Music marketing: ‘Creativity always trumps cash’

Promoters, venues and ticketers have been encouraged to “think outside the box” and embrace the various channels available as they seek to maximise ticket sales.

ILMC’s Marketing: Navigating Channels session provided an update on the latest trends and developments in the space over the last 12 months, with the benefits of AI among the subjects up for debate.

Chaired by The O2’s Robbie Balfour, the session featured Nick Faber of creative production house Fabyl, Rob Lievesley of ticketing company AXS, Monica Steyn of Blue Blood Entertainment and Jackie Wilgar of Live Nation at London’s Royal Lancaster.

Former recording artist Faber, whose firm is dedicated to crafting moments that amplify musicians’ marketing campaigns, declared that “creativity always trumps cash”.

“It’s never about budget,” he argued. “It’s always about a good idea done well, so I’m really excited about seeing more creativity, more people thinking outside the box and trying different things, not following fads. And I’m really excited about technology – new ways of connecting with fans and making those meaningful connections.”

“AI is essentially a tool and it does very much rely on the human input”

Faber explained that AI had been a “game-changer” for his business, but acknowledged the technology’s limitations.

“It’s a game-changer for me because I’ve got a very small team and we don’t have the kind of budgets to employ copywriters and proofreaders and concept artists and stuff like that, so we rely on AI every single day,” he said. “It can be a jumping off point, and it can be a tool to deliver a concept art. We can use it through the whole process, through to delivery, but it is essentially a tool and I think it does very much rely on the human input.

“Who knows what it’ll be doing in two, five, 10, years’ time? Maybe it will have some sort of human feel that it doesn’t currently have, but a computer needs an operator – and it is essentially just a tool.”

Wilgar, Live Nation’s EVP, head of marketing & consumer technology – international, is open-minded about AI’s usefulness for the industry.

“It’s not bad,” she said. “We did a test recently with an artist [and] what came back was based on the historic materials that are in the world wide web, per se, about that artist – and it was way off. It was absolutely not applicable to where the artist’s tone or even approach is in this day. So we have a job to make sure that it is properly used to communicate on behalf of the artist, or what we’re doing.

“But the tool is a learning tool. So even a year from now, three years, five years, the tools will learn, and the AI will continue to develop to optimise those things that work and are most applicable as well.”

“If you don’t want it to take your job in the future, learn how to use it”

Wilgar also moved to break down the negative stigma around AI, saying: “People sometimes worry about it as though it’s this big scary thing, and there may be aspects of it that are not ideal and those will filter themselves out or evolve as they do, but there are really cool things you can do about it and use it for.

“There are great efficiencies you can use it for: time savings, administrative things and creative things. And of course, as any individual, you have a job to take a look at it and make sure it’s right – the same way you would check your copy if anyone had written it – but it actually can be a fun tool.”

She added: “If you don’t want it to take your job in the future, learn how to use it.”

AXS Europe marketing head Lievesley said AI was an “interesting one” for ticketing in terms of discovery.

“My dad’s in his mid 70s and he plots his holidays by going on Chat GPT and asking, ‘What’s good in Italy?'” he said. “As an industry, and certainly as a ticketing company… we need to be set up for that human fan, but we probably also need to start thinking about how we set up for the machine learning as well.”

In terms of tried-and-tested approaches to marketing, Lievesley said that email could still be effective.

“We just need to be a lot more targeted,” he noted. “Stuff will cut through if we’re actually using the right targeting and the right content and the right message… How we can best target throughout the customer journey as well: Who are the best people to hit, and when? Who are the later buyers? So email is not dead, it just needs focus.

“We should be not just using emails to sell, sell, sell all the time. We’ve also got to think of a strategy of how are we helping you get the best out of the event? How are we helping our partners make sure that people get in the door smoothly as well? So it’s [about] respecting the email address and the person on it, because you don’t want to lose them.”

“Traditional PR still has its role… But it’s also evolved. Now, you’re looking at the onset of influencers and social media collaborations”

Steyn, Blue Blood’s head of PR and communications South Africa & Middle East, said there was still a role for traditional PR.

“To have a good PR campaign, you’ve got to integrate it with a good digital and a good marketing plan,” she said. “Traditional PR still has its role… But it’s also evolved. Now, you’re looking at the onset of influencers and social media collaborations. They’re a trusted voice – people are consuming more and they’re following these content creators.”

Steyn went on to discuss how the growth of event tourism was impacting marketing strategies, pointing to a recent survey which showed that 40% of attendees for events in the UAE had travelled in.

“We need to be focusing on other ways to reach those audiences, not just the audiences that are currently in that country,” she said. “It’s making it appealing for both the local and international audiences. I think that’s something really big to put a focus to.”

Wilgar detailed the concept of “wiggle and shake”.

“In a digital space in particular, the algorithms and the tools are built to look for things that move,” explained Wilgar. “Even with something that is stagnant, find yourself a tool or technology that makes it wiggle and shake. Anything that creates an emotion, we know has a much higher engagement rate.

“Use the technology to your advantage from a creative perspective. That means make it move.”

She also highlighted the importance of “knowing your fans” as a starting point for campaigns.

“If you literally cannot answer the question, ‘Who is my fan?’ Then it’s pretty hard to do good marketing,” she advised. “And there are so many great ways you can do that, you don’t have to be investing in multi-million dollar tools to do deep analysis – even a good Google pull from a Google Analytics report on a website where cookies are dropping will give you basic insight to a fanbase.”

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