Friday, June 5, 2009

New Music from 7 Blue Skies!!

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Does mobile marketing REALLY work??

I wanted to find some statistics on mobile marketing a few weeks ago so I cooked up a little experiment to compare it to sending an email blast. I took twenty of my friends and put their email addresses and cell phone numbers into a database.



I then sent a text blast to their cell phones from an unknown number. The text blast was only 140 characters and was telling them about a new Italian restaurant which was getting ready to open in Orlando, Florida (which is where they all live). A link was provided that they could click on to get a free appetizer to the restaurant.

About a week later I sent the same twenty people emails advertising the same deal.

A week later I called them and asked them about the two campaigns.

RESULTS

of my twenty friends:

-all 20 remembered receiving the text message
-all 20 read the text message in its entirety
-14 visited the link provided in the text message directly from their phone at the time of receiving the message
-11 remembered receiving an email
-of the 11 who remember the email, only 1 person opened it.

What this test told me is that while most people don't even acknowledge spam email, for the most part all text messages are read, whether they are advertisements or not. For instance, the same people who deleted the email are the ones who read the text message and then clicked on the link....

While I know that this test wasn't the most scientific, it does serve as a good indicator to the habits of individuals and the true effectiveness of email marketing vs. mobile marketing. I've seen some pretty amazing results with it, and I think that we've only just begun as the country begins to take a mobile turn...

Monday, June 1, 2009

Kutless Promotional Video

Feel free to share this video! To link or embed, double click on the video and then copy the code to the right of the video on the youtube page.

Monday, May 25, 2009

Creekview Concerts Launches New Website!

Goodbye old, hello new! Take a few minutes to check out our new website. We're going to be rolling out a few new features in the upcoming weeks such as a back-end to our system which will allow clients to do all sorts of cool things. Stay tuned or contact your account executive for more details!

www.creekviewconcerts.com

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Support acts for 6/21 and 6/22 Kutless concerts confirmed!

6/21/2009
Journey Christian Church
Apopka, Florida
Kutless, Chasen, Built to be Broken and Poverty Branch
Click here to find tickets!

6/22/2009
Suncoast Cathedral
St. Petersburg, Florida
Kutless, Chasen, Chris & Conrad and Beyond Ariose
Click here to find tickets!

www.creekviewconcerts.com

Friday, May 22, 2009

Broke? No Problem…Just Barter!

repost of 5stonemarketing.wordpress.com
by Tyler Sickmeyer

Welcome to the first edition of the twice-a-month 5Stone Marketing Blog. A quick introduction: This blog is written and maintained by the 5Stone Marketing team, and while it won’t go into the specifics of client strategy, broader topics will be discussed here for the benefit of the reader. All we ask is that you pass it on.

The economy has taken a toll on everyone. Bottom-liners everywhere are preaching that funds must be cut in order to survive, and marketing budgets are usually among the first to be escorted to the chopping block.

So how does one market their product or brand when they don’t have any money to spend? One way is to barter. Business owners and marketing departments should ask themselves what they have of value that others might be willing to trade for. Hint: if other businesses aren’t even willing to trade for your product, you have bigger issues than your marketing budget.

We recommend forming alliances with other area businesses and brands that you are not in direct competition with and teaming up with them. Doing so will at least cut costs while increasing exposure, and at best case will foster a long lasting and mutually profitable relationship.

Chris & Conrad added to St. Pete Kutless Date!

We're very excited to have confirmed that Chris & Conrad will be performing on June 22 along with Kutless at Suncoast Cathedral. Check them out at www.myspace.com/chrisandconrad

Friday, May 15, 2009

TicketMaster + Live Nation + Merger = Disaster

I have yet to weigh in on the proposed Live Nation/Ticketmaster merger, although I'm not sure why. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, Live Nation and Ticketmaster announced on February 10 that they plan to merge to form a new company called Live Nation Entertainment. That day I sent out about 150 emails to peers and colleagues urging them to write to their congressman to speak out against this clear anti-trust violation. I myself wrote letters to Florida Senators Bill Nelson and Mel Martinez. In the letters I explained that this merger not only effects the fans who are already getting robbed by Ticketmaster, but it also effects independent concert promoters such as myself and a many others like me all around the world.

Contrary to Live Nation and Ticketmaster's claims, this merger would not "bring new life" into a outdated industry. Ticketmaster currently tacks on as much as 40% of the face value of every ticket that they sell, an amount which will no doubt increase subsequent to merger. This is because Live Nation holds such a substantial market share that practically all consumers are at their mercy. Most major concert venues are under a contract with Ticketmaster, which means that if Live Nation is producing a concert at a venue that is required to sell tickets with Ticketmaster, there is no incentive to lower service fees. Currently Live Nation sells their own tickets on their website (www.livenation.com) which gives consumers a bit of a break on service fees--but only 10% of the available tickets are given to Live Nation to sell. (TIP: nearly all venues with Ticketmaster contracts have a clause built into the contract that allows the promoter to sell 10% of the tickets--USE IT!)

Independent concert promoters are going to be greatly damaged by this merger as well. If I were to promote a concert at a venue which is required by contract to sell tickets through Ticketmaster, then each ticket I sell is allowing my biggest competitor to profit. Additionally, Ticketmaster now has a database of every customer that bought a ticket from me, so next time the same artist plays in the city where my event was held and Live Nation promotes the show, they have a neatly packaged list of every single individual that came to my show.


www.creekviewconcerts.com

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Kutless Pre-Sale

From Monday May 18 - Friday May 22 all tickets to the Kutless concerts on June 21 and 22 will be available for $10 with no service charge! See our event calender for more details!