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HOW TO MAKE 8-FIGURES THROUGH A SINGLE LIVESTREAM EVENT! (Tip 1)

Tip 1: social media ads & choosing the performer(s)

For immediate release

By N. D. “Indy” Brennan

December 3, 2020 – Atlanta, Georgia – Marketing and promoting your online pay-to-view concert event can be incredibly easy if you have the audacity to break industry tradition. If promoted appropriately, a single night’s, online, live concert with the right artist and relationships can easily generate 7 to 8 figures profit. But again, you must be willing to break tradition. The following information explains how you can promote your next live, online concert event to maximize digital ticket sales and online attendance.

Social Media Ads

Let’s begin with the most common. For many, the obvious go-to for practically anything you are looking to sell or promote online are social ads. Generally speaking, this begins with nothing less than Facebook and Instagram. From here, the sky’s the limit. And while these platforms are modestly priced when comparing them to real-world marketing practices, one will still wonder whether or not he or she is getting the most bang for their buck. At the end of the day, coins still very rapidly add up to dollars.

Social ads are what most would consider a fundamental marketing requirement. But allow me to stress that, while social media ads are often effective to some degree, they are not the “be all-end all” to online marketing and promotions, especially with respect to live online performances.

When considering your budget and strategic marketing strategy, there are a number of other variables and considerations that should come into play. The Internet innately offers major cost-cutting and highly effective marketing facilities that would not possibly have the same result in real-life. With the right combination of online marketing tools, your event will make history.

So, is it recommended that you incorporate social media advertising into your event’s marketing and promotional budget? The answer is yes even on a low promotional budget. If nothing else, it helps to validate your event and strengthen your brand if someone happens to Google your event or conduct a search within a social channel. It is advised that you make Instagram-Facebook your starting point. While some people may question Facebook’s significance to the younger demographic, the reality is
Facebook continues to maintain one of the largest online populations in the world. And contrary to the belief of many Millennial and Gen-Z professionals, Facebook caters to more than your mom and dad’s generation. Most of your friends and family still have Facebook pages. Facts.

Choosing the Performer(s)

Quite naturally, the performing artist or group you livestream plays one of the most significant roles in the number of virtual attendees you can expect to host for your online event. To achieve 7 to 8 figures in online ticket sales you want to seek out performers with sizeable social media followings. This number can be a little tricky because most people would naturally think if someone has 500K people following them for example, they should be able to sell at least half of those people tickets. Or if someone has a couple million followers, you should be able to sell no less than a million tickets. Unfortunately, this is a huge misconception.

Casual Followers. The majority of followers on Instagram and Facebook – the two largest social media platforms – are what I often refer to as “casual followers.” These are people who may enjoy their music and may even take a moment to check out a post. They may be general lovers of a specific genre of music. They click the follow or friend button because they are interested but not necessarily because they are diehard fans. Casual followers use the follow feature almost like a social bookmark or “post playlist” rather than because they are crazy about the performer. In fact, they may “follow” performers who they take issue with as easily as those they like simply to be able to keep up with what the other performer is doing. You find a great deal of this practice within lovers of the Hip Hop music genre. Whatever their reasoning, casual followers do not always “naturally” convert into ticket purchasers. But that also doesn’t mean they won’t buy a ticket either.

Sleepers. The number of followers plays a tremendous part with most performers, whether they are real fans or casual followers. But there are also “sleepers.” These are people who, based on their fan-following alone, may not appear to have the size following to warrant pursuing. But this can also be extremely misleading. Example: Legendary Outkast group member Andre 3000 has less than 500K Instagram followers (451K) but projections suggest if he offered a livestream performance, he would sell well over a million tickets even if offered at a premium. But Andre 3000 is clearly an anomaly. He would possibly outsell many newer performers with 10-, 20-, or 30-times Andre’s current following. But there’s a logical reason for this: The combination of his musical history, recording success, and general mystique makes him this type of prize performer. He clearly does not spend countless hours curating content to build a following. But neither did Prince. He simply has that rare magical allure that few performers possess.

The Best Bet. As a general rule in order to generate 7- to 8-figures, target performers with a following of no less than 3 million followers, fans, subscribers, or friends on any given social media platform. Until your platform establishes a greater following, be conservative with your projections. A performer with 3 million followers on Instagram for example could conservatively project, on average, 3 to 10 percent of their following to purchase online tickets based on the performer and the marketing efforts employed. MADDCity.Live’s average ticket price is between $10 and $15 dollars. So, on the low-end, even if a performer has an audience of 3% or approximately 100K, your event will gross more than a million dollars in ticket sales. I’ll get into the amazing net return that you can expect later.

WARNING: The amount of revenue, both gross and net, that you can expect is unprecedented. But as you plan, be certain to expect the unexpected (unless you limit the number of tickets that can be sold or set an expiration date for ticket sales). Example: On September 21 of this year, multi-platinum performing artist Danileigh performed on the MADDCity.Live virtual stage. Danileigh has 2.9M followers on Instagram (IG @iamdanileigh). Conservative projections suggested audience attendance would fall between 100K and 250K. Danileigh garnered more than 800K server requests or 4 times the projections for a single-night’s livestream performance. Again, this is not an exact science but the more shows that you offer, the larger your database. As your database grows, ticket sales will naturally increase.

This is only the beginning. There are quite a few other factors and steps that you will want to consider and take before promoting an online, pay-to-view concert event. Stay tuned for what follows.

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N. D. “Indy” Brennan is the live event coordinator and senior digital marketing executive for MADDCity.Live. His experience with live event performance streaming dates back to the late 1990s. For more information from N. D. “Indy” Brennan or to assist with your next livestream concert event, send your emails to ndbrennan@maddcity.live. Follow him on IG @thesocialmediamillionaire or @ndbrennanauthor.

HOW TO MAKE 8-FIGURES THROUGH A SINGLE LIVESTREAM EVENT! (Tip 2)

Tip 2: The Biggest Secret to Livestream Concert Success

For immediate release

By N. D. “Indy” Brennan

December 10, 2020 – Atlanta, Georgia – The single greatest influence of your live, online concert event are NOT social media ads, major influencers, hashtags, general posts, television and radio commercials, or third-party interviews, though all of these things may assist. It isn’t the size of record label, the need for a single being in rotation, or a popular corresponding podcast channel. In fact, the single greatest influence on marketing and promoting your live, online concert event is so obvious that many people miss it. The most important contribution that can be made to veritably ensure digital ticket sales is the level, degree, or amount of actual face-to-face video engagement by the actual performer with his or her followers. Believe it or not, this is the “secret sauce” that many promoters, labels, managers, and industry executives simply don’t get.

Think about it from a practical perspective. An online event promoter’s marketing foundation is built very specifically on lovers of the particular artist or music the artist performs. Anyone who attempts to debate this fact is a fool.

A performer’s social media base is primarily comprised of fans and followers of the performer or, generally, individuals who have at least an acute interest in the artist or the music. Otherwise, why follow, friend, or subscribe to their channel or page? Why allow your personal feeds to be infected by the performer unless you had some degree of interest?

When a person on any social media platform posts a comment or video or prepares to “go live” where this feature is available, people who follow this individual are immediately notified. Even in instances where the fan or follower is not online, many will still receive a text notification on their Smartphone. Likewise, a copy of the post, video, invitation, or notice will be waiting for them when that person finally logs in or opens up their page. This flow of communication practically guarantees that at some point of the day, most of their fans and followers will receive notice of the news, video or event posted or planned.

It has also been proven that color images effect and stimulate more brain cells on average than black and white images. At the same instant, moving color pictures, or video, has an even greater effect and stimulation than color still images. The same is true within social media. While posts are great, videos draw more attention and causes more people to capture and retain more information than a still image.

There is no greater influencer to drawing fans to attend a live, online concert event than a personal video invitation coming directly from the performer through his or her own social media channel. A few moments of personal video engagement between an artist and their fans over a social media channel will increase ticket sales by leaps and bounds. The more accessible a performer appears to be to his or her fans, the more excited their fans or social media followers will be about their live online concert event.

The greatest difference between an online event and an event held in a physical performance venue is that the virtual venue is limitless or capable of facilitating hundreds of thousands to millions of digital ticket holders for a single live concert performance. As a result, earnings from a single online concert event has the potential of exceeding ticket sales to a physical performance 100 to 1000 times its revenue on its best night even within physical venues claiming the highest seating capacity possible.

There is no greater marketing tool for an online concert event than frequent personal video engagement between a performing artist and his or her fans or social media followers. The greater the frequency and enthusiasm by the performer, the higher the number of online ticket sales will be.

And be specific within your livestream performance contract about how video invitations will be distributed, the minimum number and frequency of video posts, how video posts will be disseminated online, and how social engagement will work. There needs to be a clear understanding regarding the social media marketing expectations and efforts made by the performer.

Remember, this style of marketing is new to many performing artists and their management team. Historically, performers contributed very little towards the marketing efforts for a concert. But marketing an online concert event is quite different from a physical event. Unless you have the budget of a major label, the brand recognition of a Ticketmaster, and the unprecedented star-power of Beyonce, you will require the assistance and participation of the performing artist in order to achieve maximum attendance goals.

Getting the performing artist involved is the newest and biggest secret to livestream concert promotion success. Wonderfully colored posts are great. Social media ad campaigns may have some nominal effect. But video invitations and the live engagement between the performer and the fans are the most effective tools within your marketing arsenal. Employing this simple strategy will make the difference between a 100,000-person online audience performance and a million+ paid digital ticketholders.

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N. D. “Indy” Brennan is the live event coordinator and senior digital marketing executive for MADDCity.Live. His experience with live event performance streaming dates back to the late 1990s. For more information from N. D. “Indy” Brennan or to assist with your next livestream concert event, send your emails to ndbrennan@maddcity.live. Follow him on IG @thesocialmediamillionaire or @ndbrennanauthor.

HOW TO MAKE 8-FIGURES THROUGH A SINGLE LIVESTREAM EVENT!

Part I: The History of Pay-Per-View

By N. D. “Indy” Brennan

In order to place the concept of “pay-per-view” special event broadcasting into its proper perspective, it may be interesting to find out how far back this business model dates and how, even from its inception, it was viewed as an unprecedented revenue generating opportunity. So, let’s take a moment to consider the history of pay-per-view live event broadcasting and the individuals who were pivotal in the advancement and promotion of this dynamic entertainment medium.

First of all, pay-per-view home entertainment has an unexpectedly extensive history. And though many would presume that its roots might be grounded in live musical performances, the truth is that professional boxing is the entertainment genre that assisted in laying the foundation of this highly lucrative medium. In its heyday, professional boxing was one of the most sought-after forms of entertainment in the world. As early as the 1960s, this unrivalled financial resource established wealth within places and individuals you would never expect.

Pay-per-view is a financial vehicle imbued with the unmitigated ability to transform a small business or group of individuals into billionaire corporations or business moguls practically overnight. Likewise, pay-per-view home entertainment has always had the power to influence and entertain millions within minutes from the early broadcasting days of conventional cable television to today’s livestream performances across new age devices.

Pay-Per-View (PPV) Event History

The first home pay-per-view cable television broadcast was the rematch of Floyd Patterson versus Ingemar Johansson in 1960. A 10-year-old media company, TelePrompTer, charged approximately 25,000 fans $2 each to watch Patterson regain his heavyweight title through pay-per-view television broadcasting. And while $2 may sound like a modest ticket price by today’s standards, the company’s gross return of $50,000 would be the equivalent to $439,662 today – an amazing feat for an unprecedented platform with modest national marketing capabilities. In fact, it is said that by the third match between the two boxers in 1961, 100,000 paid cable subscribers viewed the exhibition.

But the fighter who arguably made the greatest contribution to the advancement of pay-per-view home entertainment was the great Muhammed Ali. It is not known whether it was his early boxing promoters, the television networks or The Champ himself that encouraged this platform, but Muhammed Ali fought in at least two bouts via pay-per-view home television beginning as early as in the 1960s. Under his birth name, the fighter once known as Cassius Clay contended with Doug Jones in 1963. Then in 1964, 250,000 fans paid to view Muhammed Ali take on Sonny Liston.

Meanwhile In 1967, famed boxing promoter, Don King, was convicted of voluntary manslaughter for allegedly stomping one of his employees to death. King consequently served three years and eleven months inside of an Ohio state prison. But in 1975, just three years following his release, Don King negotiated one of the biggest fights of the decade, Mohammed Ali versus “Smokin” Joe Frazier, more notably referred to as “The Thrilla in Manila.” This bout was the acclaimed sequel to his previously titled “Rumble in the Jungle.” While the fight was physically held in the east Asian country of The Philippines, King envisioned the event as one that could be experienced around the world. The result was more than 1 billion people watched the fight. 100 million watched on closed circuit theatre television and 500,000 HBO subscribers paid an additional charge to watch this legendary battle between these two boxing titans. This is why Muhammed Ali and Don King are considered two of the leading early influencers for the establishment of pay-per-view home entertainment as we understand it today.

Even with that being said, September 16, 1981 is still credited as the date the first “major” pay-per-view event was publicly broadcasted. The event was a spectacular boxing match between two legendary boxing greats for the World Welterweight championship: Sugar Ray Leonard verses Thomas “Hitman” Hearn. A worldwide audience of more than 300 million people watched the pay-per-view fight. This single worldwide broadcast grossed more than a billion dollar for the night.

The cost to facilitate the magnitude of these broadcast easily exceeds millions of dollars today when considering promotion, regulation fees, broadcasting rates, and so on. Likewise, pay-per-view broadcasting has transcended the boxing arena. Pay-per-view now reaches into the areas of motivational speaking, professional conferences, martial arts and wrestling, and performance entertainment. Up until recently, pay-per-view broadcasting was generally monopolized by the larger networks and cable companies. For the average promoter, artist, or label, this type of financial investment is generally reserved for exceptionally popular performers, and, even then, there are mountains of red tape, bureaucracy, and industry politics that one must cut through before an event can simply be approved.

But with the emergence of 5G and IPv.6 Internet networks and technologies, many of the traditional expenses and corporate headaches are significantly reduced. This, in turn, opens up a world of opportunity to performing bands and artists as well as record labels, live performance venues, and event promoters that did not previously exist. Today, signed and independent artists alike have the potential to generate tour-like revenue from a single night’s livestream performance.

History teaches us that pay-per-view live entertainment continues to offer earnings that other performance platforms simply cannot begin to reach. Pay-per-view is as potentially profitable today in the Beyonce and Tyson Fury era as it was in Muhammed Ali’s heyday. The primary difference is pay-per-view broadcasting online is a fraction of traditional cost, exposure is now immediately global, and access is suddenly in the palm of your hand.

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N. D. “Indy” Brennan is the live event coordinator and senior digital marketing executive for MADDCity.Live. His experience with live event performance streaming dates back to the late 1990s. For more information from N. D. “Indy” Brennan or to assist with your next livestream concert event, send your emails to ndbrennan@maddcity.live.