Creative Marketing 101

~ Sometimes you have to think right outside the box. Especially if you are trying to sell something as common as a CD. Even more so in an age when many people choose to download music illegally (and legally) via the internet.

And to cap it all off, it must seem like an almost impossible task when you are a drummer for hire, rather than the front man for a world famous rock outfit.

All this an more must have been going through the mind of Josh Freese, a drummer who has recorded on hundreds of albums, and played with top acts like Devo, A Perfect Circle, and Nine Inch Nails.

Josh has just released his second album, Since 1972, and was looking for ways to promote and market it, when he came up with not one, but eleven weird and wacky ideas. Concepts so far outside the box, that they have generated a host of media interviews and queries drawing attention to the album, and to the man behind it – and to the crazy marketing ideas.

Ideas like this one: For $50, you get a CD/DVD double-disc set, T-shirt and five-minute "thank you" phone call from Freese for buying the record.

Or how about this: For $2,500 you get to take three items of your choice out of Freese's closet (limited to five people).

Then there is this: For $10,000 Freese takes you and a guest to Disneyland and gives you his Volvo station wagon (limited to one person).

And finally, a spare $20,000 will get you a signed CD/DVD, plus you get to play miniature golf with Freese, singer Maynard James Keenan from Tool and Mark Mothersbaugh from Devo. After the outing, Freese promises to "drop you off on the side of the freeway (all filmed and posted on YouTube)."

Now that’s creative marketing.

It remains to be seen just how many people will take Freese up on his various offers, and it will be interesting to see how his album sales go. At least he tried to think outside the box, and generated some unique ideas and concepts. You can be sure many other musicians will be watching with interest.

Read an interview with Josh Freese at the UnderWired blog…
Visit Josh Freese’s website to hear the album and download a free MP3…
Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

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