Guerilla marketing - hints and a request

[Angstrom]

Hey,
anyone got any tips/books on guerilla marketing. The current crop of 'how to promote music' pundits are way too entranced by the web and seem to have forgotten that the way that any promotion actually works. IE - through attention grabbing.

I know a few social manipulation tricks myself, but I remain amazed how little is applied to the music industry.
When people market a band they choose to do it with fewer tools than any other product would use. Yes I said product. Music promotion is like a little mental ghetto of 'acceptable practices' making videos, having a myspace page, sending out newsletters, etc. Yawn.
In the wider world there are lots of powerful promotion methods that have been around for years.

EG: Companies often implant themselves onto national news to talk about a 'survey' that touches on recent and controversial topics. The surveys are usually about house prices, dating, or mortgage deals. And sure enough the survey company rep comes on to talk and he seems to favour using certain products as a way of avoiding House-AIDS, or eternal loneliness , or whatever. He tricks people into remembering http://www.house-aids.c0m and his evil work is done, in 2 minutes.

Now I know that's not exactly going to work for a band, but it shows the shallowness of the music promotion toolkit that there is no equivalent. I know musicians don't usually consider themselves marketable products, but they are, and better overall public recognition is powerful thing.
A friend of mine got a brief spot on UK national TV and immediately saw their usual appearance rate multiply by ten, has been booked solid for about 2 years, and is always put up in the nicest hotels, driven to gigs, etc. This person is less talented than many of their peers. But that's the way the biz is. Does anyone rally think Moby deserves all that money off those adverts? A little promotion goes a long way.

So, does anyone know of marketing books that deal with these kind of media manipulations and social engineering as they might relate to the entertainment industry.
Recommendations welcome.

[gjm]

Seth Godin's 'Purple Cow' book is an interesting read. http://www.sethgodin.com/sg/books.asp Not specific to entertainment industry, but that could come from your unique spin.

[gjm]

Actually, maybe his 'Meatball Sundae' book is better.

[longjohns]

made me think of this radio spot which was on our local station this past week

http://www.kuow.org/program.php?id=17770

not really on topic, but related. he was making statements more against "viral marketing" - saying that almost none of it actually works. also discussed was ditching 'viral' for something less passive

his point was that people don't want to be involved in someone else's marketing. so the campaigns which are the most successful at spreading are those which are extremely subtle - at which point it becomes questionaable how effective it is as marketing

[mikemc]

http://www.sivers.org has a lot of music-specific guerilla-type marketing advice.

[gjm]

^^ Interesting.

Random thoughts ahoy. Although I have not been involved in marketing music or a band, I have (tried) marketed services, and am watching some interesting happenings with my wife's endeavors. Her latest 'market presence' has come from happy coincidence. Her product was placed in a premier magazine simply because she was googled. But the thing is she had no idea that her products perceived point of difference what so valuable. Its not that her products are hand made or use organic ingredients (current buzz), but that they are palm oil free, or use palm oil from a rain forrest alliance. Point being that milage has been gotten not from the actual product but from an aspect of an ingredient. In more ways than one, I am certain that current effective marketing almost has nothing to do with the actual product itself.

From a band or music perspective, I wonder if there is room to change the perception of what needs to be marketed, almost as if the band or the music is secondary. I suppose all the usual things still apply like branding, web presence, gigging etc but its almost as if you need to presented to the market place for something else other than actual music.... "and did I mention I am in a band..."

like I say, just some running thoughts....

[Angstrom]

Thanks for the Sivers link, I've seen that before but forgot about it.

In more ways than one, I am certain that current effective marketing almost has nothing to do with the actual product itself.

From a band or music perspective, I wonder if there is room to change the perception of what needs to be marketed, almost as if the band or the music is secondary.

yes, I agree.
And contrary to longjohns post I think that viral is actually what needs to be aimed for, but you must understand a few things to get it right.
think of this:
A video. a bear is fishing in a river, a man runs up wearing yellow waders and starts fighting with the bear. the bear stands up and starts comically boxing with the fisherman. The bear kicks the man in the shins and the fisherman hops around.

Now think of a company name.
That's what virals are for, brand name recognition. I can't say I ever bought salmon in a tin because of it (bleargh!), but I can remember the ad and the brand name. That has value for that company, because I cannot think of any other tinned salmon companies.

the ad isn't 'about salmon' or the relative merits, in fact it's only obliquely related to fishing. But that's not the point - the video has legs. It has social currency in its own right. Like a one-liner.

How to concoct a story
Here's a more recent example, one which could be better adapted for our use:
A girl with stars tattooed all over her face, she says she fell asleep after asking for one small star. laughter/outrage ensues!
in case you don't know it - story here

A small point about that story, I saw a quote from the tattooist involved. He was asked - are you sorry you ever saw this girl? He replied - "No way, this has been incredible for my shop, I've had so much publicity!"
Because, of course, he is now the most notorious tattoo shop in Belgium. Possibly in Europe!
Of course worried mothers will remain outraged, but they were never his market - to casual 'bad boy' tattoo fans this guy is now the shop to visit

Now imagine that the star faced girl was in on this, that the girl is a friend. Imagine that they cooked this up for a laugh and she phoned it in to the local newspaper thinking it might get a few lines on page 12. Despite the obvious holes in the story - it has 'legs'. It has everything a news editor wants in a story. Outrage, a good image to use. etc.
Gold-dust. In fact, news editors will happily edit it to conform to the stereotype of a 'good story'

This story is the best ever advert for the pictured tat shop!


A suggestion on how to do this
Let's say you music is 'bad boy' in nature.
Sometime soon - a friend of yours is up in court for reckless driving, or similar, they crashed into a parked car or something trivial.
You concoct a story that his defense is 'I drove like a mad person because I was listening to "Bad Boy Music" '
Through a third party you inform the local paper "evil music drives local boy into kill-driving frenzy", provide an image of a crumpled car and your purp friend holding up your evil CD. You cannot do this yourself. Repeat: You cannot phone the paper. It has to be your purp friend or the 'owner of the car'.

This appeals to the delusion that 'bad music' / video games/ etc can influence behaviour. Reactionary news editors love this stuff - OMG an illustration of my prejudices !!11!!
They will run with it, and once one paper does then all the other follow, because they are too lazy to fact check.

I have a few other examples/suggestions, but this is already tl;dr

[forge]

pictured tat shop!

Jules Clocher, a Belgian psychologist, said: 'The trauma this girl must be feeling is indescribable. She feels like a circus freak - and no wonder, because she looks like one.'

BAHAHAHAHA

A suggestion on how to do this
Let's say you music is 'bad boy' in nature.
Sometime soon - a friend of yours is up in court for reckless driving, or similar, they crashed into a parked car or something trivial.
You concoct a story that his defense is 'I drove like a mad person because I was listening to "Bad Boy Music" '

I have a friend who got off on a drug charge in a very similar way

[oblique strategies]

You could look to the film industry as a source of inspiration, particularly exploitation & Independent films.

Nothing like being "Banned in 13 countries!!!" to drive people into the theaters!

[Angstrom]

I think my main problem is that my current crop of music has no handle.
very hard to justify why exactly some non-lyrical ambient breaks (or whatever) got banned in 13 countries.
offensive snare patterns?

I think this is a primary problem. there needs to be a handle for people to grab the 'story' by.

whether it's naughty banned lyrics, lead singer makes drunken pass at Michelle Obama, entire band molested by priests, amnesiac man starts band - can only remember lyrics but nothing else, songwriter comes back from grave with 10 new 'de-compositions' about how jesus is a douche

I just can't quite put my finger on the right story.
I think the best story is one that polarises people into those that you want, who could potentially be into you, and those who you need to dislike you (they will drive the others your way).
EG: "This evil music makes people want to fuck all day .. it must be stopped in the name of Jesus!"

[djsynchro]

You can only sell people what they want. You could have something new, and they don't know it exists, so then you need to show them, but at the end of the day they will only buy it if they want it. And to turn that around: If you have something that people want you'll be able to sell it, and there's a whole lot of ways you can do it and ultimately it won't matter. If I show you an APC40 dropping out of a flying saucer or on a nerdy YouTube video or you go into your music shop one day and they have it, either you will want it or not.

Marketing is not selling what you make, it is making what sells.

[oblique strategies]

Marketing is not selling what you make, it is making what sells.

[djsynchro]

Auw!

[djsynchro]

Disconnect from desire

[djsynchro]

Emphasize the flaws