Sep 09 2009
Unconventional Email Acquisition Takes Flight
I went to a great low-key concert the other night and saw a clever, unconventional email acquisition strategy in action. As my friends and I were eating dinner waiting for the show to start, we were handed a simple song request flyer. You could immediately see people getting excited over the idea – a chance to have a favorite song played and to ask the artist any question they chose. The added touch, however, was how these flyers were to be sent up to the stage via paper airplane. The only request from the artist was to submit your name and email, interestingly enough.
After the first few songs, the artist in her own sarcastic yet humble way asked, “so… any requests?” Then came the onslaught of airplanes. I’m sure from her angle this must have looked like a reenactment from WW2. While retuning her guitar, out came an assistant to gather all the wreckage and begin sifting through the requests.
This was clearly not the most efficient way to capture an email address (given the manual labor involved), but her approach got me thinking. Adding a fun and interactive way to get people to sign up without beating them over the head with an offer could perhaps go a long way. The acquisition would probably provide more interested subscribers and could also serve as a great viral component as well.
I’ve seen a similar acquisition tactic used at a small show in williamsburg. On the way to the back room where the band was playing there was a request for email signup from the venue, whereby participants got a slight discount on the (already cheap) admission. That kind of thing is rather unexpected, especially in the scenario you described, which I think makes it that much more powerful.
I wonder though what percentage of bad emails were thrown. Furthermore, as with sweepstakes or one-off discount promotions where users are incented to subscribe not because they want to receive the emails but because they want to take advantage of a one-time promotion, will the emails actually be relevant to the subscribers? What were the email communications you received afterward like?
Although I appreciate the creativity utilized in order to add email addresses to a music artists website, there are far more efficient ways to go. Sending paper airplanes to a stage might be fun, but there is no way to make sure the email addresses are accurate and it’s extremely distracting to encourage a room full of people to fly paper airplanes at a performer. This is one of those ideas that sounds great, but in reality may not offer the return desired.
A better practice is to offer a free mp3 by registering to the artist’s website. Postcards or table toppers can be put on all of the tables in a venue and on the bar which say “Free MP3″ and the artist’s email address on the card. When the user goes to the artist’s website an offer pops up which is an unreleased or live version of a song which is unavailable anywhere else. The atist can announce this offer from the stage. When registration is complete the mp3 file is sent to the user and the file can be downloaded.
This strategy has been tested and works. Email lists are critical for music artists, it’s the best way to alert fans about gig info and to sell merchandise such as T shirts.
Just my two cents here. Any thoughts?