Publications: PMP Magazine: Feature Articles
Branding and Publicity Conference Draws a Crowd: Music Groups Gather to Talk Business
Click here to view Josephine Hemsing’s opening remarks.
At noon on Monday, August 25, 2003, sixty-three professionals from the Greater Philadelphia music and performing arts community gathered at WHYY for the Philadelphia Music Project’s 2003 conference entitled Branding and Publicity for Music Organizations. These individuals represented forty-nine organizations, including PMP applicants and grantees, music schools and universities, arts centers, local foundations, and representatives of The Pew Charitable Trusts and Settlement Music School. The conference was also attended by individual artists, including Pew fellows and roster artists from Pennsylvania Performing Artists on Tour (PennPAT).
The program opened with Branding the Music Organization and Musician, a two-hour seminar conducted by Liam Abramson, Course Leader of Business and Professional Development for Musicians at London’s Royal Academy of Music and Trinity College of Music. Abramson discussed the basic tenets of marketing theory: how to brand an organization, or establish a unique image among similar groups.
Abramson encouraged attendees to approach brand creation comprehensively. According to Abramson, brand creation is not just about adopting any symbol, but using a symbol that communicates an organization’s identity and mission effectively. The speaker provided attendees with a checklist for successful development of a name, an image, and a brand, and stressed the degree to which consumers are inundated with advertisements; he emphasized that successful branding depends upon a music organization’s ability to focus its artistic profile for prospective audiences. He noted that a brand should be comprehensible to consumers, itemizing elements of a symbol such as typeface and color and how the public interprets each alternative. Abramson then went on to address how these visual aspects of a brand contribute to its overall feel, or its "essence" and "personality."
A two-hour panel discussion focusing on Successful Publicity Strategies for Music Organizations followed Abramson’s seminar. The panel included Josephine Hemsing (moderator), founder and Managing Director of Hemsing Associates; Aleba Gartner, new music publicist and founder of Aleba Gartner Associates; Don Lucoff, jazz publicist and founder of DL Media; and Cindy Byram, independent world music publicist. Panelists discussed the best practices for garnering media attention, outlining their approaches to preparing press materials and developing working relationships with music critics. Citing an often stressful work environment for journalists, panelists emphasized the importance of establishing their credibility by promoting only those music events that are truly newsworthy and by presenting press materials that are clear and succinct. The panel encouraged attendees to avoid generic and clichéd language in press releases and concluded with a question and answer period, maintaining that participants adopt reasonable and modest goals for attracting press attention.
