Daredevil Production artist, Jacob Cade, (from Denver, Colorado) entered a brand new market in Scottsdale, AZ, to open for the multi-platinum 80’s rock band, Dokken, at a 1,000-capacity venue called BLK Live.

Jacob hadn’t ever played in Arizona and he was NOT on the radio in the Phoenix market. He was a ghost in this town.

Our artist was the opener. So, Jacob went on at 8:00 pm…then the direct support act…then the headliner…in other words, nobody would be there to see him.

TICKET PRICES:

Ticket prices were $25 dollars.

We know that even if we put the coolest possible ad in a consumer’s digital feed, we’re not going to get them (or at least enough of them) to come off $25 to see an artist they don’t know.

The strategy we chose was to target people who love the headliner. The ad copy was written to assume that these fans already purchased tickets so the language we used was “Come early. Don’t miss this!” as opposed to “buy tickets”.

Here’s what we did with a $200 ad spend:

• 400 people showed up at 8 pm to see our artist.
• They sold $200 in merch (a nice offset of the ad buy!)
• The club owner, completely aware of the traffic habits of his crowd, was blown away by the artist’s live draw in a new market and invited Jacob back to play.

Head Scratcher:

The management of the headliner offered us the rest of the tour…we weren’t expecting that.

They would only make this offer to what they must have perceived as a “random local opener” if that artist was putting butts in seats; we DID sell tickets.

But consumers didn’t buy tickets to see our artist…we out-promoted the promoter!

Win-win.

We sold HUNDREDS of tickets to two categories of people:

• Category 1 – People who were probably touched by the promoter’s radio ads once or twice (which aired the week prior to the show) and forgot about it or were on the fence.
  • Our artist and our promotion made the decision for them; we put the cherry on top and swayed their decision.
• Category 2 – People who said, “Dokken is in town? I’m a huge fan…how did I NOT know about this?!”

Digital Marketing Wins In This Case Study:

Our digital marketing can be an incredible method to add value to a headline act by selling tickets that normal promotion methods couldn’t. Thus, creating the opportunity for support acts to gain favor with headliners, deepening industry relationships, and extending tours, which means increased exposure while simultaneously accumulating invaluable consumer data.

Brand Better

Additionally, our digital marketing can be a fantastic way to reach throngs of people in a market, via their feed, to increase the marquis value of our artists’ brands by directly associating them with the headliner brand they’re touring with; legitimacy by association. Social proof only counts if the consumers are aware it exists!