Advertising in Drum Corps

[HBD]

Ummmm... somehow the Show-band concept took fire with the public; and it was the movie Drumline, not DCI, which propelled the major rock/rap/country stars to place marching drums on their stages; Honda is also a major part of the Battle of the Bands which draws three to four times the amount of fans and public interest as DCI. The key is flat entertainment; while it is true that DCI has the lock on high quality performance, DCI is way too concerned about progressing the art form and appealing to the academic minded. Face it dear DCI die-hards, watching the traditional black college bands is way more entertaining to the masses; and until DCI people get "that" into their heads and performance mindset DCI shall remain a very small niche in sort of an ivory tower mentality.

Right on!!!

[84BDsop]

Ummmm... somehow the Show-band concept took fire with the public; and it was the movie Drumline, not DCI, which propelled the major rock/rap/country stars to place marching drums on their stages; Honda is also a major part of the Battle of the Bands which draws three to four times the amount of fans and public interest as DCI. The key is flat entertainment; while it is true that DCI has the lock on high quality performance, DCI is way too concerned about progressing the art form and appealing to the academic minded. Face it dear DCI die-hards, watching the traditional black college bands is way more entertaining to the masses; and until DCI people get "that" into their heads and performance mindset DCI shall remain a very small niche in sort of an ivory tower mentality.

"Drumline" plays into the public perception I talked about earlier...it certainly isn't about performing at the high level BD/SCV/Cadets/etc do.

I'm not willing to accept dumbing down drum corps for the masses....been there with other activities...never works out well.

[bluecoats34]

DCI has definitely ramped up marketing in the local market (i.e. Indianapolis and Indiana). It has done this through television ads, billboards, and special promotions for Indiana residents. With such a niche activity, it will take a few years to reach a broader spectrum, but I think that starting with a local market is the best way to bring more outsiders in.

[barigirl78]

I've worked in the advertising industry since I graduated from college and aged out of the Crossmen. I'm a media strategist and tactician.

Drum corps has thousands and thousands of alumni who are still living who have marched in corps from the 70's until now. Those alumni are the "lowest hanging fruit" for attendance to the activity--people we would say SHOULD be the easiest to reach and convert to attendance.

There should be enough of them around the country to fill every stadium at every tour show. Yet, they aren't coming.

When the activity honestly addresses the reason for that and makes some changes, the attendance problem may go away.

I also agree with the person above who mentioned the broken business model. In the real business world, you don't keep escalating the cost to produce your product unless you get a return on that investment measured in dollars, not tenths of a point.

The activity is spending more and more while becoming less accessible and appealing to many alumni and the general population. That makes no business sense whatsoever.

No amount of advertising can make people buy a product that doesn't appeal to them. You can get them to try it once, but its mostly the responsibility of the product itself to get them to repurchase it.

BTW--there were more people in the stands back in '78 when I marched than there are now. AND the finals were broadcast on a national TV network live. We were on one of the first drum corps tours of the south and the stands were packed at every stop.

[GUARDLING]

I've worked in the advertising industry since I graduated from college and aged out of the Crossmen. I'm a media strategist and tactician.

Drum corps has thousands and thousands of alumni who are still living who have marched in corps from the 70's until now. Those alumni are the "lowest hanging fruit" for attendance to the activity--people we would say SHOULD be the easiest to reach and convert to attendance.

There should be enough of them around the country to fill every stadium at every tour show. Yet, they aren't coming.

When the activity honestly addresses the reason for that and makes some changes, the attendance problem may go away.

I also agree with the person above who mentioned the broken business model. In the real business world, you don't keep escalating the cost to produce your product unless you get a return on that investment measured in dollars, not tenths of a point.

The activity is spending more and more while becoming less accessible and appealing to many alumni and the general population. That makes no business sense whatsoever.

No amount of advertising can make people buy a product that doesn't appeal to them. You can get them to try it once, but its mostly the responsibility of the product itself to get them to repurchase it.

BTW--there were more people in the stands back in '78 when I marched than there are now. AND the finals were broadcast on a national TV network live. We were on one of the first drum corps tours of the south and the stands were packed at every stop.

if youre in advertising you should realise why these things have happened and that 78 to now is a different world AND why TV broadcasts failed in our niche of an activity. You are right in everything you have said but you havent talked about what DCI believes is the target audiance, where they think the future is..Im not saying either way, just looking at the facts of the situation as it presents itself.

You can also ask whyis ther 1/2 the membership of Boy Scouts now comapred to the 70s

Edited June 23, 2012 by GUARDLING

[skywhopper]

It's clear that DCI has limited funds for marketing, and those funds are targeted to clinics, not the mass public or even the local public that might come to a local show.

These people are out there though. Nearly every smallish show I go to I end up talking to a couple of folks that are complete newbies and only showed up because they happened across some local demonstration. eg last year there was a couple at the Metamora, IL show who came only because they'd happened across Blue Stars doing a standstill performance at a park in the next town over that afternoon.

For every one of these shows that ends up with hundreds of empty seats, there ought to be a massive push on the day of and day before to get people out for the show. Give them 25-yard-line seats for five bucks or even two bucks at the door. Send a corps to do a standstill at every place within 50 miles that has a lot of people -- parks, malls, minor league games, squeeze in as an opener for a local orchestra or community band concert, anything--anywhere there are people who are sports fans or music fans or just enjoy hanging out in the summer evening weather--those are your target audience. I know the corps want to maximize practice time, but filling the venues and growing awareness and making new fans are just as important.

The Salem, VA show has managed to become a real community event, and they've grown attendance every year for at least the past six years. They now sell out the home side each year quite early, and they then manage to sell dozens if not hundreds of end-zone-berm and far-side tickets for $5 at the door on the day of. No idea how they've grown the show to that point, but other show organizers should be asking the Salem Band Boosters how they can duplicate that success.

[wackywords]

For every one of these shows that ends up with hundreds of empty seats, there ought to be a massive push on the day of and day before to get people out for the show. Give them 25-yard-line seats for five bucks or even two bucks at the door. Send a corps to do a standstill at every place within 50 miles that has a lot of people -- parks, malls, minor league games, squeeze in as an opener for a local orchestra or community band concert, anything--anywhere there are people who are sports fans or music fans or just enjoy hanging out in the summer evening weather--those are your target audience. I know the corps want to maximize practice time, but filling the venues and growing awareness and making new fans are just as important.

This will in turn help DCI pay the corps more at the shows. The merchandise portion of DCI has definitely been inflated in the past few years. The corps know that fans will buy the merchandise no matter how much it costs, due to the items being of convenience and being limited. I feel that when advertising the shows throughout the country, DCI should in a way keep pushing that "one night only" vibe to drive ticket sales.

[Stu]

"Drumline" plays into the public perception I talked about earlier...it certainly isn't about performing at the high level BD/SCV/Cadets/etc do.

I'm not willing to accept dumbing down drum corps for the masses....been there with other activities...never works out well.

I did "not" say dumb-down DCI performances to gain fans; top quality execution can and should stay within DCI. I stated that to increase the fan base, to increase advertising revenue, to capture the public in the way that the show-band activity did, DCI corps need to focus more on the entertainment aspects of their performances by eliminating their ivory-tower, high-brow, academic, esoteric, progressing the art form type of thinking. Quality does not have to suffer; my point is that more people will always go see, and always pay more money, to be entertained by a high quality, thought-provoking "movie" like Schindler's List than a thought-provoking, esoteric, high-quality "art-film" like The Bicycle Thief.

Edited June 23, 2012 by Stu

[84BDsop]

I did "not" say dumb-down DCI performances to gain fans; top quality execution can and should stay within DCI. I stated that to increase the fan base, to increase advertising revenue, to capture the public in the way that the show-band activity did, DCI corps need to focus more on the entertainment aspects of their performances by eliminating their ivory-tower, high-brow, academic, esoteric, progressing the art form type of thinking. Quality does not have to suffer; my point is that more people will always go see, and always pay more money, to be entertained by a high quality, thought-provoking "movie" like Schindler's List than a thought-provoking, esoteric, high-quality "art-film" like The Bicycle Thief.

The public perception of a movie like Schindler and the public perception of the marching arts are not comparable. No one looks at a movie about a gentile saving Jews during the Holocaust as geeky-couldn't-make-the-football-team fare.

Almost ANY activity outside the US mainstream is going to have a tough road building more people. I get it in fencing all the time...about how "gay" the sport is...for people who can't play a "real sport" and just "poke at each other."

Yeah...my sport involves hitting with/getting hit by a 3 foot piece of steel....why don't you fence a sabre bout with me and see how "gay" it is when I land a nice attack on your shoulder.

[Stu]

The public perception of a movie like Schindler and the public perception of the marching arts are not comparable. No one looks at a movie about a gentile saving Jews during the Holocaust as geeky-couldn't-make-the-football-team fare.

Almost ANY activity outside the US mainstream is going to have a tough road building more people. I get it in fencing all the time...about how "gay" the sport is...for people who can't play a "real sport" and just "poke at each other."

Yeah...my sport involves hitting with/getting hit by a 3 foot piece of steel....why don't you fence a sabre bout with me and see how "gay" it is when I land a nice attack on your shoulder.

Good grief, plug in your own titles for Pete's sake; the point was about the number of people willing to buy a ticket to a great "movie" vs. a great "art-film". DCI can still be high quality "movie"; but for them to begin changing public perceptions they need to get away from the "artsy-fartsy film approach" and focus on high quality entertainment. The perception of a show-band kid today is "not" a geeky-couldn't-make-the-football-team kid; and that has developed through the great marketing of "entertainment" not "art". Yes, DCI can and should out execute and out perform the show-bands for many reasons; but for DCI to begin getting away from the geeky-couldn't-make-the-football-team perception a great start would be to stop this "abstract, holier than thou, artistic education of the audience" approach and get into flat entertaining the people.