OCTOBER | THE COLUMNISTS
Access’ Next
Generation winners
talk social media
and sustainability...
Social butterflies
Dan Andrew, founder,
Be-Known Music
48
We discuss social media a lot with
our artists. The key way to drive
growth is to be out there doing
things, to be building a narrative
and engaging with fans. You have
to tag the right places, comment
back and feel the rapport. Some of
the most successful stories are from
those that take the time.
There’s a great essay on The
Techium website that says once
you have 1,000 True Fans you have
an ecosystem. When there’s so
much opportunity to be seen you
need to do more and post more and
tag the right people. If you engage,
then you will keep building. They
key is to do things consistently.
It’s like the bamboo plant: you can
plant a root, then water it for years,
then it grows suddenly in just six
weeks. But you needed to water it
consistently to get that result in the
first place.
The Internet is so big you can find
communities that appeal to you and
your audience. You will also build a
fan base while playing live and then
the two converge. We do a lot of the
‘b class’, festivals but they are great
fun, and they have loyal local fans,
and they can pay good fees too.
Build networks with people
similar to you and take up
opportunities. I’ve seen artists
get signed just off their Internet
presence alone, but I’ve also seen
buskers signed off the streets.
Thank you, October
Mehram Sumray-Roots, founder,
YADA Events Peace, love and Attenborough.
Simon Skelt, event manager
Kilimanjaro Live
Thank you, October, for replacing
my festival-filled Instagram feed
with festive party-planning.
Goodbye celebrities in your
outrageous outfits pretending
to enjoy yourselves. Contrary
to popular belief, millennials
are not sucked in by celebrity
endorsements at festivals and
events. In fact, the majority of us
actively dislike them.
For a while now we have been
waiting for the influencer bubble
to burst, but for the last 18-months
a protective army of micro-
influencers has been fighting
to keep it intact. The Internet
is buzzing with event experts
suggesting that micro is the way
forward as audiences find them
more authentic and many events
are even hosting separate micro-
influencer days. But does micro
really work and what does it mean?
250,000 people descended on
Coachella and shared over 4 million
hashtags contributing to over $700
million worth of economic activity
in seven days. Brands were said
to have spent almost double their
budget on more micro influencers
with 1,000 followers rather than
celebrities and their engagement
levels were 80% higher.
Not all of us have Coachella
budgets (yet), but is a micro or two
the answer? As we all know the world is in
a bit of a pickle at the moment,
slowly destroying itself due to
the irresponsibility of our species
over the past couple of hundred
years. Now, I don’t need to preach
about the damage plastic is doing
to the planet as we all saw that
Attenborough documentary. A
couple of years ago we decided that
it was time to significantly reduce
the amount of single use plastic we
use at our major events. The most
significant change was with water.
Previously we ordered in
thousands of bottles of water each
year, of which many were opened,
sipped, put down and forgotten
about. To tackle this we bought
in water dispensers, dotting
them throughout the backstage
areas and the stage. We informed
everyone on site to bring their
own bottle and we used reusable
aluminium bottles for artist stage
waters. This may seem like a small
change but changing the status
quo and asking people to re-fill a
bottle can be harder than it seems.
Fortunately for us we have the
pleasure of working with some very
understanding and like-minded
contractors and tour managers who
all agree that a change is needed.
Long may it continue.