Q:TIP- Save Money by Booking Local

Looking for a cheap artists that draws big? To most colleges, this is a mythological concept, but there's a way to make this a reality: BOOK LOCAL! There are many local artists and bands out there that have great live music and draw well. Even better, they typically will confirm a show for under $500.

Here's the lesson for the day:

"Bringing in a great sounding band that costs more money does not equate to improved concert attendace."

People are more likely to go out and hear an artist they are familiar with than go and see a bunch of strangers. Local artists often have draw from friends, family, and a locally grown fan-base... even if they aren't the highest caliber musician.

Get this lesson down and then we'll talk in a month. To go local is a strong step forward in strengthening your concert branding– but keep in mind that if you stay only local, you will eventually run your concerts dry. We'll explain next time. Over and out.

ROLLER DERBY IN THE UNION

Hiring your local roller derby team proves to be an effective marketing scheme: 

Think about it–  A marketing coordinator is constantly competing with clutter.  They spend hours designing a flyer and then put it up next to 100 other flyers designed by fellow student organizations.  They then spend more time creating an email campaign, but then send it into an inbox full of other sweet emails from Etsy, Apple, and the like.  Third, they Facebook and Tweet, but again, find their efforts lost in the sea of information.  On the other hand, a roller derby chick skating in the union will stick-out like a sore thumb for marketing because they are a force not to be reckoned with.

At UMKC, we decided that improv marketing was going to be one more tool to be put under our belt for program advertisment.  We targeted lunch times at the union, since it was the highest trafficked area on campus. Every week we would implement a fast, quirky improv skits to grab everyone's attention...  And after silence was accomplished amongst the students eating lunch, we unnashamedly announced our upcoming event for the night.

Rollerskating in the Union was our first attempt.  Here's what we did:

Step 1: Drink a Red Bull

Step 2: Have an experienced skater roll into the Union Cafe and scream at the top of their lungs as if they are having trouble stopping.

Step 3: Stage "an innocent bystandard" in the cafe, holding four indestructructable props. (we used a lunch tray, silverwear, a plastic plate and a plastic cup

Step 4: Have the roller warrior "accidently" run into the "innocent bystandard"

Step 5: Have the innocent bystandard dramatically throw their tray in the air and create a lot of racket.

Step 6: Seize the moment of silence and, in a loud voice, shout out what your programming council has planned for the evening

Question for ya: How has your school implemented improv marketing to get the word out for events?

INTRODUCTION...WHY USE Q:TIPS?

OK... so that's probably the worse choice of play-on words to kick-off this blog; but who doesn't need a perverbial ear cleaning every once in a while– especially in the area of college programming.  Since a handful of us at Quick Artist were once college students, planning out concerts and lectures (just like you), we thought it would be helpful to pass on our collective wisdom and shed light on our worse mistakes (never book Vanilla Ice... even as a joke) so you can learn, grow, and improve what's going on at your campus.

Also, now that we've worked with colleges from coast to coast in booking concerts, we've seen that some schools do things much better than others.  In the spirit of collegiate learning, we'd like to showcase, highlight and funnel any great ideas implemented by other schools right to the door step of your computer screen.