Planning Makes Perfect

Devising a plan is a must before even thinking about how you’re going to get the word out to fans about a tour or concert you’re promoting. The plan will be the blueprint so to speak of, for your tour or concert and it can make or break you in the end. Within the blueprint of the event you must define the scope (what you want to accomplish, as well as ways you will accomplish this), the budget, the schedule, and the quality of your event.

As stated above, you must determine what you are trying to achieve by the concert or tour. Is it a revival tour, promoting a new album, or for a charitable cause? After establishing this, think about what tasks will have to be completed to accomplish your envisioned event. And even though you can do all of this alone, it doesn’t hurt to bring other people into this brainstorming stage of your project. Bringing people into the project at this point will help you to form a team and will give the members of your team a sense of ownership in the success of the event.

Once you have a team in place to help you, assigning team roles is very important. Everyone trying to work on the same part of the project can end up in disaster. The New Kids on the Block-Backstreet Boys team, while working with “two bands, nine members, two giant music catalogs, and two managers” still managed to pull off a successful tour that exceeded the expectations of the industry. Part of the reason they were able to accomplish this was by assigning roles to some of the key players in the project, to ensure that everyone was working on a task that would lead to the finished product being a success.

It is important to have a plan, but problems arise from time to time and it is important to know how to overcome them. At the recent Billboard Touring Conference a panel of experts discussed common issues that come up while planning tours, most of which concerned problems with venues and money issues. While some issues can be avoided with proper planning, the panelists talked about the importance of having a contingency plan for unexpected problems.

Properly promoting a concert or tour is a must to be successful. However, before marketing the event you must have a plan in place. As with any project, you must plan out the details before you begin… or pay the consequences later such as Global Events LLP, which organized the Michael Jackson memorial concert in Wales, UK. Although, the memorial was a great idea, the plan was not well thought out. Many of Jackson’s fans and even some of his family were upset about the event taking place while his personal physician was on trial for Jackson’s murder. The line up was another issue that plagued the event. Many fans were outraged that Kiss was a part of the event due to the fact that Gene Simmons spoke out about his suspicions of Jackson being a pedophile. Additionally, according to Jackson’s estate, the promoters had never even contacted the Jackson estate for permission to use his name or image. There were many complications that hindered the event’s success, many of which can be attributed to improper planning. Due to their improper planning, Global Events LLP owes thousands of pounds to contractors who worked on the tour and has consequently filed for bankruptcy.

- Lisa -