Street Marketing/guerrilla Marketing

I'm trying to promote a new art/music event happening in Boston in a couple weeks. Although our team is doing as much as possible to promote the event online, we also want to push a street marketing team to get the word out as much as possible. How can I successfully run a street marketing campaign?

 

Do a free gig. For instance, try performing live - even just a few song covers - in a public area. Have you ever seen Dream High? During one episode, the music school students tried to raise money by performing some songs in public. You have the option to raise money or just simply give off flyers. You can also create homemade banners and post these across conspicuous areas (of course with prior consent). A good word-of-mouth never fails too. Try visiting universities and meeting up with their arts/music clubs. Send out invites to these groups.

 

I agree with xTinx. I think the best way on how to promote your event (since it is an art/music event) is to give the people a hint of what they will see on your event. In that way, they'll be excited and thrilled to watch it.

 

I recommend giving out some memorable invitations. If you are somehow able to make enough of an impression with your invitations then you'd have much more of a chance of people remembering your event and actually going to check it out. I also agree with xTinx that a free event prior to the main one and you could even just give a part of your invitations there.

 

How about a flash mob at a highly trafficked or popular place? The music director at my place of workshop was promoting a music festival and she used flash mobs to great effect.

 

This is really hard depending on what kind of budget that you have. You can either hire a street team individually (which in my own experience have had a lot of people flake out and not take the job seriously) or go through an agency, but they cost a lot more than what you're paying the brand ambassador. Either way, you need to make sure the brand ambassadors are committed, knowledgable, friendly, and really want to get more sales. Giving them a slight incentive for ticket sales might be a good way to go about it. If you have the budget to give out more than a flyer or have reserved table space somewhere, that will engage your audience more than a person handing out a flyer on the sidewalk. Good luck!

 

While you definitely get more visibility online there is something to be said for doing your own marketing in person -- this drives genuinely interested traffic. It is also a great way to meet people and make great corrections.

 

You could always hand out flyers to people walking by on the street. Sometimes, it also helps to ask local business owners if you can place a flyer in their store.

 

Since its an art event consider letterpress or screen printed posters. Ask your team about places in the community that would likely have groups of people interested in your event. I know that several people were mentioning a flash mob, but consider where you do it well if you decide on that. Doing it at a local farmers market is more likely to go over well than somewhere that has more people but the people are less interested. Think more about the impression of outsiders of your advertising and your event than what you and your team think is cool to do. Also, is this a music/art event for all ages, or something more intended for a more grown up crowd? Your advertising needs to give the right impression of the event.

Look into having fliers done by a local university art majors club(because letterpress shops are becoming sadly uncommon outside of universities), they will be able to help you find the type of people interested in art in your area, such as their friends, mentors, and art enthusiasts in the area.