Ok I hope people are reading this thread because I have a great day to talk about!
SO the US Street Team is planning to do a music store promotion day for Poets in June, where we find a local music store(harder and harder to find by the way) and ask the store to play our Poets CDs while we are in the parking lot playing our CDs from our car stereo and passing out fliers to any one who walks by. We were in the planning stages when all of a sudden we hear of something called National Record Store Day where record stores do cool things and give away music and some even have bands playing live! This is in hopes to get people to their stores. We heard about this 2 weeks ago we thought that this would a PERFECT day to do our promotion because there would surely be more people! Well only a few of the team could get something together in that short amount of time but I was one of them and here is what happened today at a California music store!
I got permission from a manager at Rasputin Music in Campbell Ca 2 weeks ago to go ahead and do our parking lot promotion on this day tho he said he couldn't promise that they could play the CD in store. That's ok, we would take what we could get. I made a CD anyway just in case.
My friend and fellow team mate drove down to my place this morning, she lives about an hour and a half away, and we proceeded to the store. We were arriving early so we could get front spot and park right next to the store so the people coming out could hear and see us.
Here is what I packed to take with us:
Small fliers to hand out to people leaving the store
Medium fliers to place in the store.
A One Sheet sign to place in the store with the fliers so people could see who they were.
A CD for the store to play over the speakers in case they allowed it.
Extra One Sheets and a few of the CD samples I had made to send to college radio stations in the chance that some kind of real music person would show up.
A rockin' CD to play out the windows of the car.
A large car magnet to identify who we were.
A camera
Cheezits and soda
So when we get there, 30 min before the store opens, the front spots were already taken and there was a long line of people waiting to get in...oh well, we would scope the spot and take it eventually(and we did)
But in the meantime, we said hey, there's an audience here now, let's start the music now!
So we played the CD while we were waiting for the store to open and passed fliers to everyone in line.
Ok so then the store opens and everyone goes in.
I go in with my sample CD and One Sheet sign, which also had a track list on the back so they could see what songs were playing. I went to the manager and said that the other manager said he couldn't promise to play the CD but what do you think?? And this one said "sure I'll play it, right after this one is done in about 30 minutes!" YES!! I thanked him and went back outside for the parking lot promotion.
So we worked the people as they came out, plenty were interested and asked about the band.
Then we stepped back in to the store and THEY WERE PLAYING THE CD!!( by the way I had 17 songs on the CD and it would be 77 minutes of play!) OMG my heart soared when I heard Poets being played in a store here!!!!
The employees had radios on their belts and we heard the manager saying into the radio for the employees.."the band playing is Poets of the Fall, people are asking, I repeat it's Poets of the Fall!" PEOPLE WERE ASKING!! This is exactly what we had hoped for!!
Ok then a bit later, the manager comes out to see how we are doing and I ask him how he likes the music and he replies that yes! He really likes it!
Now a bit later, a man comes out and goes the other way(we weren't chasing people down) but he turned around and I could tell he was reading the car magnet because I could see his mouth forming "poets of the fall" so of course I take that as a que that he is interested and I go to him, tell him we are promoting a band in Finland. He says that he is a music promoter at foothill college and is always looking for stuff to promote and play!!! I say well I happen to have a sample CD and would he like one? He says well yes!! So I take him back to the car and give him the CD and the One Sheet!! He says he will get them played on their station!!! YAY for bringing the CD's!!!!
Then, there was the random guy who asked if Finland was in Canada...ok...
Then, there was the random guy who thought I was trying to hit on him(wtf) and said if only I was a little younger(wtf again)
Then when our CD ended in the car(after second play cuz we were there for 2.5 hours) we knew the CD in the store would be done in one more song because they were one song behind us, and the last song I put on the CD was of course The Happy Song...
So when ours finished, we went inside to thank them, asked if they would keep the fliers, the one sheet display sign and the CD. He said they would probably play the CD again on another day!! But, guys, The Happy Song was still playing as we said good bye and the employees behind the counter were bobbing their heads up and down singing "you know I'm a psycho!"!!! HA!! Such an easy song to learn!
Then my friend and I had lunch and then she left to drive back.
She called me an hour later on her way home to tell me she had made a quick stop and this is what happened. She was playing CoR really loud and when she stopped, a woman from India came running over yelling "POETS OF THE FALL, POETS OF THE FALL!" and jumping up and down!! And my friend said yes we were just doing a small promotion at the record store and then the lady sees her team shirt and "AND LOOK AT THE SHIRT!! I LOVE POETS OF THE FALL BUT I MOVED HERE A YEAR AGO AND CAN'T SEE THEM ANYMORE!!" So of course my friend gave her the street team info and maybe we will get another enthusiastic member!!
So anyway, that was our adventure promoting Poets on Record Store day in Campbell California!! We hope to do a more nationwide promotion in June when more team members have time to get things together!!
Here is a face book link to a few pics we took while we were there!! I hope the link works for everyone. It should as the team is an open group on face book!!
CLICK THIS LINK Rasputin music on Record Store DayAnd by the way, anyone interested in helping us with these kinds of things, we are a serious Street Team and could use all the help we can get, here is our group...
A Poets of the Fall Street Team(USA, any region)
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There's all kinds of things we participate in, as simple as just tweeting and posting about Poets so others might find out about them, to the ambitious promotion day Susan speaks of. We have a number of people (including myself) who have sent sampler CD's to college & independent radio stations. So there are a lot of ways to help, and we would love to have you!
