Planning how you will market and promote your show is a crucial part of the event planning process. No one will show up if they don’t know it’s happening! We encourage you to invest significant time, energy, and resources into promoting your event in creative ways.
Besides hanging up posters and announcing your event on social media, you could create reels, stickers, and other content to get your audience excited for your event. You can even ask the artist if they would be willing to film a short selfie video that you could post to add a personal touch. Keep in mind that everything you want to post that includes the artist’s name and/or likeness must be approved ahead of time. We ask our clients to send over any artwork for approval at least two weeks before your ideal announcement or posting date. That gives the artist team time to provide feedback and allows for you to make revisions and get things approved prior to posting or printing. Remember to share all of this information about artist approvals and timelines with your media partners so that everyone involved knows how to successfully promote the event.
Once show day arrives, the marketing doesn’t stop there. You should prepare to gather content at the event so you can post recap videos and create FOMO for the people who weren’t there. A few ideas include interviewing the artist, capturing photo/video content of their show, and capturing content of the audience having a great time. However, you must remember that artist teams have restrictions in place to keep the artist comfortable and everyone safe. Because artists need to approve anything with their image, name or likeness on it, let’s dig into what the approval process looks like.
Plan day-of-show content ideas early
We start to plan a day of show schedule about six to eight weeks prior to show day, so if a radio station or another organization wants to interview the artist, they should make that request about four weeks prior to show day. It’s important to loop your middle agent into those conversations so we can ensure everyone goes through the proper channels to coordinate with the artist team.
To prepare for an interview, the artist team will want to know the call letters of the station or the name of the organization that is hosting the interview and the scope of the interview: what kind of questions will be asked, how long will the interview take, can it be done over the phone or email, or does it have to be done in person on the day of the show?
Photographers / videographers
Capturing content with professional cameras is encouraged, but the photographers must be approved ahead of time. Artists have media restrictions for their shows. Restrictions usually include no flash, no stage access, and only shooting from the pit (between stage and barricade) for the first three songs. After the first three songs, the photographers can usually still take photos, but they’ll have to move into the crowd. Some artists request to approve the photos prior to anyone posting them.
These are all things your middle agent can help you with. You can send the edited photos to your middle agent after the show, and we’ll get them to the artist teams for approval. If you would like professional photographers to shoot your event, send a list of interested photographers to your middle agent at least two weeks before the show and we’ll send the list for approval. Again, depending on how strict the artist team is, they might ask for examples of the photographer’s content, or they might just want a name so that they’re aware of who will be photographing them.
General marketing tips
We want you to promote your event as much as possible. With that, be sure that ALL of the content you create for promotion is approved by the artist team ahead of time. Just because the artist approved the initial announcement graphic, does not mean that you have free reign to create whatever you want from that point on.
Though it may seem time consuming to send us everything for approval, it is much easier to wait for approval rather than be asked to delete a post because the artist team saw an unapproved graphic on your social media. That can cause your audience to wonder what happened or if the show is still happening.
Get ALL of your content approved ahead of time so that you don’t have to worry about any mishaps. Make sure all your media partners remember to seek marketing and content approvals early so that they can work alongside the artist team to capture the show day! If you find yourself questioning whether something needs approval, just ask your middle agent. The earlier you and your media partners can plan out your marketing, the easier it is to make requested edits and still announce and post your content on a timely schedule.
Alanna Tisler
Entertainment Operations Coordinator | How To Concerts
Alanna is a talented singer. This love of performance naturally inspired a passion for the music industry. After planning many events on her own college campus, she now helps our clients with contracts, paperwork, and marketing. Have questions for Alanna? Feel free to reach out.
Alanna Tisler
Entertainment Operations Coordinator | How To Concerts
Alanna is a talented singer. This love of performance naturally inspired a passion for the music industry. After planning many events on her own college campus, she now helps our clients with contracts, paperwork, and marketing. Have questions for Alanna? Feel free to reach out.
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