Media/Marketing Kit
By George O'Brien - Arizona Correspondent
This is a series of articles on building an Irish/Celtic band in Arizona.
Part 1 "Do You Really Want To Be A Professional Musician?" and "Do You Really Want To Do Irish Music?"
Part 2 "Can You Fill The Role Of Band Leader?" Who Is Going To Handle The Operational Tasks Of The Band?
Part 3 "What Kind Of Irish/Celtic Band Do You Want To Build?" and "What Performance Style Should You
Have?"
Part 4 "Who Should Be In The Band?"
Part 5 "What Is Your Repertoire?"
Part 6 "Do You Have Stage Presence?"
Part 7 "Do You Have The Equipment To Run A Band?"
Part 8 "How Will You Find Your First Gig?"
Part 9 "How Do You Plan To Build Your Fan Base?"
Part 10 "Do You Have Media/Marketing Kit?"The term "marketing" can be applied to several aspects of what bands have to do including finding initial gigs, fan base development, publicity, and finding paying gigs. We will focus on publicity first.
DO YOU HAVE A MEDIA/MARKETING KIT?
The information given to reporters (media kit) is generally the same information given to people who book bands. Each piece can be used separately, but combined make up a total package.
MAKE UP BAND BUSINESS CARDS - Business cards should include contact telephone information, fax number, e-mail, and web address. Business cards should be given to fans to provide to venue booking managers, reporters, and anyone else who might be interested.
PROFESSIONALLY SHOT BAND PHOTO - It should make the band look good and should look like a professional photo. The band photo has innumerable uses including being included on the web site, CD covers, on the post card handouts, on signs and posters (which can be posted at the venue), and are included with press releases and the a media kit.
Ideally, the band photos should be shot using both color and black and white film. Color photos lost a lot of their sharpness when reproduced in gray scale. If a digital camera is used, make sure that it has extremely high resolution. This gives the computer graphics person more to work with.
MAKE UP PERFORMANCE SIGNS - Card stock signs which are 8 1/2 by 11 inches in size can be made up for the media kits. They should include the name of the band, the band photo, and band contact information can be printed up in advance. Space in the middle is left blank for the venue owner to write in the date and time of the performance.
WRITE A BAND BIO - This is a history of the band plus one paragraph profiles of each of the players. Head shots of each player can then be attached to the bio on the web site. The bio pages should be included in the hard copy media package. Each page should have contact information about the band in case the page gets separated from the rest of the package.
WRITE A BAND MUSIC PROFILE - This is a kind of musical biography that explains the musical influences of the band and describes what they are trying to do. Music reviewers like to know what the band thinks it is doing before determining whether they have accomplished it. Like the band bio, there should be contact information on each page.
DEVELOP A MEDIA QUOTE FILE - Every article, write-up, or review should be clipped. Favorable clipping can be used to pull quotes that can be used on the profile page or on a separate page once there are enough of them. This page should also be included on the web site.
DEVELOP A LOGO OR GRAPHIC - Band logos can be applied to everything including the web site, schedule business cards, business cards, t-shirts, etc. Ask your fans if there is someone with a graphics arts background interested in developing a band logo. Make sure this person gets publicity for doing the work.
SELF ADHESIVE RETURN ADDRESS LABELS - These should include the name, mailing address, and web site of the band. Besides being used as standard return address labels, they can be added to band instruments, CD jewel box covers, and the front of media packages.
DEVELOP A "SERIOUS" DEMO CD - This should include three to six pieces that are professionally recorded, mixed, and mastered (there will be more on doing CD's in a later section). The tracts should be good enough that they might form the beginnings of a real self produced CD.
It is not hard to find someone willing to record a band. The cost of equipment is now low enough that many people have remarkably good equipment in their homes. The hard part is getting someone with the skill to make proper use of the equipment. This will cost.
The CD should give a reasonable impression as to what the band sounds like. A pub band's CD should include a fast song, a slow song, and one or two instrumentals. A traditional band might be all instrumentals or only one vocal. A folk style group might be all vocals.
The CD should have a reasonable quality card stock cover. The inside of the cover should include all the contact information for the band, who is in the band, instrumentation, and who is featured on each track.
The demo CD is replaced by the first CD once it is available.
PRESENTATION BINDERS - Relatively low cost paper binders can be used to include the band bio, band profile, business, card, an advertising sign with the band photo included, and a demo CD. A self adhesive return address label should be put on the front and back of the binder.
PEEL OFF ADDRESS/INFORMATION LABELS - These relatively low cost labels included the return address plus the telephone number. It can be used as a return address label on envelopes as well as being stuck on other PR information and even be put on band equipment.
DISCOGRAPHY - Once a regular CD is produced, the discography is a track by track description which includes the name of the tune/song, the featured player, the author, and any other information that might be relevant. A printed version can be included within the media kit and an electronic version put onto the web site.
DISTRIBUTION OF MEDIA PACKAGES
Media packages are too expensive to simply give away without controls. Some sort of track should be kept of every media package distributed including the name of the person, the media outlet (or venue), address, telephone number, and e-mail address. The e-mail address should be added to the regular fan letter. Routine follow up calls should be made to media contacts to let them know about new developments with the band and major events the band will be playing at.
CONTACTING THE MEDIA - The first step is to call the various media outlets and find out who the music reporter is. This way faxes and e-mails can be routed to the reporter directly. The next step is to identify all the relevant media outlets and their fax numbers. Faxing a press release is fairly low cost way to reach the media, although the likelihood the story will be picked up is minimal.
Most reporters do not consider a story entitled, "struggling start up band would like some publicity" be to especially news worthy. However, news about the release of CD, being booked at Cricket Pavilion, or being asked to tour with the Corrs would be news. Playing at festivals and benefits is certainly news worthy.
A follow up call to verify that the message has been received is acceptable - as long as it done in a "low key way." Just ask to make sure the information was received and determine if there are any questions. The conversation should include an offer to send the reporter a full media kit with the demo CD. After the initial live contact has been made, follow-up usually means leaving a message on the reporter's voice mail.
If the reporter does answer or call back, then find out about the news room and who else should be sent a media kit. It never hurts to invite the reporter to a performance.
RADIO AND TV - Obviously, getting on radio and television shows is especially valuable. Work with the producer or production assistant to determine how much time will be spent on the air, what topics will be discussed, and then plan who will talk. It might be a good idea for members of the band to come to a consensus about how to answer certain questions like, "where did the name of the band come from" BEFORE going on the air.
Decide in advance who will speak for the band. There is nothing worse than having band members interrupting each other on the air because they are not prepared.
Keep a detailed clipping file of every media write-up about the band. Contact the reporter and get permission to repeat favorable statements in the band publicity package and web site.
In Phoenix, there are weekly entertainment papers including The Rep, New Times, and Get Out. They have sections for various forms of live entertainment. Typically, Irish music gets lumped under phrases like "folk" or "acoustic". Often the venues neglect to inform the media as to who is playing. It never hurts to send information about the gig to the person in charge of these sections.
NETWORKING - Every reporter, fan, and fellow musician is a potential gold mine of information and source of contacts. Ask for suggestions and advice about how to get more publicity -- and then listen.
[This is the tenth in the series, "On Building an Irish Band in Arizona."]
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