How not to brand a gig
Jim Carroll
Nialler was at the Go! Team’s gig in Tripod the other night. He was working with the excellent Super Extra Bonus Party doing the visuals. It was a Nokia Trends Lab hooley.
Now read what happened next. Here’s one excerpt which is going to look just fantastic in the PR file:
Twats in boiler suits hassling everyone coming in about Trends Lab with the greeting “Join our Experiment”. They may as well have said “Join our Mobile Phone Cult, mere mortals!”. Loads of cringeworthy footage between acts consisting of bands roped into talking about how great their Nokias are and how they use it interspersed with a call to text to win a phone at the gig. Does anyone in Nokia PR/Marketing understand how annoying this is for regular Joes and Janes? Do they honestly think that people are going to walk away from the gig going “Yeh, Nokia and the Go! Team, what a great partnership. Nokia kick ass!” WHAT THE FUCK?
Remember that Nialler and his mates are probably the target audience that the marketing people are telling Nokia that shows like this will reach.
Of course we have been here before (see number 5 here). Idiots from marketing departments just never learn, do they? It makes you wonder just what horrors are in store when Harvest Entertainment go to work. You thought record labels were bad? Wait till Nokia Trends Lab have their way.
By the by, this isn’t the first time I’ve heard comments about the heavy-handed and power-tripping Tripod lads and lasses either.
There appears to be a general air of “fuck you”-ness from everyone that works there apart from the bar staff.
Of Montreal played the last one in Crawdaddy. It wasn’t so bad but then again they were giving out vials and vials of horrible orange sweets.You’d think someone would have stopped for minute and thought “hey maybe dressing people up in boilersuits isn’t such a good idea”.Was it not enough just to brand the event?
as I said in Nialler’s comments — at least it’s not as bad as Bud Rising, where they shut down the taps and force us punters to drink their horrible pee-beer.
Those sweets were lovely. I ate swathes of them at Crawdaddy.
I bought a Sony-Eriksson shortly afterwards.
I think this will explain what happens when taste consultants are ignored:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cGSn5Um0zI
We were approached three times by the boiler suit people, within 5 minutes of arriving… if I wanted this on a night out I’d just hang around Dundrum Town Centre. Very annoying.
The Go! Team were fantastic though! Bizarrely, a large number of people upstairs (right in the centre) remained in their seats for the whole set. I tried to spot foot tapping or any sort of reaction …. one guy in a sea of motionless bodies was bobbing his head. Maybe they all got free tickets with their really expensive mobile phones..
There should only be such branding at a gig if the tickets and booze are free. Otherwise, there’s not much of an excuse for it.
There should only be such branding at a gig if the tickets and booze are free. Otherwise, there’s not much of an excuse for it.
I dunno about the booze but on the tickets, there definitely should be a subsidy. Getting all the Nokia money then charging €30 for the tickets is a joke.
That’s the one thing which always irks me about these branded shows – if the sponsor is paying through the nose, why are the ticket prices for these shows as high as every other show?
Jim, have you met any of the local promoters?
I think you already know the answer to your question.
the thing is, markg, if the brands and the sponsors were really out to play nice with the fans, they’d insist that their sponsorship money went to cutting the price of the tickets instead of on boiler suits and the like. But no, the sponsors only care about the brand presence of the night and to hell with the paying fans
[i]Bizarrely, a large number of people upstairs (right in the centre) remained in their seats for the whole set. I tried to spot foot tapping or any sort of reaction …. one guy in a sea of motionless bodies was bobbing his head. Maybe they all got free tickets with their really expensive mobile phones..[/i]
Maybe they were the taste makers who keep sticking this remarkably over-rated act on the Today FM playlist?
True fact that guestlist have to go up on the balcony so it was a possibility.
I don’t actually know what their target market is Jim, It’s certainly not me. I’m not wowed by jelly beans in test tubes, phone ads and the aforemented twats. But they probably think I am. I am 25 not 5.
You are right Jim, and I whole-heartedly agree that there is the good way of doing these events and the bad way.
Yes, the best way to make punters feel warm and fuzzy about the brand is not to charge them for a heavily subsidised gig. The more it is made to seem like an exclusive event rather then a gig sponsored by a global brand at a slightly above the odds price, the greater the chances of a punter viewing said brand favourably in the future.
There have been some really good, well planned, well thought out and sponsored gigs over the couple of years. Both from the punters and the brand’s perspective.
Of late, though, they seem to be falling into the make the logo bigger category.
Maybe they just paid in like everyone else and like to enjoy their music that way? Just because you choose to remain in your seat does not mean you didn’t enjoy it. Oh of course, you couldn’t possibly be enjoying the gig unless you are p***ed drunk, leaping around and annoying everybody else who has forked out good money as well.
Fair enough, Brian… there just seemed to be an unusual number of people sitting very still with that amount of – what I thought was infectious – energy on stage.
Btw, in the name of balance, there was a very nice and helpful girl on the door (not trying to bluetooth me with anything).
Bands,Artists will make a choice to play branded events and some actually seek out those events as they usually pay well over the odds,see calvin harris playing anything other than branded events in Irealnd over the last 6 months?
Some won’t and some will stop skirting around the issue…As far as i know Morrisey,Radiohead and a very select few are not willing to let sponsorship be a part of the image they have created whereas nearly all others are and really don’t give a toss how the show is branded.
If you go to a NOKIA show expect branding and stop complaining.
Just on the subject of how to brand a gig:
2fm 2moro 2our. I wasn’t at any of the other shows except for 2day’s (*groan*), all-ages show at The Village. One pamphlet outlining the performers (Ham Sandwich, superb Concerto for Constantine and David Geraghty), two well-known radio personalities and…that’s it.
No irritating backdrops, boiler suits, sweeties. The only gimmick was free admission. The venue was packed and everyone had a blinding time. No need for agressive advertising when you treat your audience with respect…2fm’s audience has probably broadened in one fell swoop.
/end 2 cents.
“If you go to a NOKIA show expect branding and stop complaining.”
I booked to see a band perform live, I didn’t book to go to a “Nokia show”.
And just for CJ: Calvin Harris performed a massive show at UCD on Friday. Not a label in sight!
Fair enough..my bad