Marketing Metal Bands 2

In the past ive posted some other ideas of how to market your band, and because of my day job I regularly stumble accross valuable promotional and marketing ideas. I came accross thie blog by Andrei Petrik & thought I would share it as it has some great info here.

8 Lessons for marketing from heavy metal

I am always amazed every time I go see a metal band with the amount of people actually attend the concerts. That’s not the amazing part; the amazing part is realizing that metal bands are able to accomplish this with minimum or no airplay and with very little marketing budgets. Take Iron Maiden for example, for more than 2 decades they have been able to fill arenas across the planet consistently, while artists from other genres with massive marketing dollars and over saturated air play on radio and TV can barely hold it together for couple of albums. The obvious question is how do the metal bands get people to come to the shows consistently? Judging from my own experiences, minor research and analysis, there’s something that metal bands are doing right. Perhaps marketers can learn a thing or two from heavy metal and apply it to their own strategies. Here’s what the metal bands do to pack the venues, consistently.

Quality Matters
Believe it or not, successful bands spent countless hours and sacrificed a great deal to become good at what they do. Practice and sacrifice. If by some chance a band sells out a venue during their first gig and completely butchers the show, no one will come back to see them again. After all, the core product is the music. Successful bands are good at what they do and always deliver quality show. When you go see Iron Maiden or Slayer show, you know you’ll get the best out of it every time.

Give Them Something To Talk About
Even if the band plays a killer set, they’ve got to get the audience to talk about the show the next day. It could be anything from pyrotechnics to lighting, stage props to mosh-pits, or just simply playing flawlessly. The first time I saw Hatebreed for example, the next day I was telling my friends (even the ones that aren’t metal fans) about a huge circle pit the band got going.


Engage The Fans
Metal bands are great at engaging their audience. They spend time signing autographs outside the tour buses, they get the audience to sing along, and instigate mosh pits. Engaging and interacting with the fans is pivotal when building a loyal fanbase. Anyone ever attended a music festivals knows that performing bands will usually mingle with the fans and sign autographs after they’ve performed.

Build Loyalty
Metal bands that stay true to their roots, music and their fans build a loyal following. Fans that make a personal and emotional connection with bands tend to feel disappointed and frustrated when their favorite metal band “sells out”. Case in point Metallica; they lost a loyal fanbase when they released Load record that signified change in music direction. Only recently Metallica has made an attempt with Death Magnetic to lure back original fans that were with the band from Day 1. Loyal fans are the grease in gears that will prolong bands’ careers.

Scarcity Drives Demand
Another reason why some metal bands can pack each and every show is because they don’t come around too often. There are only so many times in a given time frame fans will pay to see their favorite bands. Playing too often in a given market saturates it and makes the event a commodity. Some bands strategically plan out their touring schedules and routes to ensure that there’s enough demand to fill the arena while commanding a top, yet fair dollar for the seats. Although creating artificial low supply and scarcity is unethical, but saturating the market with product or endless licensing agreements not only devalues the product and the brand, it will also eat into your margins and eventually drive down demand.

Exclusivity
Heavy Metal or any other sub-genre of Metal is not for everyone. Outsiders often dismiss it as real music because the barrier to understanding the genre is fairly large. No one but metal fans have the clearest understanding of this. For the most part they don’t really care. What they care about is the sense of exclusivity the metal bands create. Exclusivity creates a sense of community, pride and ownership.

Cross Promote
Metal bands are very effective at cross-promoting their music. Although most metal fans share similar tastes, but it is a common practice for metal bands to tour together and cross introduce fans to other bands’ music. In recent years, veteran bands such as Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Metallica have taken younger bands on the road. This introduces the young to the old and vice-versa.

Promote With No Budget
All of the methods and strategies discussed above can be accomplished with low or no marketing budget. Metal bands let the fans do all their marketing for them. Loyal and happy fans become advocates

Sa-da-kO Live - Tearing Manchester a New One

Just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone involved in the Gig we’ve just played in Manchester’s club academy, the turnout was great, the reception was warm and the other bands were pretty cool too. We hope to return to Manchester on Nov 12th at Grand Central for another truly insane metal show!

The bands we played with on sat were:




Hayabusa
A 3 piece rock/metal outfit hailing from Manchester, I personally thought that these were the best band on for the evening, without the obligatory love for us of course; the guys used a mixture of backing tracks, retro and bizarre effects to create some nice & bouncy tunes, and reminded me of a lot of early Incubus, rage against the machine stylings and old friends of ours Number One Son.
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/hayabusaband?ref=ts
http://www.myspace.com/hayabusaband



Odins Blood
Now before any gig we like to check out the bands we play with on myspace etc really just to get a feeling of how the night is going to go etc, and I have to admit I was looking forward to this band. The music is entertaining and I kind of like the angle they’ve gone for , haIling themselves as epic power metal I was expecting fun & frolics but I can’t help but feel this band take themselves a little too seriously. Check em out none the less.
http://www.facebook.com/search/?q=odins+blood&init=quick
http://www.myspace.com/odinsblood


Whats next?

Well it’s the Zombie Apocalypse of course, should be good, we seemed to have brushed away the cobwebs with the Mnchester gig and the weaponry is sharper than ever , see you in the next life scums!!

Zombies on Chapel Street & Southport Zombies

The warning signs of the next few weeks are starting to appear and the hard work we have put in is starting to come to light. the viral campaign for drakes is kicking off and after our zombie attack yesterday everyones a chatter with the happenings on facebook and on a local website called Southport GB.

Zombies in Southport and Zombies are everywhere good job the men in white suits are hear to clean it up!!

Sa-da-ko and the art of Zhang Peng

Sa-da-ko has always been about the art just as much as the music, with that in mind, every so often I stumble across some kind of art or media that strikes a chord and either inspires or makes me think that’s what our music looks like. So I’m mooching around on the internet updating my statuses etc with the usual bullshit and I stumbled across some amazing art work by a Chinese artist called Zhang Peng, I took one of the images you see below and posted it in my last blog but I thought I’d put a few more on here just to share it with you. Hope you like it......

What Does Sa-da-ko Mean?

Sa-da-ko`Sadako` is a Japanese name, used for females. Although written romanized the same way, the kanji can be different. It is comprised of the two parts `sada` and `ko`; collectively, they mean `chaste child`.Found on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sadako

SA-DA-KO AND THE DEPT OF DESIGN

I woke up this morning to the hellish screams of our cats hissing and spitting at a rogue cat who had climbed through the cat flap, not the best thing to happen with a class4 beer hangover, but ah well this sunday and so I check all the usual SN messages and catch up on few missed status updates.

Then I turn to my email and low and behold my old friend Mr Ruauri from the Dept of Design has been kind enough to send some of the touched up photographs he had done for us.

I have to admit these pictures have far exeeded any of our expectation and hes really captured what we were after, in fact if your in a band, need a graphic designer or just generally looking to have a creative mind on board with a project I would strongly recommend this guy to you, just look!!!

Sa-da-kO - Rotten Alive in Manchester

Just had a bit of good news!! Were confirmed to open for Odin’s Blood at Manchester academy on the 24th October, this will be an awesome addition do our deathly cold winter shows, very apt!!

We’ve created a number of various events on the on the SN tree, keep your eyes peeled, Tickets can be bought either from the band, or be clicking this well know saying…

“I like metal so much I would stab my Nan just so I can see Sa-da-ko Live in its rotten flesh”

The Day we all Die

Ive had to stop recording the album, it hardly seems worth it now, we must fight to survive!

Ive sent this to the other survivors today:

More and more Survivors are joining the fight and things are gathering momentum for the night looks like there could be a war on the horizon, but how do we combat them?
On Friday head down to Drakes, dress as one of them crazies it’s the best way to sneak passed them, their aggressive but dumb as hell. We’re going to need to check you for infection when you get here, it’s just a precaution but if we’re going to beat this we’ve got to be able to get rid of any chance of the infection spreading.

Saturday we fight back!!! we need combat gear and weapons, lots of weapons! Doesn’t worry the drink will make you stronger, we’ve got the old man mixing up a cocktail of cure and adrenalin, and I’ve had some it makes you feel like you can take on elephant.
Signs are beginning to show as we slowly edge toward Armageddon. Last week there was an article in the champion about swine flu on the rise, the lies are starting and the UK is starting to crumble, I will try and contact you again but the web is unsecure, look for the man and the sandwich board for more information.

http://www.sa-da-ko.com/

I pray this is taken seriosly!! Im going to scope out the safe house tonight and look for places to hide, the man with sandwich board will be the key!!