Business Lessons from Josh Groban
August 29, 2007
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I haven’t lost my voice from screaming at a concert since high school…I just LOVE Josh Groban!! I not only adore his voice, I admire his humility and gratitude for the opportunities he’s been given, and now I’m impressed with his marketing strategy. If you get a chance…go see his Awake! tour!!
Here’s several things I learned about business from Josh Groban’s Salt Lake City concert…perhaps the credit belongs to Josh’s producers, but he’s the visible one, the one who executed the plan…(photo by tshein) I just listened to The Great Formula and there’s a lot of “sell them a 2nd glass” going on at concerts done well, look at how Josh succeeded:
- Before Josh came on stage an announcement was made that Salt Lake City was selected to be filmed for his concert DVD, because Josh loved his SLC fans so much. Instantly that made me feel appreciated and valued by Josh because I live here and even MORE happy I was there (was that even possible? yeah!)
- The announcer also had us practice how we would welcome Josh and he said, “help Josh to really feel the LOVE, if he waves a little, give a BIG wave back…etc.” The crowd went CRAZY. I wondered if this was the only city they would film at…I bet they at least do 1-2 other cities to get a mix for the DVD, but they never said that of course, we all were led to believe that OUR Concert would be the “eternal” one. Make the audience feel special and you’ve sold them…I bet SLC fans will ALL buy that DVD (and Denver and London and …your city too?)
- Once Josh came on stage it became clear that he cared a GREAT deal about the fans. He was singing on the sides a lot and even had ramps built that “raised him up” (like the pun?) to greet more fans. He even came down the aisles at one point with body guards before and behind him, and the crowd loved the surprise. He spent several songs singing with and to fans. My husband said that a singer who goes into the crowd and interacts with them sells more CDs at the concerts. Personal experience with the singer makes a lasting memory “I’ll never wash my hand again…”
- Josh also took time to be spontaneous...he did some non-rehearsed fun little tunes that were improvized based on “gifts” from the audience (a random cowboy hat and some elton john type glasses), even if these gifts were “planted” the segment seemed really natural and fun, showing a different side. I just went to a conference last week and wished some of the professional speakers weren’t so rehearsed…nice to see Josh can do that.
- Josh shared personal experiences with us about his South African visit and how his fans have raised (again giving credit to the audience) thousands of dollars in charity efforts and put the websites to several charities on his big screen while he talked about it, making his audience see he’s humanitarian, one was Nelson Mandela’s site, www.46664.com
- Josh generously gave credit and “shared links”, he always gave the name of composers/lyricists when he sang. He is clearly strategic in his songwriting too, one of my favorites is one he wrote with Dave Matthews, Lullaby. I love the “now rest your wings my butterfly” line.
- And…if you want Josh Groban tickets paid for– purchase several, sell off on Craig’s List for higher prices week of when they are most in demand…we made about $200 and got our tickets paid for.
thank you very much, SLC fans!
Very cool insights! I am a big Josh fan as well:). Isn’t it great how we can learn so much from others even if they are not in our field of work? I recently came across this website, check out their VERY unique way to help others and build an amazing name for themselves in the meantime: http://tomsshoes.com/
Heather
http://www.mom4life.com
I enjoyed your story. FYI, the gifts are not planted, I know the people who gave them to Josh. Josh’s fans are truly loyal to him and he knows and loves it. Besides, no fans, no career. I am sure there is a lot of marketing going on. However, his parents and family are very involved with his life. He lets you get to know him through his music and humor. He actually is a big goofball. With Josh Groban, what you see is what you get. He works hard and it shows. Josh’s true fans call themselves “Grobanites”. It may seem silly to some. However, we are all like family. People from around the world (not just the States). We help Josh’s foundation and each other in time of need. WHAT MORE DOES THIS WORLD NEED RIGHT NOW THAN TO LOVE AND HELP EACH OTHER. I am proud to say “I am a Grobanite”. Lori “aka” MKqueenbee.
Heather-Glad to hear you love Josh too! Thanks so much for sharing about Toms Shoes…excellent concept! I’ll buy some now that I know another child gets a pair when I purchase one.
Lori-Thanks for setting the record straight about the cowboy hat and elton john glasses. I guess his fans know him well enough that he’ll improvize with quirky gifts. It’s not just that Josh has fans–lots of singers have those, he has a grassroots marketing team with the Grobanites, too bad he doesn’t have an affiliate program where you can get a percent of sales when you recommend him/support him! I’d go for that. I guess you can do that with Amazon and iTunes though!
KELLY! When was this concert? I would have loved to met up with you and go! Darn it, I missed it! You lucky girl.
Loved the post. Thanks for sharing.
Aaah! I’m a very bad friend. I should have called you…it was Tuesday night. Sorry! Next year!! Forgive me!
Hmm, this is a kind of cynical post. Josh’s artistic directions are from the heart, and are not a “business decision.” Numerous interviews back me up because Josh is very clear on the direction he goes and why he does things the way he does. The direction of his musical career would have been quite different if he had been motivated by “business” considerations. His decisions are actually made in spite of conventional music industry beliefs concerning profits. As for buying tickets in advance and selling at a profit so you can go to the concert for free, well, the net effect is that students and people less well off will not be able to afford the tickets. And it is probably not legal. You probably won’t post this but at least you will have read some of it.
Hi Alice,
Thanks for taking time to comment and share your thoughts. Cynical? Hmm…not sure about that, I wrote the post at 2am when I just got back from the concert and was so excited about it I couldn’t sleep. I had to share how great I think Josh and his team are.
I agree with you that Josh is artistically talented! He clearly spent a great deal of time and effort on his album and it’s super–his best yet. My point in the post is that he is savvy in business too. It’s ok to have a marketing strategy! Believe me–I’m from Burbank, I have friends who are producers, they think about these things for months. In fact, I wish that MORE artists had some foresight for how to produce a show better and how to be more effective with their fans. The thing about Josh is even if he doesn’t realize there is a strategy behind what he does…he is effective doing things that WORK and that is why he is so successful. I wouldn’t ever say that Josh is motivated by money–he seems very genuine, but there’s nothing wrong with ensuring that you have a great tour, that your CD sells well, that your crew and team get paid well so that you can be on tour in another 5 years, even 10. No doubt Josh will be around for decades. His style appeals to young and old alike. I sat there with my mom, my husband, and my grandma! We all screamed, ‘We love you Josh!’
As far as this site goes–it’s not a Josh fan site. It’s a business site where I look at life experiences and comment on what is going well and try to encourage others to succeed. I hope that if anyone is planning a concert that there might be some ideas from this post that might be helpful (for example, spend time WITH your audience, be spontaneous, etc.)
Lastly, I don’t know where you live but in Utah reselling tickets is legal and people do it before every concert and event. I don’t have a lot of money myself and probably would not have been able to attend if I didn’t recoup the costs of the tickets, so we tried to be creative so we could attend. We waited 3 hours in line to purchase the tickets and so if you figure that in, we did a service for those who didn’t know about the concert and were delighted to get a ticket last minute.
Thanks for stopping by StartUp Princess! Enjoy your Awake CD. I love it.