Beautiful cover.
Scott Matthews
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The rock’n’roll lifestyle
Before I got into advertising, I played bass in a band and ran my own music nights in Cardiff.
With a degree under my belt, I applied to a couple of ad agencies and I was lucky enough to get offered an account handling job.
With a degree under my belt, I applied to a couple of ad agencies and I was lucky enough to get offered an account handling job.
It didn’t take me long to realise that organising and running gigs was actually quite similar to account handling at an ad agency.
The venue owner? They’re a bit like your client.
They want your night to go well, they’ll help you out if you need it but ultimately they just need to make sure that what’s happening turns a profit and is good for the venue.
They want your night to go well, they’ll help you out if you need it but ultimately they just need to make sure that what’s happening turns a profit and is good for the venue.
The musicians? They’re your agency creatives. They’re often eccentric, sometimes diva-ish and frequently unpredictable.
But all this boils down to the reason the night’s happening, they’re the ones inventive enough to draw an audience into the venue.
But all this boils down to the reason the night’s happening, they’re the ones inventive enough to draw an audience into the venue.
The audience? An easy one. They’re obviously your ad’s audience.
Book a band that no one likes and you don’t get an audience. Book one that lots of people like and you’ve got a queue out the door.
Book a band that no one likes and you don’t get an audience. Book one that lots of people like and you’ve got a queue out the door.
And event organising is very similar to account handling. You have to make sure every group is happy.
You have to make sure the venue owners are happy, the night is a financial success and it’s the kind of night they want held in their venue.
You have to pick the right bands to play each venue and then make sure that they’re happy – that they’re treated well and that they get to play what they want to, how they want to. It’s also your job to make sure they sound the best they can do.
And finally (and most importantly) you have to make sure the audience are happy.
You have to make sure they enjoy themselves, they like the music, they like the venue and that they will come back again.
You have to make sure they enjoy themselves, they like the music, they like the venue and that they will come back again.
Enthusiastic but uninformed
I recently read W&K’s Honda effectiveness paper from 2005. They raise a really interesting point regarding the hypocrisy of how we look at brands.
On the one hand we try our hardest to talk about brands as if they are a living person. We talk about their personality, their beliefs, their values and the conversations and interactions they have with consumers.
On the other, we try and describe brands in just a couple of words – ‘witty & irreverent’ ‘enthusiastic & informed’ ‘sophisticated & optimistic’.
They argue we wouldn’t talk about a real person in this way. If brands are like people, we need to embrace the fact there is more to them than a couple of words.
In many ways I think they’re right.
We do need to embrace the complexity of brands. Whilst a single ad execution may communicate a single message, it is still jam packed with nuances and subtleties that add up to a bigger picture. A more complex picture. And with lots of executions across lots of channels over many years, that’s one complex picture!
And I also agree – two or three words to describe a brands personality clearly isn’t enough.
But a couple of sentences would probably do it wouldn’t it? I think all of us could describe a person we know reasonably well in a two or three hard working sentences.
So why not a brand?
Then when we actually produce the ads, they’ll fill in all of the gaps.
Culture Group Work
Here you can spy just some of the work we did for Culture Group and Live Unltd over the last couple of weeks. Huge congratulations to Peter, who worked to extremely tight deadlines to make sure these vids made it on time.
Here’s number one: UMBRELLA SALESMAN
Number two for yall: SPACEMAN SAUCE
An agressive number three: GANG WARFARE
Fourth and final: RATTLEGATE
Not much else going on other than revision here… Lotsa fun – can’t wait to get my finals out of the way…
Later gator x
16th – 26th April
So I was a little late doing this blog as I had my final pitch for the entrepreneurship module a Uni on Friday, and was not in the mood to write once I got back from it.
Think I’m going to stop the weekly updates for now and instead update as and when I have something to say, as revision is in full swing and there is very little movement on projects elsewhere.
What CAN i fill you in on?
Acoustic Attic: was a great success! Here are a couple of (dark & blurry) photos…
Huge thanks to Ten Feet Tall for giving us a reduced room hire fee and for serving some amazing cocktails…
Flaming Zombie…!
Here’s Kadesha, our fantastic opening act…
and here’s Three Pairs of Shoes…
Finally here’s our headliner, Stokes William…
Overall we raised £110 for charity. Not a huge amount but we’re still pretty happy with that considering the gig was slap bang in the revision period…
Castlecake: The Culture Group/Unltd videos are finally all finished! Waheey!
We also did a little rotoscoping over some of their video files, which were delivered yesterday!
The youtube links will appear on here shortly…!
The focus is back on our own website for a little while – fantastic news!
Publicis: I’ve just been accepted on to the Publicis summer school ‘ADcademy’! Wahey!
Runs between the 28th June and the 9th July. Exciting stuff!
And finally: Innocent Smoothies remake the Thriller video.
Stay lucky,
Ant x
10th – 16th April
Hey’o,
1) Acoustic Attic: CHARITY FOLK SPECIAL THIS SUNDAY!
Only a couple of days to go until the event… Everything’s in place – just gotta make sure we get people through the door now… If you’re reading this (and in Cardiff ) (or fancy a roadtrip) on Sunday please please come down… Doors at 8.30pm, 3 Great bands and 241 Cocktails!!
2) Castlecake: Culture Group work is moving quickly. Foley audio will be added to the animatics within the next week… Lots to do!
Here’s another frame from the animatic for you to feast your eyes on..
3) Istartedthefire: Frustrating work! Couple of leads to follow up but very thin on the ground.
AND FINALLY: Ryan Adams is amazing
3rd April – 9th April
Yo yo yo…
Pretty hectic week! (revision still hasn’t started. ouch.)
1) Acoustic Attic –
Somehow ended up with TWO groups for the event on facebook… not a completely bad thing?! – but makes communication & promotion a little harder… apologies if anyone gets the same message twice.
Here’s the first CLICK ME and here’s the second OR ME
You’re welcome to attend either. They’re both at the same time. At the same place.
2) Castlecake –
Just got back from an exciting pitch at The Culture Group in Cardiff. Our storyboards were approved and we were given the all clear to continue to production. Producing what??
We’ll be producing a series of viral shorts for their client ‘Live UnLtd.‘
Here’s a quick preview from our pre-production.
3) Istartedthefire Booking –
Still very slow. Venue promoters just won’t take risks!
Currently speaking to Brian at the Marrs Bar. Hopefully will be able to secure a Worcestershire gig with him…
AND FINALLY: I like this piano riff
27th March – 2nd April
Hello thereeee!
Fairly busy week – revision for finals should have started… but haven’t.
1) Acoustic Attic –
- 3 x Acts: Confirmed.
- Venue: Confirmed.
- Sound Engineer: Confirmed.
- Poster: Produced.
- Promotion: Needs a kick up the backside!
Here’s the poster:
Please tell your friends. I’ll whack the facebook group up on here once it is born.
2) Istartedthefire: Very slow this week. Spoken to around fifteen promoters with pretty shoddy results.
Rant ahoy: So many promoters expect bands to be able to sell x-million tickets before they let them play – it bypasses the point of a promoter in the first place. The risk of live music should lie with the promoter, as they are also the ones who stand to make money from ticket sales. Ergh!
3) Castlecake: Currently in talks with some very lovely people over at the culture group. More to come!
4) I really should start some revision!
And Finally: Click here
Love love love! xx
20th March – 26th March
Yo yo yo!
1) Acoustic Attic – I’ve found a great singer songwriter called Kadesha on myspace. I’m hoping she’ll agree to open our charity Acoustic Attic on April 18th! Check her music out here. Please keep messaging me if you fancy playing at the Acoustic Attic before summer – we’re still on the lookout for May artists.
2) Istartedthefire – The Istartedthefire band alldayer was a huge success! 12 bands playing throughout the day, and the Frog & Fiddle the fullest i’ve ever seen it! I was really pleased with how the Midnight Mile set played out – after an awful soundcheck, the gig went extremely well. As Miss Powell once said, ‘A bad soundcheck = Good gig.. or something like that… i think anyway.’
3) Castlecake – The new website is coming together nicely… It’s along the same vein as the old website, but will have richer content and some flashy animation…
Secondly, we’re still on the look-out for talented graphic &/or web &/or flash designers to join our creative team. Get in touch if you think that’s you (Just drop me an email at anthony@castlecake.co.uk)
4) Event Management – Anyone interested in gaining some event management work experience, drop me a line at anthony@castlecake.co.uk.
And finally: This TOTALLY reminds me of my gap yah. Click here.
Stay classy San Diego, xx
13th March – 19th March
Hello there!
Last week of term here, will be heading back to Cheltenham tomorrow for a couple of weeks…
1) Acoustic Attic – Unfortunately we’ve had our first act ‘Joshua Morgan’ drop out the 18th April charity event. Now looking to find a replacement act – if anyone you know wants to play the gig just email me a link to their myspace and we’ll go from there!
2) Istartedthefire – Sunday is the Istartedthefire band alldayer!! Should be a fantastic day – anyone that wants to pop down, doors open at 4pm. Should be pretty busy so best to head down asap if you want to get in! Midnight Mile will be playing fairly late I think…
3) Castlecake – Had a meeting with Venture Wales on Wednesday regarding the Castlecake start-up. I’ve got alot of work to do before the next meeting. Will keep you posted.
Secondly, the business cards arrived the other day! They really are sexy lil things!
Thirdly, we’re looking for some more talented people to join our creative team. Get in touch if you think that’s you (Just drop me an email at anthony@castlecake.co.uk)
4) Live Music Soc Battle of the Bands – Last night, we held our Battle of the Bands at Cardiff Union. A rather shocking result considering the popularity of Romantic rights but I think Whytel were the worthy winners. All acts were pretty tight and well rehearsed, although I must confessed I missed the Age at the heats, semis AND final! Attendance was roughly 250people – not as well as hoped but pretty sure we broke even. All’s well!
And finally: My Lovely Horse
(MAN I LOVE THAT VIDEO!)
In a bizzle xx
