2010 June » Shagtastic Voyage

Recently, a regional fast food restaurant joined forces with a local Christian radio station and launched what I consider to be one of the smartest marketing campaigns I have ever seen. Now, I’m sure this is not the first time this tactic has been used but I know that down in the Bible Belt, in a town with boatloads of cash, and with a restaurant that closes on Sunday (that’s a big deal around here), this is a guaranteed WIN. If musicians find a way to adapt this, I think it can work for us, too.

So, here’s the deal-

The local Christian radio station posted a “note” on their website in pdf format. You print it out and hand it to the drive

thru teller at the fast food place. This certificate tells the teller that you are paying (yes, paying) for the car behind you. The cashier then hands that piece of paper to the car behind you which explains why they got a free meal and about the radio station. It encourages them to call into the radio station and record a response to what happened.

So let’s analyze this, shall we?

1- The restaurant is advertised on a local radio station with a pretty large audience.

2- The restaurant gives away nothing! There are no discounts, promotional merchandise, or anything. All, as in 100%, of their profit margin is intact.

3- Patrons as well as non regulars will go there (if not to pay for someone else) in the hopes that the car in front of them will pay their way. So, the chance that sales will increase during this promotion is pretty much 100%!

4- The radio station has their name, call letters, and phone number handed to someone who just got free food.

5- The note welcomes them to call the station and share the experience. Thus, initiating interaction.

In theory, this is a homerun in the marketing world. It’s the result of a comprehensive understanding and near perfect execution of demographic and geographic targeting. I can’t wait to see and share the results.

I’m working on adapting this for musicians. If you have any ideas, comment them.

A few weeks ago, I decided to start a new Myspace page. The old one, due to some really odd coincidences, will be lost forever as soon as Chrome forgets my log in info. So, even though I seldom check MS, I decided it is a necessary evil and started anew. Anyhow, while I was perusing my other Myspace page’s friends to see who I wanted to ad, I came across a cat that I didn’t know about. A saxophonist out of my old stomping grounds, Atlanta, named Mace Hibbard. Intrigued, I decided to check him out.

Turns out, he, not too long ago, released an album called When Last We Met (2007) and has several of the tracks on his page. To be honest, I was suprised. It’s not often you come across really good music on a Myspace page.

Turns out Mace has a pretty nice career going for him. He is an adjunct at Georgia State and has played and arranged for a lot of cool cats including Derek Trucks- who won a grammy for the album Hibbard played on and arranged for.

The line up for When Last We Met includes Louis Heriveaux on piano, Bryan Leitch on guitar, Marc Miller on bass, and Justin Varnes on drums.

Check out Hibbard’s official site for mroe info.

The last three years of my life has been kind of crazy. Rewind 30 or so months and I’m living in my dream town (which I still daydream of) and working hard at writing and playing music so I could make a little bread. Of course, I was also climbing up and down six flights of stairs for eight hours a day making sure guitars were properly placed and accounted for. Life was pretty close to exactly how I thought I wanted it. Now, present day…

As I type this, I lay in bed with my wife to my right, my dog at my feet and a video monitor blaring in the darknes. The feed is from my son’s room. My boy, now pushing 15 months of age has been asleep for hours an is oblivious to the fact that I can’t take my eyes off of him. He is so beautiful.

Since his birth, I have become a better person. I thought I knew what it meant to love but I had no clue. I thought that geography defined me but I was wrong.

I found out that what we are known for isn’t where we live or how nice our house is. It has nothing to do with our accomplishments or collections. It all comes down to how we affect the people around us. Do we lift them up? Do we encourage them to be whatever they want to be? Can they come to us when they feel their world is ending?

My father died when I was really young so I can’t really remember much about him. What I do remember, though, is pretty great. I know I loved him. So, I guess that means he did his job. I didn’t get to talk to him about girls or bullies and he didn’t have a chance to teach me how to fight or shave but I will never forget him. I will always remember one fishing trip where my foot got stuck in the mud and my shoe was almost lost forever and I will never forget a single helicopter ride and him chasing me around a car because I was too scared to get in. I don’t have many more memories of him and I don’t remember his smell or his voice but I still miss him. I know, too, that if he was alive that he would have been there for all those moments where I didn’t know what to do and my mom didn’t know what to say.

So, I guess that’s my goal- To be there when my son needs someone. When his life crumbles, I have to help him rebuild. When he’s ready to shave, I need to show him. I need him to know that I would do anything to do all of that with him. He has to know that he means the world to me. If I can’t be there, though, if I die tomorrow, I hope he knows how much I loved him and my prayer is that he remembers me like I remember my dad.

Ahhhhh, the quest to fund an album! The days of record labels and development deals are gone, as we all know. As The Gunslinger, Roland, would say, the world has moved on. So, I have been searching for a way to raise money for my upcoming album. I really like the Artist Share approach but I don’t have the fan base to be accepted into their program. I, of course, have been mulling over the DIY micro-patronage plan but I didn’t want people to be leery of PayPal or Google Checkout and not participate. I even contacted Jason Parker (who gave great advice, by the way) and picked his brain a little on the subject.I decided the best way for me to do this is to go through a really cool site called KickStarter.

Kickstarter allows you to host your project and offer rewards for people who donate. It’s basically the security of an Artist Share project and the freedom of a micro-patronage program. The only catch is, the project has to be completely funded before any money is collected. So, if you have a $1000.00 goal (mine is $1,750) but only $900 is pledged by the closing date, no one is charged and no funding is completed. Yup, it’s all or nothing.

Therefore, I need all you guys to help out! You can pledge as little as five bucks and that will get you a digital copy a whole week early! And the higher you go, the cooler the stuff gets! You can’t beat that with a double bass! It only takes a sec, too.

Here, I’ll make it even easier…

Thanks in advance to anyone who chooses to pledge. Just know that even the smallest contribution is greatly appreciated.

Shagtastic Voyage

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Being a Dad (JE #4)

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