Sure, Make Fun of the Dave Matthews Band If You Want....But You Can Learn From Their Marketing.

Hey, you can make fun of the Dave Matthews Band, I get it. Now, I've been to around 80 live DMB shows - going to 3 more this year even. I'm a fan. I also understand they have often been called one of the "Worst Bands of All-Time". They could've stopped making albums after Busted Stuff in 2002 (follow the Billy Joel I'm done making albums but still playing live move), and I'd be fine with that, but I still love them.

Quick aside - they've made a lot of good studio music since Busted Stuff in 2002. I present my Spotify playlist of top DMB studio recordings since Busted Stuff. Subscribe away to this fine playlist.

They also always deliver live. Anyways, I'm not here to talk about the band's music or why I've been to almost 80 shows. Although some of that will work its way in - naturally. I'm here to talk about the band's marketing. And guess what? They're really good at it.

When it comes to marketing, you could say for the Dave Matthews Band, all of the Ants Are Marching to the same beat.

When it comes to marketing and the Dave Matthews Band, What Would You Say? I say it's timely and relevant.

The marketing approach is much more than a Two Step, it's a number of different pieces of a band working together to tell a story.

DMB is the first band to have seven consecutive studio albums debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. You don't do that without some good marketing - and music. So, let's focus on the marketing of the band's latest album, Walk Around The Moon, which hit record stands and Spotify playlists on May 19, 2023.

• AI: It's a blog about marketing in 2023, so let's start with AI. Spotify knows I listen to a lot of Dave Matthews Band, so of course it's going to immediately pop up as a recommended listen when I logged in first thing Friday morning on the 19th.

• PR: They call PR earned media for a reason. It's not easy to generate coverage. You have to make the story angle interesting and compelling enough for the media to feel it's worth it for their audience to cover you. Not an easy thing to do for a band that's been around 30+ years. What story is there left to tell? Well, a GQ feature on Dave is a pretty good get isn't it? Coverage that goes beyond "the Dave Matthews Band is releasing a new album" angle. People are interested in stories about people. The GQ piece - The Dave Matthews Guide to Living and Dying - provides moments where even me, as a fan, learned something new - about lattes and about Dave. Even better, there's a video element to the piece. In 2023, a GQ hit can also be a broadcast hit - integrate video not only into your storytelling/content creation, but into your earned media whenever possible.

• Internal Influencers: Too often campaigns are launched without employees posting about it on their own social media channels. You think it would be the easiest tactic to move forward, but it's often the opposite. While Dave is not on social media (he once had a Tumblr account, that's right, Tumblr), the band members do a fantastic job of promoting the band on their social accounts.

And share your followers' content - give them the spotlight!

And to their credit, they - particularly bassist Stefan Lessard - keep it real:

• Grassroots. Deliver An Experience: It's tough to top the impact of delivering a great experience. Since its first live performance, May 11, 1991 - Dave Matthews Band's success can be greatly traced to the experience it delivers to fans live. It's why the band ranks 13th all-time in concert revenue, grossing over $1.8 billion through over 23 million tickets sold. At its live shows, DMB started - through a notebook people signed when they attended shows - its fan club, Warehouse - an email list serve that created an email series keeping fans up to date - starting in the 1990s and continuing today. In fact, when Ticketmaster encountered its disaster with Taylor Swift Era Tour tickets, they offloaded the remaining ticket inventory to DMB's ticketing platform Ticketstoday, a platform "initially for DMB’s fan club – 20-years ago." The live commitment continues today as the band debuted its 2023 tour, and the new season of its Friday Night live concert series on SXM, on the day of the Walk Around The Moon album release. Listening to Dave Matthews Band - whether it was through bootleg tapes in the 90s, burned CDs and iPods in the 2000s, and the DMB Couch Tour group on Facebook today (fans regularly stream entire concerts live for all to enjoy) - it's a shared experience, one that keeps fans loyal.

• Email, Text: From the "Satellite" of Sirius Radio to the aforementioned email list - yes of course, email and text notifications - at slightly different times - were delivered to fans' phones the morning of the album release. Is text too intrusive? Email for that matter? Possibly. it didn't bother me as a fan here - I liked the reminder as life is busy (as it is for most folks). Of course, you can always opt-out of receiving communications if you feel it's too much.

• Social: 94% of biz leaders believe social media builds brand reputation and loyalty. Social is a very important brand awareness channel. Sure, you only get so much with organic reach, but the way algorithms are working now, inspired by TikTok with the "For You" approach vs. who you're following, good content will get rewarded. And for a band like DMB, your fans will seek out your channels vs. waiting for them to appear in their newsfeeds. Oh, and DMB is on TikTok. It's audience may not be Gen Z per se, but your brand really needs to be on TikTok. The stats are too hard to ignore. It's a different world there, so let your social team cook - let them experiment on TikTok. it's worth it. Five TikTok tidbits:

1. Google’s own data found that 40% of young people primarily use TikTok and Instagram for search.
2. 50% of Millennials report visiting TikTok in the last three months along with 38% of Gen X-ers, according to HubSpot's 2022 Consumers Trends Report.
3. Marketers say that TikTok is the second most effective platform for video content. (HubSpot Blog)
4. TikTok has 1 billion global daily active users. (DataReportal)
5. A recent Kantar survey found that 67% of respondents agreed that ads on TikTok capture their attention, which is a 10% lead on other social media channels. (Kantar)

• Streaming Audio, Times Square Takeover (Combine Tactics): Combine tactics, and share it on social! Better yet, have your internal team members share it on social. A little takeover of the Adult Alternative music on Pandora, promoted in Times Square, and shared by band members. A great example of combining strong tactics to maximize impact. Combining real-world with digital - something the Dave Matthews Band does well - whether it's promoting an album or streaming its concerts live for all to enjoy.

In my opinion, the Dave Matthews Band is the Best of What's Around. You may agree, disagree, feel indifferent about it. Regardless, we can learn something from their marketing - and the roots of their marketing, which was to deliver a premier live experience that can be shared with others. That's how they started, and that's how they've continued to succeed. They bring their experience to life, no matter the channel, to their fans. Every summer, fans can count on a Dave Matthews Band tour.