Ok so lately I’ve been letting these thoughts roll around my brain and I gotta get them out even though they are still in the preliminary philosophical stages. I’ve been thinking a lot about this Taylor Test Drive Electric 2010 Contest that I’ve been involved with and a blog post a friend of mine made last week. First go HERE and read Brian Thompson, from Thorny Bleeder Record’s, original post. Don’t worry it’s short and it should give you some context on what I’ve been thinking about lately.
Part 1 – The Blog Post
Ok so now you’ve read this blog post. Obviously, as a musician in this digital age I spend LOTS of time thinking about how to connect with people and how to make the most of my limited knowledge of the technology I have at my disposal. This blog, which has some simple good advice for people got me to thinking. I realized how much most business advice applies to what I do and vice versa. Then after reading Brian’s post I got to thinking about the Taylor Guitar contest and how it was related to Brian’s post.
Part 2 – The Taylor Guitar Electric Test Drive Contest
This is just brilliant marketing. First though, I’ll give you a brief explanation of the contest. I applied because it was free! Nice! So after applying they put everyone in a list. Then it goes to voting. Get your peeps to vote for you blah blah blah. Then at the end of voting the Taylor/Elixir panel of judges picks five acts to give the guitar/string prize pack to. Then those five make a video in Round two. They post the five vid’s and then there is another voting period where, you guessed it, your asked to vote for your favourite again. After that they pick one grand prize winner (i believe) and give them studio time, endorsement shit and a slot at Summer Fest. Cool !!!
Part 3 – It All Comes Together
Ok. So that’s the contest in a nutshell. But lets look deeper. Everyone knows when you’re trying to leave your “digital Footprint” that you can’t go around spewing your info onto the internet and peoples profiles and websites in a careless manner as you’ll be tagged as spam and anything you send out gets blocked. So, what do you do? You get people to spread the word for you. Getting others to stamp your “digital footprint” is just as powerful or more, than you doing it. Except one small detail….IT’S FREE!!!!! So look how this all connects…..Taylor, instead of spending thousands of $$ on ad campaigns (Although they do this too) holds a contest. they get hundreds of people to enter. Then they make it centered around Votes. this means that the contestants have to get creative about how they get the word out too (see Spam above). Thats the trickle….Taylor motivates me, in turn I motivate my friends, family and fans. In turn y’all pass it on to YOUR friends and fans by posting links on your FB wall or tweeting about it to your friends. The circle carries on. How Freaking brilliant is that? Taylor gets advertising for FREE!! and So do I as it turns out.
Part 4 – I GET IT!!!
Last night as I was sitting by an incredible wood stove fire after an incredible meal (lobster stuffed haddock, I made it!) with great friends it happened. I experienced what I think I’m really supposed to get from this contest. First it wasn’t a big deal…I got a twitter notification that someone had mentioned me…turns out they posted in their twitter feed that they voted for me in the contest. Sweet!…Then it happened again. And again and again. It was an awesome feeling beyond the fact that people were voting. They were independently putting it out there for me….So freaking cool. I take this to mean that people want to help and actually care. In this day and age when you feel that…well….it’s priceless. It gives you hope. In this music industry that is crumbling in every direction I think this experience I had is all there is. This is how you make and keep fans. Furthermore, once you’ve made fans like these/this, they are your protection, they are your Champions and most importantly, they are life source!!!!
Even though I may not win this contest I have learned a great deal from it. I know what the Taylor folks (or at least I think) want….. to see the contestants engaging their fans etc. they want to see us get creative about how we do it too. Spread our word and in turn theirs.
It goes beyond music and guitar contests too. This applies to ALL business owners out there. In fact it’s what’s missing in most of the businesses I get annoyed by. Do more than take your customer’s money. Find out WHY they spend it with you. CONNECT with them. Make them feel like you CARE that they choose you.
You can bet I’m going to continue to think about this experience, and how to make it happen over and over, long after the contest has come and gone because I know that this is my future. I said it last night on FB but I’ll say it again here….Thank y’all so much for being there for us. It actually does mean something. A lot in fact.
I think I may have stumbled onto the secret to life…..or maybe it’s just gas….I’ll let you know how it works out!
PS….VOTE HERE