I don’t know about you, but I love Dave Grohl and LOVE Josh Homme. I could not be any more stoked about their new band trio Them Crooked Vultures with John Paul Jones. Josh Homme is probably the only person I would ever cry all over if I were lucky enough to meet him. Dave Grohl is arguably one of the most talented people in the music industry today – I was floored when I learned he recorded nearly the entire Foo Fighters’ debut album on his own. And John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin… enough said.

Little girl excitement aside, I am intrigued lately by the methods of promotion Them Crooked Vultures are employing to build buzz around their startup and super secret tour.

Once the rumors were confirmed and the band was public, they fired up their social media/viral WOM campaign and the fan frustration ensued. The guys created accounts on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and now YouTube to help keep fans informed of any updates. It was evident that the band would be performing only a select few venues in the beginning. The confusing part is how long it takes fans to figure out where they would be playing next, even with all the “updates” the band has been posting for the fans.

So far, this has been the process in no particular order:

1. Post a link to a specific set of coordinates and distance on Google Earth. – Gets people guessing.
2. Post another link to set of coordinates, but closer in distance to the target location. –Builds anticipation.
3. Post a link to a YouTube clip of 30 seconds of previously unheard music. – People want MORE!
4. More Google Earth links, but still not a specific location. – Madness ensues.
5. Post a link to a single picture from the concert. – People go crazy for more music clips.
6. Post a tweet linking to their Facebook profile, update their Facebook status with a link to their Twitter page. – People are basically sheep at this point and the band can do whatever they want.

But even with all its ambiguity, the campaign seems to be paying off for the band. They have over 21,000 Facebook fans, nearly 9,500 followers on Twitter and over 297,000 MySpace profile hits. The band’s debut performance was a recent surprise show in Chicago, which of course sold out online after only 3 minutes. They later did a show in Melkweg with box office only tickets, which were sold in groups and required a photo ID to prevent scalping. And the reason for the secret shows and poor quality live fan-made videos? Cameras are prohibited from the shows, meaning the majority of online videos are those posted by the guys themselves. MORE MORE MORE!!! The band is completely in control over what is posted online and what bones are thrown to the fans.

Crystal Archbell, Program Manager

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 20th, 2009 at 7:18 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.