There are several benchmarks to cover, which if done properly can guarantee that you will reach maximum exposure to your potential audience.

Lifestyles

In order to determine to whom you will promote your concert production think lifestyles.

To give you an idea; if you are presenting an act that will appeal to children, you will approach your marketing different than if you were promoting to adults. Likewise, if you are promoting a specific act in the genre of reggae or hippie music, you will focus on marketing to an audience that will have a lifestyle that one can assume a hippie would lead. Similarly, if you are promoting a smooth Jazz act, you will need to think about the lifestyles that people who would listen to smooth Jazz might live.

Lifestyles and music genres are sometimes great indicators of where to focus your marketing effort. Reggae=Head Shop vs. Smooth Jazz=Borders Books.

While Israel may be the main connector in any show you are planning on producing, obviously lifestyles should include the local Jewish community center, temple, kosher deli etc. Get your posters and flyers to any lifestyle location that makes sense. Canvasing your community in a more well thought out way, helps you focus your time an energy where it will matter most. More importantly- get your street team to do the canvassing!

Building a Press Release

If you are going to create a buzz around your event, you would be wise to generate a press release.

While a press release implies that you are creating a notice for press and media – a press release can be for anybody that has wider access to the public. If the local Rabbi or Jewish Day School Principal were to receive a press release, chances are they would be able to communicate to their affiliates and their “target audiences” the message you wish to convey. Coming from taste makers and community leaders will carry more weight than if you were to stand up in temple during Shabbat services and yell to the congregation that you are putting on a Israeli rock and roll party. Let the Rabbi do that!

A press release needs to have a hook at the beginning – clear and concise information about the engagement at the top of the page, a few quotes from the artist or critics, and should never exceed one page.

Think elevator pitch. Think: Beginning, Middle and End.

Guerrilla Marketing

The more creative you become in your marketing approach, the more likely you will be able to reach a critical capacity of awareness and genuine “buzz” about the show you are putting on.

Canvassing your community with e-vites, facebook event pages, and flyers is only the beginning.

Guerrilla Marketing, is defined as anything outside of the box. For example – if you can manage to get a hold of your buddy’s pick up truck and throw a few sub woofers in the bed of his ride, and perhaps create a few huge and eccentric posters advertising the concert you are promoting, then drive up and down the busiest street in your town, blasting the artists’ music – this is an example of g-marketing that takes your message to the street.

Likewise – if you can get a street team and e-team together in order to create targeted canvassing of competitive events – for example: Adam Sandler is doing a night of stand up in your city a few weeks before your concert- it wouldn’t be a bad idea to go to his performance and have your team stand outside as they are leaving and hand out flyers. It is safe to say that a good amount of people from the community might be going to see Adam perform, why not get your Israeli’s act on their radar at the same time?

Also, getting known individuals or public figures to announce their intention of coming to your event, is another great way to create the buzz about your event. If a local hero or radio dj talk about your show to their friends and their fans, you have just earned yourself free and successful PR.

Take a piece of paper and sit down with your team and brainstorm your own ideas, or feel free to use the ones mentioned above, either way, your ability to do the unexpected will earn you higher marketing profile and crowd turn out.

Advanced Phoners

Advancing a performance is typically overlooked by many promoters when looking to impact the community. Almost all artists are willing and even enthusiastic about giving you as much support as possible when it comes to promoting their show.

Organizing a string of features, interviews (with local newspapers, and radio dj’s) will give you an edge on two fronts: For starters, hitting the mass media and airwaves will generate a much larger scope of awareness and buzz about your event. Many potential concert-goers look at the media to tell them about “whats worthwhile” paying money to see- Also, by giving a radio DJ a personal phone interview with the artist who will be coming to perform in your community, you are actually creating a bond between that radio station and the artist, where they are much more likely to get behind the promotion of the performance.

It is always good to prep the artist on key talking points to cover in any advance phone interview. Often times, promoters will wait until the act/band is already in town to organize the interview, but by then its already too late- because chances are that the promotional value of that interview will only air/run after the artist has already left town, which doesn’t do you any good.

Indie Record Shops

What used to be a more common thing in every major city and town, now less prevalent – Indie Record Shops’ are a great place to get the word out about your upcoming concert. You can organize a display and posters near the register of such establishment – as this is an obvious location where fans of music and those open to new bands are most likely be prone to check out what you have to offer. You can also offer an enter to win box near the entrance of these shops – as a barter deal. (Enter to win tickets to the event/or free Music etc.)

Target Marketing

Target Marketing to your obvious and niche audience base is critical to obtain the best turn for any Israeli act you will be promoting. It’s always good to do a brainstorm session in order to come up with as many target markets as possible, see the example below.

Example: 

To be sure, spend some time doing research about the kinds of audience the music will attract – to think “lets focus on the Jewish community” is still too broad. Target marketing can be much more dynamic then profiling your audience based on general stereo types- eg. they are Jewish, they will love anything from Israel. If you are promoting a heavy rock band, but they perform the most lovely ballad acoustic ballad during their live set – take this single song, and push it to the 30-40-something female demographic as this could be the right hook to get them in the door.

Cross Promoting 

Cross Promoting, using various techniques which harness like minded brands is a great way to promote your concert event, but also generate sponsorship or at the very least reduce your costs.

The idea is simple: you are bringing a brand (act) to perform for a target audience which some commercial product or media entity would love to be associated with. Examples of both can be: He-Brew Beer, Max’s Deli, The Jewish Weekly, Red Bull, etc.

If you are good at creating the causal connection for the CEO, marketing director of the company or editor of the paper which you are approaching as to why your Israeli act is good for their product and how they can benefit from being associated with your concert, you are likely to get free publicity, or in kind support (like free swag), or hard money for logo rights, or pre-sales for a block price of tickets by that company to give to their employees. It’s your job to be creative – the crazier the cross promotion is, the more likely it will work!