG, Bill Graham and PT Barnum are thought of as promoters, they do what it takes to sell tickets and form a bond with their consumers. Big wine companies or any product driven organizations have large sales teams, where sales drives marketing. Marketing is thus, a tool of a promoter, more scientific perhaps, analytic, and strategic. Obviously, data and these tools are useful, but unless it is accomplishing the goal of sales, focusing on strategy and brand can be distracting and in some people’s case, missing the point—the old missing the forest for the trees.”

If our marketing people are not checking ticket sales every few hours—then they are not obsessing enough on their ROI. If we don’t observe what the 15-second radio spot, which cost $500 at 1:15pm that is supposed to reach 50,000 people does, and we don’t see a blip of tickets sold at 1:20, we are not doing our job. We can’t only rely on google analytics to give us ROAS results, but not fully comprehend the importance of the tickets sold over a break-even point, we then are missing the point of our job.

For our marketers, we need them not to check marketing boxes, but to think about the specific need of the product or show we are selling, what is the show deal or terms, and what then is the most effective way to find the attention of our existing and new audiences for the most economic sound investment.

Yes, I think today’s marketing in a digital-world shares much with yesterdays in an analog-world. It requires instinct and intuition as much as it does data science. It is about having a good product, one that your proud to promote and tell every single person you encounter about. It’s about hard work and it’s still about sales.