Networks Promoting Themselves; Internet Streaming

I know this is not something new, in fact it’s kind of an old news already. But I wanted to talk about the streaming of TV sows and movies through Internet instead of using regular cable. I must confess that I had heard about services like Hulu and Netflix but hadn’t had the curiosity before to look deeper into the matter; even though I have a Wii console and an iPad. Maybe it’s because right now I’m finishing my Master’s program and I’m starting to have some extra time to occupy my mind in other stuff is the reason why I got somehow interested. Having been back to my student life for a while and not being able to work I think theses services are very helpful to let you stay on a budget and because the young audience is generally addicted to new movie releases as well. I personally regret not having paid attention to this earlier for budgeting reasons. Of course, these are not limited to students only, really it’s for anyone who can pa around $8.00 a month and have access to all TV shows and movies. But students should definitely be a target market for these services.

I also have had some apps on my iPad for quite some time that had not had the chance to take a look at before as well, including Hulu Plus and Netflix. One of those is ABC’s app, which contains all their TV shows and episodes. I just want to comment on how great all this is and how the Internet continues to excel above everything else as a distribution channel for ANYTHING! Onward I consider these apps a way for this companies to promote themselves as well as they can have hands on control over their product instead of using another channel in between. Also, it enhances the customer-company relationship because this way of interacting lets users feel somehow more connected to them and the things they like

Wrapping up our Master's program

Well we are already in our last and final course of our master’s program and as part of wrapping up I would like to share with you some of the things we did and learned

throughout these 12 months course by course.

Media Literacy and Research Methodologies

Being from a South American Country this course was key for me because I was able to learn, practice and adapt to the writing techniques in the English language and more specifically to the way of formal writing in this country. APA style writing guides that were given to us are still on my computer’s desktop and will be for a long time because before learning about APA, to be honest, I had no idea it existed and that it was the technique that’s been used as formal communication and it’s the way Americans still communicate. I really appreciate the material was taught during the first month.

Learning about RSS and Diigo was also useful as, again, I had no knowledge of these tools to filter down your searches and interests. And speaking of search, there were other tools and guides provided to us upon how to search on the Internet and break down the information and filters and the guides on recognizing if your search sources are valid. UC Berkeley’s Online Workshops on ‘Fininding Information on the Internet: A Tutorial/Evaluating Web Pages: Techniques to Apply and Questions to Ask (2010) and Purdue Writing Lab’s (2010) were very useful as well.

Executive Leadership

I found very interesting several of the things taught in this class. For example, I was new to the Pecha Kucha style of making a presentation. Which came very handy since we used it several times later along the continuing of the program. Under this same format of presentation we had to choose a person that we considered our leader in the entertainment industry as well as another personality that we didn’t get to choose but was designated. I liked these activities because it allowed the class to learn about vey influential people that some of us were not as mush aware of their accomplishments

Very important in this class were the two books we read, “Developing the Leader Within You” by John Maxwell and the “48 Laws of Power” by Robert Greene.

Project and Team Management

The purpose of this class was to learn skills on how to manage group works and manage teams, which somehow complemented our previous course. As for in order to manage a team it would be ideal that the person would have some leadership skills. Our activities were based on this standpoint and we learned a very useful tool called MindMaster which helps improve mapping the order of assignments of determined project.

Business Storytelling and Brand Development

I saw this course as the artistic and creative side of marketing as we learned about how to develpo a brand based on a story, the type of mark and on some patterns of design such as colors and fonts. As a guideline it was very useful since part of this program was constructing the brand identity of our companies. In this course we did a market research paper, which was our first step in researching for our business plan. Also learning about the difference between a slogan and a tagline.

Entertainment Business Finance

As the name indicates, this course was our first step on researching and writing down our needs as far as income for the opening of our business and projecting an estimate of our income for at least the consecutive three years onward. Also I found very helpful learning about some basic formulas that are very necessary when getting together your numbers, such as: net sales, gross profit, operating income, net income, income after taxes, ROI, contribution margin, among others.

Negotiation and Deal Making

This was one of my favorite courses because we had weekly exercises based on true cases and using real contracts related to the industry. Where we had to acquire skills on negotiating for our own benefit without letting the other party notice.

Product and Artist Management

This class was extremely useful as for teaching insights on artist management through “The Business of Artist Management” by Xavier Frascogna and Lee Hatherington. Our class assignments also helped us prepare for our final course as we had the opportunity of working for the first time on our investor pitch presentation. As well, as another activity where we had to research and prepare a live event presentation.

Advanced Entertainment Law

This course was extremely important as we learned about the law aspects of this industry in this country. More specifically about trademarks and copyrights for those of us who will be creating something.  Among our class activities I remember having created a presentation of an idea of a contest where related to this course we were to highlight all aspects of the issue of liability. We also presented a research about famous celebrities facing legal challenges among their careers.

Entertainment Media Publishing and Distribution

This course was also one of my favorites as it was based around learning skills mostly on how to self-publish your work. Whether a composer, book writer or a screenwriter, since getting a distribution contract for the first time is very difficult or can cost you a lot of money. We also learned how to write query letters as part of the task of knocking on doors and finding new opportunities.

Digital Marketing

I found this course to be one of my favorites as well because it taught us about all the new tools available to market your company online and above all, doing it yourself. We learned about feedburner, Google Adwords, Google Analytics, Google Sites, Email Marketing, online surveys, customizing our blogs, and building surveys. We also got to start on our marketing strategy for our business plan.

Business Plan Development

As the name indicates this month was all about writing and putting together almost all of the pieces of our business plan to have it ready for our final month when our presentations were due. Among the sections we wrote and we learned how to during the process were: company description, management, operations, marketing and sales strategy, financials, industry analysis and trends, target market, the competition, technology plan. To make this happen we used “The Successful Business Plan, Secrets and Strategies” by Rhonda Abrams.

Final Project Business Plan

During this course we concluded our program. We completed the final sections of our business plan, like the executive summary, and table of contents. We also exercised our elevator/investor pitch and presented our final project. We also went through, income statements, balance sheets, depreciation, debt financing, star-up, fixed and variable costs, taxes, and equity. We learned how to search for a job and how to write clear cover letters.

Know your Key Players

When putting up together an event, whatever its nature is, I suggest knowing the key players in determined industries that will help you improve and achieve your goal. Because not all the events you will produce will fall into the same category you will need to know or at least search the target for each different topic or category and the same will apply as for the sponsoring and the production itself like, location, permits, licensing, and even providers. Start building a good network, stay connected, maintain your professional and friendship relationships, and be as professional as you can be. Prove that in the practice you are actually what you demonstrate. The reason why I suggest you do this is because as good as you might be at something you wont be able to do it all yourself. Most of the time you will need support from others to get what you want and in those moments is when you will wish to have been connected to someone you never spoke to again, or you will wish to go back to that moment when you had the opportunity to talk to someone and you didn’t. Be connected, know the key players, keep a good relationship with all of them or at least the people that you know will connect you to someone you know will be of great help.

It has a little to do with having a diplomatic relationship with everyone you know, even if sometimes you don’t see the point in maintaining communicated with people sometimes you don’t like much. This combined with a good professional record builds a reputation that you will want to take care of. A good reputation some people say is priceless and they might be right. And it’s not because of what others say but because most of the times you will learn that it will be the determining point that will help you open the doors that are kept closed for other people around you. 

Following Up on Business Plan Writing

Going back to my first blog post this month about the two experts in the business plan and investing field that we chose to write about, in my case Nic Brisbourne and Tim Berry, I can say that their inputs were very useful. Especially since this is my first time that I find myself writing a business plan and sometimes studying and reading about the knowhow is not enough. Books, classes and guides can sometimes oversee the reality when focusing on explaining every step of the BS and how to write it. That’s when, in my point of view, reaching out somehow to experts can count a thousand times more. Because it’s their job, their passion, and their opinions are priceless. And most importantly when they give insights on how investors act and what they are looking for when it’s you the one acting as the creator of a new business for the first time.

In my case I consider Brisbourne’s advice on going straight to the point summarizing concisely the financials, the product, the market and yourself very realistic and applicable since he speaks from his standpoint of being a venture capitalist in ‘Understanding how a business plan is read’ (2010) from the his ‘theequitykicker’. The most valuable insight is the one he points out when he says that venture capitalists are constantly reading and receiving business plans which makes them sometimes unable to go through the entire document and so they just go directly to the financial sections and a description of the company and the market. A little alike the when producers are reading a movie script where they to page of minute 10, 30 and the end and if it gets their attention then they read the complete document. It might seem unfair for the business man/woman but that’s the way it is so we really have to take advantage in going straight to the point concisely in order to get the capitalists attention. 

Nic Brisbourne and Tim Berry on what a Business Plan should include

In the context of our Business Plan Development course we have to research about what experts in the field of investment consider key that an entrepreneur should show in it’s BP. The reason? Well to prepare us or at least have the most accurate idea of how it works for when the time comes that we will need to present our own BP to a group of investors. I found two interesting articles/blogs of two experts that I considered useful and practical especially because it’s information coming from people that know what they do and have years of experience in the investment field.

Nic Brisbourne is a British expert venture capitalist since 2000 and is currently partnered with DFJ Spirit. Among his career he counts with being an expert focusing in software and media working from Europe to Silicon Valley and having been part of Reuters Venture Capital (www.telegraph.co.uk). Brisbourne not also enjoys being a venture capitalist but also shares his thoughts on the European market and venture capitalism through his blog ‘theequitykicker’ where one of his posts from September last year gives an interesting point of view. Although this article was also posted by another student in a previous course I also wanted to reference it because I kind of fell in love with Nic’s work and more specifically his blog and all he writes about; to me it just seems incredibly interesting and accurate. 
In ‘Understanding how a business plan is read’ Nic explores the difference between the venture capitalist and the entrepreneur in means of the writer and the reader. A thought he came up with after attending the BVCA conference. In Nic’s perspective, the reader, which in this case relates to the VC, usually has limited time to go thoroughly through a proposal due to the amount of business plans received every day, said in his words: “when I’m looking at a new business plan I’m rushed and my aim is to quickly work out whether it makes sense to meet the company behind the plan or whether we should politely let them know we are not interested”. Whereas in the case of the entrepreneur the scenario varies as they are trying to make THE impression so they can at least achieve a first meeting with a VC. So from the entrepreneur’s side a lot of time and effort are put into work when from the other side might not be ‘appreciated’ entirely since the VC’s read it quickly. So from this premise, Nic being a VC and understanding the other side of the coin, recommends the sections of a business plan that should be more explicit in order to drop in the list of future meetings:

•       Summary of product

•       Evidence of momentum – e.g. user traction or customers

•       Summary financials

•       Evidence of ambition

• Maybe a description of the market dynamics.

Another article I read that can complement the previous one is Tim Berry’s ‘What investors look for in a plan”. Tim berry is an entrepreneur, author and expert in business plan coaching. He is the president and founder of Palo Alto Software, bplans.com, and Borland International, and author of Business Plan Pro. He is also a speaker and a teacher. Berry shares that a venture capitalist usually is extra demanding because they use other people’s money to invest what makes them also be extra careful and leaving low limits of risk. Tim explains that for that reason when a VC searches or evaluates a business plan what they look for is:

•       A management team with a proven track record

•       A defensible product with a competitive advantage.

•       Reasonable valuation.

•       A clear statement of the investment offering

Another thing Berry considers important for a VC is “a clearly stated exit strategy”. Because according to his beliefs investors want to have evidence that the entrepreneur at least thought of how the investors will get their money back.

Orlando Calling, the next big festival

Appropriate to the topic of this blog is the upcoming event - Orlando Calling the 12^th and 13^th of November in the Citrus Bowl of Orlando. For the first time in this city an event of this magnitude is going to take place. Inspired on the Glastonbury Festivals, the concept is brought to our city in a two-day event consisting of 4 stages and more than 4000 bands to perform. Sounds exiting, right? Well it is! The fact that this kind of event will take place here could represent a lot to the city, the community and the music industry as well. Sometimes it seems that Orlando was only being perceived as a vacation destiny and the emphasis of promoting this city had been reduced just to that. While, as a matter of fact, being a touristic destination should be taken in advantage for so much more. Under this point of view I think it’s great for the community, for the economy and the tourism industry especially if it’s adopted as a yearly event. Then, of course for the music industry it also represents a huge step because it means there are more open doors where musicians and artists can knock on, more specifically for the local bands it’s a great opportunity as well. I just think that under any point of view this project can benefit a lot of people and industries.

Orlando Calling is being put up together by an exquisite team presided by Paul Lovett from Incognitus. Incognitus is a company that strives in consultancy of strategy, solution and sustainability for organizations around the world planning high scale events in global venues or retail management arenas. From project management, manpower logistics, efficiency engineering, to operational readiness, Paul together with his partners gather lots of years in experience in this field. A great asset that let’s us predict that this event will run flawless.

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Paramount Pictures distribution in Venezuela

At the beginning of July the movie Transformers 3: Dark side of the moon was released worldwide of course including in Latin America. And the country of Venezuela was no exception. The movie had been featured in the local charts for two weeks previous to the release date until two days before that it was taken out of the charts. At the moment the theater companies announced through their twitter accounts that the movie was no longer going to be shown nor released and the reasons were not disclosed. What generated a wave of anger within the Venezuelan population as the movie was highly expected. So the audience and the media started speculating about the real reason why the movie was not going to be shown.
The first reason they said why the movie was banned was because apparently there was a scene in the movie where the country was mentioned, which for those of us who have seen the movie know it’s not true, and the second reason was because the Venezuelan government was not giving enough money to the theater companies for them to purchase the movies from the distributors. One week after all this happened Paramount Pictures announced and confirmed the non-release of the movie in Venezuela and said the reasons would be communicated later on. 
Currently we are in the month of August and this first week Paramount Pictures announced that not only Transformers 3 was not going to be released in the mentioned country but also that non of their movies would be shown including next worldwide scheduled releases like: Captain America, Mission Impossible 4, Puss in Boots, Hugo, Super 8 and The Adventures of Tin Tin.  The note by Reuters (2011) says as follows: "Paramount reports that, until further notice, it is postponing the dates of its screenings in Venezuela"...

"We offer our most sincere apologies for the annoyance or inconvenience this may cause. Paramount appreciates your interest in the titles, which is why we will disclose more information when we have it”.

For more information you can click the link
http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/07/23/idINIndia-58409420110723

Self-distributing Your Music

Now speaking about the real self-publishing matter and how to get your work out there. More and more the people have turned to self publishing their stuff because distributors and publishers take too much percentage gain out of the artists work to most of the time not even dedicate the enough effort to put the material out there that it deserves. Or if not, they will just shut you down specially if you are an uprising artist because you “don’t have any background” that supports you so they just don’t consider you good enough to give their 100% to promote your material. And as doing it by your own can be very expensive relaying in those companies what you will better want to do to get your work out there is going to have to do it yourself! But don’t feel bad, this is not just happening to the music community, it happens in all the industries of the artistic community. And the good news is that there are online tools to help you do it and that will do the work for you in exchange of a small amount of money. 

For example, for those musicians that are trying to get their music out there SongCastMusic is a great tool. They are a digital music distribution to online music stores. By digital it means that you can upload your music on their website and they will distribute it to online stores, accordingly to the package that you choose, like itunes or amazonmp3, among others, and also they feature your music in their online radio network. You can categorize and catalogue your music and your band, collect your royalties and see how your sales are doing at the end of each month. You can do all these and some more for a budget of 14$ - $80. 

Think about it, it’s a great start, first of all because nowadays everything works online, specially the buy and sell practice. And is a guaranteed way to build your fan base and that ‘background’ that distributors and publishers ask for. You can start with a service like songcastmusic and after a few months jump to a publisher, if that’s what you want. Check it out: www.songcastmusic.com

Making others believe in you is part of distribution. Considering Simon Sinek's "Start With Why"

Fascinating as it is to me the subject of publishing and distribution especially when it carries the prefix “self”. If you have been following this blog or have read some of my previous posts you will find that consistently I link almost every professional matter (marketing, publishing, selling) to one’s personal skill in doing the same thing. I relate to ‘self-publish’ but not precisely meaning how to sell or position your product, but instead yourself. Marketing yourself, promoting yourself, publishing yourself. Why? Because when you are doing all these things in a professional environment, who you are truly representing is yourself and what you are truly selling is what you believe.

 When you go to a meeting to sell a project people buy whatever you are offering based on what you present – your belief, therefore, how you end up presenting the project because you are part of the package and part of what you represent. How you speak and how you deliver your speech, if you are able to trigger inside the other person the feeling that they ‘get’ what you are saying is because you managed to connect with the other person beyond the basics of the product.  When you are marketing a brand, for example, people almost end up buying its products if they like what the “seller” says, which in this case is you. Marketing, promoting, distributing are things very well known by experts and the people that study the strategies to be successful in these fields. But the masses, the consumers, the audience, the target, to this huge group it’s all the same. They don’t know the difference when somebody approaches them to show them a project, a product or an idea for a film, book or record album. To them is who you are and why you are doing it and how you present it that will make them take a decision. If they believe in you, then they will relate to your product, brand, project or idea. If they didn’t believe you, or in other words, did not ‘buy’ what you had to offer, then revise yourself, your speech and your presentation, because it means that somewhere in your package something did not ‘click’ in the other’s feelings or thoughts.

Few people realize this really. Now that I think about it, marketing, promoting, sales, among other subjects are classes that should be taught starting from this premise. Does it make sense to you as much as it does to me?

I strongly believe that if you speak from the heart it will be equally and proportionally conceived by the other party.  Because you need to connect with the audience beyond the superficial aspects of your product, that they might even already know, to trigger within their minds a feeling of belonging so they can relate to you. And the way to do it is aiming at including the ‘why’ not the ‘what’ in your speech.

I used to find a lot of logic in this topic before but somehow could not manage to explain it. It was until a few months ago in a previous course when Simon Sinek’s speech "Start With Why" was shared with us that I finally understood and became more inspired.  

Get inspired! Check out this link and I’m sure you’ll find some answers too. Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action | Video on TED.

Some Liabilities Might Come Up

In having your own business related to the entertainment industry there are several liability issues that you have to be specially carful about. Especially when it comes to copyright, fair use, defamation; everything that sums to infringement of original work. 

Following up on my business plan, the website, I have to register and police copyright of literary work, visual arts and newsletter among others. But since my website is meant to provide information our writers might at some point have to use another person’s property. Whether information from official sources, pictures, and possibly even music. So having this in mind I searched for podcasts of professionals in the field providing information about real cases that have served me as example and also to clarify some doubts or reinforce information that I might’ve forgotten and that at the end of the day is important to know.

The first case I want to talk about is mentioned in a podcast by Gordon Firemark in January of this year (http://www.entertainmentlawupdate.com/2011/01/episode-17-can-kanye-write-songs-140-characters-at-a-time/) is about American singer-songwriter, Josh Groban, action of using Kanye West’s tweets and make a song out of them. Although it didn’t get to court using West’s tweets can be considered infringement of copyright because Groban did not solicit permission. Contrary to Firemark’s opinion, he believes that Josh could claim fair use as in parody. In this same podcast, Firemark also speaks about a defamation case of literary registration that did get to court. It was presented as a counter claim by author Hachity when another author, Morris, registered a claim in her work that she thought she owned when in reality there another registration in place (Firemark, 2011). In the central district court Hachity claimed under summary judgment that Morris had defamed him through that claim but the motion was denied.

And finally I would like to comment and share with you about a podcast made by Wesly Fryer in 2008 available in http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2008/03/02/podcast235-copyright-fair-use-intellectual-property-and-podcasting-ncce-2008/ and it’s about a conference he dictated on that year’s Northwest Council for Computer Education. Oriented to teachers on their journey to educate students to correctly make a citation when publishing in any of the Internet tools or social media websites available. The reason? Because there’s been cases of students being sued over another’s original material that was improperly cited or not cited at all. Fryer comments, “all file sharing and remixing is not illegal” if a person properly gives credit to the original author.

So this was just a little demonstration of real life events from which we should all take as an example and to remember no to underestimate the fact that there is always someone reading what we publish.

When Website Business are Caught

At the time we were entering the globalization era, some time ago now, the use of Internet was innovative, modern, and all the good and positive things it would do to improve our lives and the human kind were pointed out. But years have passed by, we eventually got used to it, it’s not something only the “privileged” people can enjoy, and as a matter of fact it’s free nowadays. Of course, it also became the tool for excellence for marketing and selling and you can even find this “phenomenon” featured in college courses or also as a complete matter of study in a postgraduate level, always with the focus of understanding the psychology behind it, especially regarding consumers, how to improve its use and implementation and how to get the best out of it. 

Having said this, it was just a matter of time before the human nature kicked in and everybody started desiring to get a piece out of it. Especially concerning lawsuits for fraud and defamation issues or even to set loose the mean side in every one of us by heavily criticizing others in pursue of a possible damage to their image or reputation.  

Where this is most notorious is when it comes to websites that are user based or that their services evolve around ranking another business or service, like for example the tourism and gastronomic industry.

During the last five years several cases have arose regarding what I previously mentioned. The TripAdvisor and Yelp lawsuit cases are among the group of this industry that were affected after being accused for defamation and fraud. The plaintiffs were basically pleading diffusion of inaccurate information that was negative and harmful, in means of reputation, towards other companies. The issue with this is that when a website is user based, meaning that the users are the ones criticizing (whether positive or negative) or ranking another establishment or service, how do you control it if your business (i.e. Yelp) is precisely about giving the chance to another person to manifest their own opinion concluded after their own experience with the affected company?

On the other side then you can also find how personal issues can also be manifested through the Internet in the form of a blog. Talking about people that take seriously the ‘diary’ thing behind the blog. Anyone could think it’s a free world, I can do whatever I want if it’s my blog or my website, etc., but then you hear about a case similar to this when the accuser ended up getting 11.3 million in a defamation lawsuit against another woman that had been posting negative accusations about her.

So, going back to my initial statement. It was just a matter of time before these laws related situations started happening. Should we really be surprised?

To learn more about the cases mentioned:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-10-10-internet-defamation-case_x.htm

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2010/03/17/small-businesses-join-lawsuit-against-yelp/

http://www.aaronkellylaw.com/Internet-Law-and-Intellectual-Property-Articles/Tourism-Industry-Prepares-Massive-Internet-Defamation-Lawsuit-against-TripAdvisor-com.shtml

Promoting ourselves

I’ve been thinking about all these insights I’ve talked about concerning the promoting industry when I realized that in reality the first and foremost thing we should all be promoting is ourselves. Personally first and professionally second, because you can’t have one without the other. It’s got to do with vision, law of attraction, desire, and whatever other name you want to give it. We are what we want to be, we are where we want to be, and we do what we want to do. We are the ones who should be helping ourselves improve. Which is why we are responsible for our image and how the rest of the world sees us; we are responsible for our reputation.

It’s funny but it makes me wonder how come people usually tend to victimize themselves against life and for what happens to them, or in this case, how others perceive them. Please, do realize that you have a great deal of “guilt” in this. I believe that first you have to be in alignment with yourself in order to have the rest of the things in your life straightened up. Contrary to what the majority hasn’t realized as they give more importance to their work environment, how they perform and deliver results, professionally network, etc. and then you find out their personal lives and relationships are a mess, they have no idea of what happened and on top of that they complain about their situation and are completely surprised.

I would recommend first acknowledging that there’s not much difference between the professional and the personal environment, the same “rules” apply to play the game. Secondly, remember that as a human you will always have the power to choose, decide, and set the direction of your course. It’s not like others do it for you, or that life pushes you. A responsible attitude towards the actions we take, whether good or bad, will determine how you react in front of the hardest obstacles, the point of view from which you interpret things, and if you decide you will be your own promoter or you will be the complainer that watches the movie pass by.

Promoting is also renting...

One of the most important fields to be considered within promoting is the use of sound, video and lightning equipment. Although it might seem obvious to some the truth is most people don’t realize that the industry of these machines go hand to hand with promoting a live concert or an event. The reason is because when producing an event, of any kind, you will always need to rent such equipment. So as promoters usually do both: live concerts and events, including brand activation, what is commonly seen they do is create another brand or company, buy these machines and rent them to the same client that is hiring them for their event. Which is great because the more you can provide solutions to the client the better.

Not just for the clients, but also as another branch of the promoter that offers equipment rental services can be very profitable too. As a promoter you have a reputation built already so people will always trust you to handle their events under any point of view, even more if it’s just to rent a lamp or some speakers. So, why not? Make your promoter promote anything that’s promotable. Companies are always expanding trying to integrate services and at the same time grab some more pieces of the pie. Virgin did it, Live Nation did it, NBC Universal did it, and so on you will find smaller businesses trying to do the same thing. At least in Venezuela it works great because 5 out of 7 days a week you have events taking place all year round. Many brand activations going on, many children parties going on, product releases and many concerts too; among other things. I have seen it work and I know it’s profitable. See it as an investment, buy good equipments that will last a long time and will do the job people need. But always remember, the more services you offer the better, yes; but more responsibilities demand more attention and headaches. If you want to expand your business make sure you have the commitment to face growth and to do it as good as you can.

The Potential Within The Promoting Industry

Early in the week we had this assignment as part of our Finance course in the Master’s program where we had to research a company through its financial history. Since I’m into the promoting industry I obviously chose to research Live Nation Entertainment, of which BTW I’m a huge fan.

For those who don’t know, LN operates in four main businesses within the entertainment industry including the most commonly known, live concert promoting. They provide artist management and artist services, ticketing services and solutions through Ticketmaster, which they also own, and venue management that is possible because of the several venues they also own. According to Yahoo Finance (2011), “as of December 31, 2009, the company owned, operated, or leased 85 entertainment venues and 47 other facilities, including office leases in North America; and 27 entertainment venues and 32 facilities internationally” (¶ 1).

Live Nation has grown so much that it even turned into a publicly traded company and I consider this to be a huge success for them especially for being a promoter. I mean, you don’t see every day many promoters turn into a publicly traded company generating an annual revenue in sales of $5,063,748 every. I also believe the fact that they have tried to own the entertainment industry as much as they have creating or buying the means necessary to make their business instead of outsourcing the services is also a big value for this company.

While doing this project it reminded me of Richard Branson and Virgin. I follow Richard through my Personal Learning Networks, he is truly one of my heroes, and I have done several researches on him and his company for this program. After studying them I found these two companies have something in common; they both live from the entertainment industry although operating in different segments and they both have aimed their goals very high and have been successful; they think big. And that is something I feel related with.

How the Market Influences the Promoting Industry in Venezuela

Being from Venezuela at this time of the history is hard to conceive a business plan that could work there, especially for young people like me. The situation is very complex and weird because although it’s hard sometimes things do work.

The promoting industry in especial has a high opportunity to be successful because Venezuelans are very consumerism and fashion driven. The population might be struggling to get ends meet but still you will see everyone with the latest mobile phone, the latest car, the airport stuffed with people leaving for vacations, you will see the same people partying every weekend and spending a lot in new outfits, for such night outs, and drinks, and so on. For this reason products are easily placed in the market and are highly promoted with a lot of creative events when they are released making corporate promotions a good spot of work if you have an excellent sales team.

On the other hand, the concert promoting thing is quite different. It’s a small country with a small population, compared to others. So unless promoters present current and modern artists, especially the ones the young population is listening to, or maybe an older one but legendary, the sales are destined to be doomed because there is not enough audience. This combined with the monetary fact, the cost and the production of the event of an artist that you are certain it’s not going to be an100% sold out, the results will be negative.

The reason why I talk about this and have this point of view is because I worked within the two major promoters there and it was very clear that when they didn’t play it safe the event never did well having as consequence poor sales, a waste of money, time and man power. That’s just the way it is there.  In order to have a balanced finance in the promoting industry in this country is better to play it safe; stick with the hot artists and trends.

Chosing a professional association

What I love about promoting is that it can be diversified and directed into different directions. As in different areas of interest and work activity. For example, you can promote concerts, artists, events, brands trough brand activation, tourism, sports and entertainment media. You should be able to find a niche or a need and put your skills at work.

At Live Frequency Entertainment we are all about promoting and for this occasion we are working in the entertainment media industry promoting for the city of Orlando and neighbor cities. A project that offers different and innovative interaction with customers and a different marketing approach for clients. It’s great! But I’m not going to give any details; you will later see what it’s all about.

Today I want to talk about the importance of finding companies within the industry you are interested, maybe even competitors, that you can associate with and from which you can benefit in a positive way. The objective is to be partners in a professional way. You know them, and when you are ready to come out with your product, let them know who you are and what you offer. Connections within the same industry can lead to respect, information and knowledge from both sides and it can be very beneficial for you. In my case I decided to start with Orlando C.V.B. A professional association from which we can both benefit in means of network, information and advertising.

Richard Branson, My Hero

Richard Branson is THE person that has always inspired me since I was a teenager. The reasons are many, from the professional point of view to the personal and philanthropic work. What I like about him that makes me frequently come back to his work is the fact that his creativity is never in a standby mode, and then of course, the fact that his area of expertise is really the music business; it’s how he began and through which he later developed a single industry in now, more than 300 companies. 

Branson is currently 60 years old and thanks to his creativity and non-stop way of thinking he is a person that counts with immense knowledge and experience, and the best of all is that he is passionate about sharing it. If you are looking to be inspired and influenced by someone with factual experience, that really knows what he is talking about and that has to do with the entertainment industry, and above that, posses human quality and dignity, Richard Branson is the person you should be googling.

Start by following his blogs, like for example this article he wrote http://www.openforum.com/idea-hub/topics/innovation/article/how-to-succeed-at-failure-richard-branson?sorttype=newest Here you can appreciate how Branson is comfortable with other people asking him for business advices for entrepreneurs, managers, etc, you can measure his knowledge because he goes back to his experiences and mentions his failures as well as his accomplishments and how he has been able to bounce back when some of his projects failed after putting in them a lot of hard work and sociological invest. He speaks of this, of philanthropy, of the importance of the people, referring to his employees, how a company is built upon them and how managers should pay a closer attention to these valuable asset. He speaks of facing the competition with marketing strategies where at times he has had to sacrifice some his most wanted companies and how he has dealt with that sorrow; all in a very humble manner.

Richard Branson has a lot of knowledge to share that the young should take advantage of if they want some good advices of the entertainment industry. He is timeless and has created works and companies that will last a very long time, he is constantly evolving, each s something new, he has challenged the competition with boldness and has proved how things can be accomplished when you are restless, and even further, he is giving something back to the world, besides his business and marketing development, he takes his vision to help the planet through Virgin’s Earth Challenge, Green Fund and Unite.

Be inspired to go beyond.... check some of of these:

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/richard_branson_s_life_at_30_000_feet.html

http://english.alrroya.com/content/its-all-about-people

http://www.businessday.co.za/Articles/Content.aspx?id=119918

Take advantage of the internet!

The one tool I have always considered to be the most exact, precise, and to actually work is the internet. I always say that if a company, a brand, a store, a restaurant, nearly any kin of industry, that doesn’t have a well presented web page is a guarantee for bad service. My philosophy is that nowadays the web should be everyone’s presentation card. If you, or your company, or your band, have a sloppy web identity that says pretty much about your personality and the seriousness of your business. 

I say this for personal experience, I guess I consider myself a globalization/mass communication victim and a user. The population of well developed countries have an internet education, specially my generation and the following one. Meaning, that is to internet that everyone turns when looking for ANY information: a job, a soulmate, the weather forecast, check your accounts, searching for the university your are going to study in, see what movies are being released, connect to facebook and twitter, sell, buy, hire, ETC, and besides that, also it’s used for work issues. I’m sure that most people take their decisions based, in some percentage, on how they connected to the information an the site they searched. At least I am. If I am highly impressed with the web page presentation I will want to work with you. 

So if I’m trying to find out about a new artist that came out, search in google and then refer to the official site and find myself in a web page that has no information, has a terrible diagram, is very slow when opening a link or a tab, and in all, is a complete mess, I will be very disappointed and sad.

I have also experienced this with promoter’s sites. When i’m trying to find out about their upcoming events or concerts, I have encountered some unfriendly web pages, with little information and that are very heavy to work or upload. The media and photo links are terrible, the articles are poorly written and it’s uncomfortable to view and continuing to try to search for information.

I’m sure this has happened to you at least once when searching for something and it is quite an unpleasant experience and disappointment, especially if it’s something you where looking forward for. 

That’s why my suggestion to everyone out there that is aiming to sell ANYTHING, even yourself as a service provider, is to take care, pay more attention, invest, in your web presentation because there is people surfing out there every minute, and depending on what they see, they can become a potential costumer or not.


If you are going to invest in hiring a web designer, get involved! Point out your idea, what you want, what you want your costumer and potential ones to see and experience when they visit your site. And if you can't afford to hire a professional service, ask a friend or do it yourself! There are several programs for web designing that anyone can use and are very resourceful and user friendly, of course, if you are willing to try and learn. The key is to be concise in the delivery of the message and have an eye for detail.


Wether you do it yourself or hire someone, it is important you take advantage of the internet as a communication and selling tool because it is the modern presentation card; it's a reflection of you and your business.

Pat O' Brien's at Orlando, FL

Pat O' Brien's at Orlando's City Walk is a replica of the original Restaurant in New Orleans. I'm not exactly sure when it was opened but last friday was my first time there and I was pleasantly surprised.
The concept of the place is pretty nice as an option for doing something different in a touristic place especially if you enjoy live music.


Pat O' Brien's is a restaurant with a show area in an Irish Pub style kind of environment. Their show consists of two dueling pianos that play any song upon the public's request they give then them on a written napkin plus the tip while at the same time you can enjoy their full menu. They play every day from 4pm to 2am and you can see up to four different pianists.


Early in the night you can appreciate the place is already booked and the crowd will be enjoying dinner and requesting classic blues songs like from Sir Elton John, Elvis Presley, The Temptations, etc. I know, it sounds boring, but as it starts getting late an everybody has a a little more than a couple of drinks in their system you can end up hearing from Bon Jovi to Lady Gaga and the crowd would go nuts, even stand on the chairs, singing at the top of their lungs along the musicians at the time they will also cheer you up to participate. I'm telling you, I was there, I saw it and I did it.


The pianists do such a great job! they literally play any song and there is one I saw that if he didn't knew the lyrics of a song he would search for it on his iphone and scroll it down while playing. I'm not saying you should be a regular, but it's definitely really worth going with a group of friends one night. The food is good, the drinks are also good (the one I tried was called the Typhoon and I loved it), they also have a house drink or recipe called Hurricane which is pretty popular an it's served on a super large glass. By the way, all their glasses have the restaurant's name printed and you can take them home as a souvenir.


One recommendation I would suggest the owners is replacing the sound machines and lightning systems as they are really old and hire a sound engineer for at least thursday through friday as for currently the musicians themselves are the ones that regulate the lights and the sound. They are musicians not experts in that field. Other than this, which is something that you really spot if you have some knowledge about it, Pat O' Brien's is a great place to eat, sing, have fun and hear live music that you request! 


If you want to know a little more about them you can check out their web: www.patobriens.com