It was 2008 when the inspiration for Posse struck Rebekah Campbell, a prominent music manager who was running a company called Scorpio Music. Rebekah and her crew developed artists as diverse and popular as Evermore, Lisa Mitchell, Operator Please, Amy Meredith and Matt Corby, and quickly prospered to become one of the most successful management companies in Australia.
Evermore were touring nationally, and a large promotional campaign had been organised. Ads were created, posters were slapped up and newsletters were sent out. When the tickets went on sale however, something very strange happened. As Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and many regional shows sold quickly as expected, Perth barely moved. Now, they may be all the way across the continent, but one thing in which Perth music fans are not known lacking is their love and support for local music. Yet after 48 hours, less than 100 tickets had been sold and Rebekah was at a loss as to why.
She had allocated an affordable advertising budget for each show, and as the other cities were selling well she juggled her budgets to divert advertising money from those into the Perth budget. Ads were bought everywhere – print media, radio, street posters – and a small fortune was spent to ensure nothing was missed. When she thinks about it now it was not the most business-savvy move to make; after all, she was only trying to sell 2000 tickets. But nevertheless thousands of dollars were being spent to advertise to thousands of people, a large majority of whom probably wouldn’t know Evermore from a mint. As irony would have it, ticket sales stubbornly refused to rise. Perth was looking like being the albatross around the neck of the tour, smelling of rot and threatening to drown the entire run.
Rebekah decided to forget the traditional marketing methods, and sat down to have a heavy ponder. She thought, where are Evermore’s fans? Clearly not reading the newspapers, or looking at street posters, or scanning their emailed newsletters. How could she possibly get them simply to know that the gigs were happening? That’s when inspiration struck.
She realised that Evermore had the most dedicated fans she’d ever come across. They adore the band and frequently do whatever they can to help them out. They’re smart, popular and entrepreneurial (and, let’s face it, usually very good looking). Rebekah thought that if she could send the tickets and posters to the fans, they’d probably do a better job of selling them than a promotional company with no interest in the band aside from having their invoices paid on time. It wouldn’t be exploitation either, she was adamant that they would be paid for their work, just like regular promoters would.
So she tried. The WA Evermore street team were emailed and asked, “Who wants to be an official Evermore gig promoter? We’ll send you tickets and posters and if you can sell them to your friends, we’ll pay you $2 for every ticket sold.”
The response was overwhelming. More people applied than were even on the official street team list! Rebekah sent out packs of tickets and posters to Perth fans and right away they were being advertised through school, uni, work and wherever the fans’ friends hung out. Some fans sold up to 30 or 40 tickets each and one fan even emailed through a photo of himself in front of his poster-plastered school common room notice board, selling tickets at lunchtime!
The fans sold out the entire show, and Evermore saved their advertising budget from a pointless exercise that wasn’t reaching the people who cared. Instead, they directed this budget to the fans who did the work and gave something back to the people who actually helped them. The fans were obviously inspired – they were part of the music industry and were getting paid to promote their favorite band. It was a win-win situation!
Rebekah was quite chuffed as she realised she had unwittingly stumbled upon a very powerful idea. The next step was to create a network of fans across the country who could help promote their favorite bands’ gigs in the same fashion. Most fans communicate online anyway (like the old philosophy almost goes, I listen therefore I socialise), so it made sense to create this network online. A network where bands could empower their fans, provide them with the tools to promote them online, and then reward them for their efforts.
Posse is not a ticketing or music site, but works with the existing retailers (or as many as we can) such as Moshtix, iTunes and Amazon to make content available for fans to promote online. Promoters, managers and artists who would normally choose where to spend advertising budgets on a record release or tour choose how much commission they’d like to offer their fans, and Posse provides the system for the apps and promotional material to be made available. We can track the sales to send back accurate reports, and we also pay out the fans.
Nor is Posse a social network, or music news or information platform – there plenty of sites out there who already do a great job in these areas. Posse provides you with the tools to promote your favorite artists wherever you and your friends are on the net. We have apps for facebook, MySpace and Twitter, links to send to your friends, and RSS feeds and banners to embed in your blog or website.
In the near future fans will be able to promote content from several new ticketing platforms in Australia, the UK and US, physical music via online retail partners, music merchandise and even virtual music products. At the moment commissions are earned in cash paid to your PayPal account, but soon you’ll be able to choose to donate your commissions direct to your favorite charity if you prefer. You’ll even get a badge on your app and store to let your friends know where you’ve generously donated your money. You’ll also be able to choose to exchange your commissions into points that you can spend in the Posse rewards store.
We all know that people find out about new music through their friends, and everyone has a friend who knows about new music first and lets everyone else know about it. That person is helping the artist and the music industry, and Posse aims to empower and reward these people. Advertising is expensive and ineffective for artists – help your favorite bands by joining Posse and spreading the word!
Join Posse and be part of the revolution.
Power to the Posse!