Update: view my follow up entry on this here.
In the music industry, a dichotomy is widening – the old model for promoting and marketing music to the masses is quickly becoming obsolete, and the answer so far seems to be finding creative ways for fans (established and potential) to interact with the artist (brand). While many large, established pop artists are attempting to stick to the old ways, many smaller and independent artists are jumping on this creative marketing bandwagon. Take Five Iron Frenzy for example.
Last night, they announced their reunion and the recording of a new album that’s expected to be out by 2013. They posted a Kickstarter account that surpassed their goal of $30k by, wait for it, $35k in half a day! Why are their fans so loyal? Other than their great music, one can look at the viral campaign they’ve carried on the last two weeks. A few weeks ago, they posted a facebook event simply titled “Something AWESOME!” with the tagline “Get ready to pee your pants.” They upped the hype by launching an online scavenger hunt that would lead fans to clues (or non-clues) about yesterday’s announcement. Cleverly worded Facebook status updates to make people squirm helped as well. There’s a lesson here, people. To encourage loyalty, bands need to engage their fans and BE CREATIVE. Heck, I’m not even a hardcore FIF fan (I only know 2 songs!) and I was following the impending news earnestly. I would have been disappointed too if this whole thing was just a massive trolling effort.
Here’s their new song, “It Was a Dark and Stormy Night”
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sb2S13C3yg]
I think we were all in fear of a good old fashioned trolling, as a long time fan, it was nearly expected. Also, they got the 30k within the FIRST HOUR of the announcement. Yesterday was a great day for all of us looking for some musical giddiness.
As a marketing student i can say that you have summed that up perfectly. i often said that it should be done like this (considering the trends and stats). five iron has proved my point. plus as an extremely loyal fan i am more than willing to boast about their success. they will be a common discussion in my class from now on.
yeah, like justin said 30k was in the first hour, 15 hours later they’re at almost 80
You are correct in that the marketing was brilliant…. but more than that, the lesson the music industry can learn is this: Make GOOD music. Five Iron has always done that, and it seems increasingly rare now days. People don’t forget a product like FIF’s music.
Yes and no. They definitely used new and creative ways to launch this campaign, but that’s not what made it work so well. They didn’t create loyal fans willing to pony up 80k in half a day with a two week viral campaign. They did it with 8 years of connecting with fans face to face on tour after tour and through album after album of, as Ben said, “good music.” The loyal fans were already there foaming at the mouth (FIF has always had the greatest fans), this modern era of social media just helped successfully get the word out.
I agree with this, and Ben. Five Iron had/has a lot more to offer than good marketing. Without the fanbase, they could have posted teasers all week long and it would have been another internet gimmick.
I have been anxiously following FIF’s cryptic posts for over 74 days on Facebook and Twitter. I was definitely not expecting something so great as the band getting back together. But all the hype caused me to go back and listen to old albums I loved when I was in high school and college. It amazing me how their songs are so relevent still and I feel like I can relate to them so much better now that I have matured a bit and have seen the world through more mature eyes. I can’t wait for the new album and a tour. It’s a bit nostalgic for me. Who gets to have their favorite band come back together in their adulthood? I don’t doubt that they will continue to amaze me with their new music and I am more than glad to support them along the way!
I definitely echo the earlier comments: FIF has great music, they’re wonderful in concert, and they marketed this new album masterfully. They completely deserve this. But, the idea that this is somehow a “new model” ignores a few points. As somehow who managed a music department for several years, I can personally tell you that even awesome independent artists have an incredibly hard time breaking through without the support of a label, and I’ve even seen excellent signed artists only catch on after the label machine went into action. If you showed me the same phenomenal fundraising from an artist who was never signed, I’d be floored. In the near future, there will definitely be some major shifting, but the next model will look much like the last. Maybe a fundamentally new model will come in the distant future, but even when it does, I sincerely doubt that it will regularly see phenomena like FIF’s fundraising. That’s my two cents, anyway.