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    SUNSET STRIP MUSIC FESTIVAL

    The Sunset Strip Music Festival: Traditional PR and New Social Media

    Jonathan Barba

    California State University, Fullerton

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    Abstract

    Public relations are expanding to social media. Today, corporations hire social media experts to

    run a plethora of social media accounts. These emergent communication forums are gaining

    popularity and utility within the practice of public relations. However, the carefully developed

    art of public relations will not be overrun by social media. The challenge for todays

    practitioners is discovering ways to explore new communication frontiers while still being true

    to traditional PR practices. The Sunset Strip Music Festival (SSMF) serves as en exemplary

    model of utilizing best practices in public relations as well as incorporating more innovative

    social media tactics. This case study examines the Sunset Strip Music Festival as a public

    relations campaign. Specifically, it traces traditional public relations practices, and the influence

    of the social media site Twitter.

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    The Sunset Strip Music Festival: PR and New Social Media

    The Sunset Strip Music Festival is a three day music festival held on the Sunset Strip in

    West Hollywood, California. SSMF tickets grant access to six prestigious music venues along

    the Sunset Strip: the Cat Club, the House of Blues, the Key Club, the Roxy, the Viper Room,

    and the Whiskey a Go Go. In 2008, the year examined in this study, the ticket also granted

    access to additional outdoor stages along a one mile portion of the Sunset Strip. Tickets sold for

    $39.50 presale and $50 at the gate. Nic Adler, founder of SSMF describes the event, The street

    fest is part music festival, part club experience, and part celebration of The Sunset Strip.

    (Behrens, 2009)

    The public relations activities enacted to promote SSMF can be categorized into

    traditional and non traditional PR practices. SSMF executed a traditional public relations

    campaign utilizing branding, an event cycle, sponsorship, and celebrity appeal. Simultaneously,

    SSMF developed an innovative social media campaign that forged new utility for public

    relations in social media, specifically Twitter. This campaign couples traditional public relations

    discipline with innovative use of social media creating a professional, effective, and

    contemporary public relations effort.

    Situational Analysis

    The Sunset Strip was once a rock and roll Mecca. In recent years, however, its reputation

    has been dwindling. Zach Behrens (2009), a Los Angeles blogger for the the siteLAistnotes

    that The Sunset Strip built its reputation in the 70s and 80s. Vannessa Franko, a Southern

    California journalist recalls the Doors, Bob Marley, Motley Creu, Guns N Roses, and the

    Police performing on the Sunset Strip as far back as 1966. (Franko 2008) She states, The Strip

    was the setting for some of the most important music to come around in the last 50 years.

    (Franko, 2008 ppg. 2)

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    Recently this hot bed of music has cooled significantly. Blogger Zach Behrens laments,

    These days it can feel like a ghost town.(2009) Nic Alder, through personal communication,

    states that the Sunset Strip is suffering from increased local music venue competition and the

    affects of the weaker economy. A Los Angeles County reporter cites Universal City, the

    Hollywood Corridor, and the Third Street Promenade as specific venues that are detracting from

    the draw of The Strip. (Franko, 2009) These threats, manifested in weak foot traffic and

    decreased venue attendance, are the driving force behind the founding of the Sunset Strip Music

    Festival. The Sunset Strip Music Festival is, at its very core, a public relations mechanism to

    revitalize the popularity and reputation of this historic music district.

    Goals and Objectives

    An overarching goal of the Sunset Strip Music Festival is to revitalize The Sunset Strip as

    a prominent attraction for music lovers. Promotions for the Sunset strip music festival are

    intended to highlight the rich history of the location as well as promote The Strip as an exciting

    destination for locals and tourists alike.

    One discernable objective of the campaign is to preemptively create awareness in music

    consuming publics of The Sunset Strips rich history. This objective is apparent in materials

    leading up to the weekend of the festival, September 10th through 12th. A press release issued

    July 23, 2009 emphasizes the term World Famous Sunset Strip. (Sunset Strip, 2009 d para. 6)

    This same press release uses the term Iconic Boulevard in a quote by SSMF Executive

    Director Todd Steadman. This same press release, issued by SSMFs official PR firm, the Mitch

    Schneider Organization, expresses that a goal of SSMF is to Promote, preserve, and perpetuate

    the legendary Sunset Strip Music Experience. (Sunset Strip, 2009 d para.10) In using terms

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    like world famous iconic and legendary, the SSMF campaign seeks to educate potential

    patrons of its historic reputation.

    A second objective of the campaign, under the overarching goal of revitalizing the Sunset

    Strip, is to highlight the diversity of entertainment available to todays patrons. In personal

    communication with Nic Adler (Oct 2009), he expresses that few people actually come to the

    strip as a destination. Instead people go directly to specific venues for a specific event and

    directly home after. Adler expresses a desire to present the entire strip as a blanket location for

    spontaneity and living in the moment. The tools and tactics of SSMF repeatedly promote the

    entertainment diversity of the sunset strip as well as the aforementioned history.

    Tools and Tactics:

    The tools and tactics of the SSMF campaign can be divided into traditional PR practices

    and non-traditional practices. Both categories work to achieve campaign objectives and the

    overarching goal of revitalizing The Sunset Strip.

    Traditional tactics include branding, sponsorship, celebrity appeal, and the utilization of

    a strategic event cycle. Non traditional tactics were comprised of social media tactics, and can

    be best illustrated through the use of twitter.

    Branding

    The Sunset Strip Music Festival and its acronym SSMF are an encompassing brand for

    all of the venues that collaborated on the festival. According to Nic Adler, through personal

    communication, a stylized SSMF logo was created for the festival by the design company

    Signature Creative. Branding themselves as one entity, the venues and businesses of The Sunset

    Strip can speak to the history of the location, promote The Sunset Strip as a destination for

    spontaneity, and also promote the diversity within the encompassing brand. Working towards

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    the goal of revitalizing The Sunset Strip as a whole, the first logical tactic in that process is to

    brand the entire Sunset Strip for one robust public relations campaign.

    Sponsors

    Sponsorships for the Sunset Strip Music Festival brought both resources for the event as well as

    prestige. This then contributed to the objective of reestablishing the reputation of the festival

    and the strip as the hot spot for music in Los Angeles. Sponsors of SSMF included; the Andaz

    Hotel, Virgin America, V Australia, 98.7 fm, Jack Daniels, Ticket Master, Signature Creative,

    City Of West Hollywood, West Hollywood Marketing and Visitors Bureau, Coffee Bean & Tea

    Leaf, Metal Jeans, Miller Light, LA Weekly, Whole Foods West Hollywood, and Art Guitar.

    (PRwire, May 14)

    Celebrity Appeal

    The use of celebrity appeal can be traced to the goal of revitalizing the reputation the

    Sunset Strip and the objective of connecting the location to its history. Multiple press releases

    from the SSMF campaign lead with the mention of either Korn or Ozzy Osborne. (Ozzy,2009 a;

    Ozzy,2009 b; Korn, 2009 a; Korn, 2009 b) This use of celebrity not only increases the

    newsworthiness of the event, but also creates the connection to the rock and roll foundations of

    The Sunset Strip. A press release, for example, leads a story with Ozzys name, mentions his

    roots at The Sunset Strip, and goes on to mention the details of the SSMF event. (Ozzy, 2009 b)

    The campaign was able to propagate its messages behind the headline of a celebrity name.

    Event Cycle

    The Sunset Strip Music Festival displays a tremendous grasp on the traditional practice

    of creating an event cycle. A timeline of events created sustained and measured newsworthy

    moments where SSMF could promote its objectives of historical reputation and modern diversity

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    of entertainment. On May 6th a press release announced Ozzy Osbourne would join the festival.

    It also highlighted his five day stint at the Whiskey a Go Go with Slayer decades ago.(Ozzy Set,

    2009 a) The city of West Hollywood issues a press release May 13, 2009 that announces the

    next days Faces of Sunset Boulevard event. (Faces, 2009) This press release also highlighted

    the history of The Strip as well as listing the diverse venues that participate in the festival. A

    press release issued September 9th highlights the declaration of Ozzy Osbourne day by the city of

    West Hollywood, and also highlights Ozzys historic connection to The Sunset Strip. (City,

    2009). On September 10th a detailed press release announces the official party of the Sunset

    Strip Music Festival along with detailed information about the history of The Sunset Strip and

    the participating venues. (Virgin, 2009) Additional press worthy events included a call for

    volunteers on August 6th (News, 2009), multiple announcements of featured artists(Behrens,

    2009 a; Behrens, 2009 c; Korn, 2009 a), and even a Twitter event on the 9th of September. (The

    Sunset, 2009 c)

    Twitter

    The SSMF campaign did two revolutionary things with its use of twitter. First it used

    geography oriented twitter strategies to activate public through the creation of tweet-crawl.

    Second it was an early pioneer incorporating the use of twitter hashtags and usernames in

    press releases. Though many corporations and organizations are becoming privy to the

    advantageous of twitter, SSMF has a documented press release on September 3, 2009 that

    utilizes the Twitter username @thesunsetstrip in the opening line of the release (The Sunset,

    2009 c). Additionally the press release mentions the Twitter user names of all six major venues

    of the sunset strip along with the hashtag #stripcrawl. This infusion of twitter lingo allows

    journalists to find the corresponding twitter conversations that give the press release the added

    emphasis of a robust social media conversation associated with the campaign.

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    The #stripcrawltweet-crawl event was an ingenious innovation by the SSMF campaign.

    Where most social media experts utilize twitter as a listening device and a tool for two way

    communication, the SSMF campaign expanded the boundaries of twitter, incorporated

    geography, instantly mobilized target publics and converged social media with traditional media

    practices.

    Among the six venues of the SSMF and the Sunset Strip Twitter account there are tens of

    thousand of followers online. SSMF created a tweet-crawl under the title #stripcrawlto activate

    these publics. The tweet crawl starts with one venue announcing an amazing deal for a specific

    amount of time. This action, through Twitter, was able to get people out to that venue. Then

    another venue would announce, through Twitter, that their amazing deal would be next and

    would end at a certain time. The crowd at the first venue then walks to the next venue. This

    happened throughout the night of the tweet-crawl among the six major venues on the Sunset

    Strip.

    The implications of the tweet-crawl expanded the functionality of twitter into the realm

    of activating publics to real time geographic locations. Conversely the integration of twitter

    usernames and hash tags in formal press releases expanded the realm of public relations to the

    point where using twitter lingo (such as hashtags and at mentions) in a press release may, and

    arguably will, become as common practice as including a phone number and website.

    Evaluation

    The SSMF did a successful job through a qualitative analysis of their press clippings.

    However, on a quantitative level the campaign did not have the type of local media saturation

    that is possible with such a large event. Though the goals and objectives were eloquently

    addressed in the tactics of the campaign, message exposure and thus the reputation and

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    reintroduction to the Sunset Strip Music Festival could be expanded. In the end the qualitative

    goals were met, but they could be expanded to larger quantities of publics.

    Future Recommendations

    Future Recommendations include seeking more televised coverage of the festival. Also

    Nic Adler, through personal communication, admits that promotions slumped in the final weeks

    leading to the campaign due to focus on the logistics of the event. In the future it would be

    recommended to pursuit more press coverage in the final weeks of the campaign. This could

    include paid advertisement, but ideally feature stories could be pitched. In the short term one

    could focus on local media saturation. In the long term one could focus on national diffusion of

    SSMFs growing reputation.

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    References

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    Behrens, Zach. Sunset Strip Music Fest Free for L.A. City, County Firefighters 2009

    Behrens, Zach. Sunset Strip Music Fest Announces Line-Up & Street Closures. (23, July2009). Laist.com.

    Behrens, Zach. Photos: Sunset Strip Music Festival Brings Life Back to the Streets 2009

    City of West Hollywood Declares Thursday, September 10, 2009 Ozzy Osbourne Day ; Rock

    Legend Ozzy Osbourne to Be Honored at the Sunset Strip Music Festival. (2009).[Press

    Release] West Hollywood: Business Wire.

    City to Host Sunset Strip Music Festival Sept. 10 -13. (11 September 2009). [PressRelease]. West Hollywood: US Fed News, .

    Cornell Pulls out of Sunset Strip Festival Surprise. (2009). [Press Release] Los Angeles: World

    Entertainment News Network.

    'Faces of Sunset Boulevard' Event, Pre-Launch Party of Sunset Strip Music Festival onmay 14, 2009. (2009) [Press Release]. West Hollywood: City of West Hollywood.

    Fascinating fact. (2009). [Press Release]. West Hollywood: World Entertainment NewsNetwork, . Document WENN000020090910e59a0008o

    FRANKO VANESSA. (2008, June 20). UP FRONT // ROCK `N' ROLL'S GROUND ZERO //

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    HALL, D. (2009). Ozzy, Korn Thrill at Sunset Strip ; the Daylong Festival Invaded Clubsand Shut Down Sunset Boulevard. The Orange County Register, .

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