How Music Works: MCD's Colm Hanley on PR for large-scale events

In How Music Works, Niall Byrne talks to those who make a living in the Irish music industry about their job. This week: we talk to the man behind the press release, Colm Hanley, senior publicist with MCD Productions.

It's crunch time. Longitude Festival is about to take place for the third year in the leafy Marlay Park, a suburban greenspace south of the city in Rathfarnham. Having previously hosted the likes of Kraftwerk, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Haim, Massive Attack and Vampire Weekend, this year's festival takes place this weekend across four stages with Hozier, Alt-J, Caribou and Chemical Brothers among the headliners.

For Colm Hanley, MCD's senior publicist, it's just another large scale event among the many he works on, often simultaneously. “It definitely takes some getting used to. Time management is crucial,” Hanley says.

“Sometimes the schedule can be quite exhausting and hectic when you’ve a long run of shows together or when you put everything you have into a campaign and it doesn’t sell out it can be a little disappointing because ultimately that’s the end goal for every show but it can also be a good motivator for the next time to step it up a gear.”

As for his role in Longitude, most of the work happens in the lead up to ensure the tickets are sold, hype is built, media is utilised and public safety information is available. When we speak, the festival is a few days away and nearly ready to host thousands of people.

“Today I'm preparing a site tour for the media to give them a sneak peak of what to expect when gates open on Friday,” explains Hanley. “On top of that it's really about keeping the buzz going to sell the remaining few tickets: getting radio stations to play the songs from the acts, talking about the festival and pushing the hype.”

Once the festival starts, Hanley has various responsibilities.

“I oversee the whole PR aspect of the festival from liaising with our festival photographers and video crews to get the best shots, ensuring important messages are issued through our social media channels, making sure media in attendance are enjoying themselves and handling any queries they may have over the weekend.”

Longitude is just one of many productions that MCD will manage in any given year and Hanley says the pressure to make an impact on a large-scale show is the key difference between say, The Script at Croke Park and Jessie Ware at The Academy.

“The acts are obviously more well known [with larger shows] so you want to sell well from the get go,” says Hanley. “These days with social media, news is so quick so you need to plan everything carefully, make sure it stays at the forefront of people's minds to buy tickets or it will get lost.

“I’d look at social media a lot, particularly Twitter to see the immediate reaction to a new show announcement. Radio play is also a big factor which I’d keep an eye on – what stations are playing what band, which songs are the most popular. I always like to check in with radio stations when running promotions too to see what the reaction was like from listeners. That can help a lot when planning campaigns further down the line.”

Hanley studied Media in Ballyfermot College of Further Education and at the same time, he got involved in Dublin City FM, a station which his father manages. Radio paved the way for his career to come, hosting live studio sessions and interviews with bands. He still hosts Stadium Saturdays on the station every weekend (though it's on a break for the summer).

His PR break came while interning for Rubyworks, a label with close ties to MCD. Hanley was encouraged by Sabrina Sheehan, who worked for MCD at the time (who now runs Mission PR).

“When I started with Dublin City FM, she was always very supportive and sent a lot of band interviews my way for the show, which was great for a 20 year-old presenting his first shows on local radio.”

Hanley met with Fin O'Leary, one of MCD's main bookers and was soon working on shows, the first of his own of which, were Buck 65 at The Hub and Bill Callahan at The Village.

“I started at the beginning of summer which was great because it was right at the start of festival season so I got to help out on big shows and get a real flavour of what was involved.”

Eight years later, and Hanley is now the senior publicist and has overseen campaigns for concerts and festivals including Oxegen, One Direction, Madonna, Slash, Eminem, Arcade Fire, Kings of Leon, Bon Jovi and Rihanna.

As for his proudest moment so far, Hanley fittingly picks a local hometown success story that took place only last month.

“It would probably have to say The Script selling out Croke Park. I have worked on their live show PR campaigns for MCD since they started in The Sugar Club so to hear that show, their biggest ever, sold out within a few hours was great.”