Phish is using a fun flash video to keep fans engaged during their monthlong tour break.
Friday, June 26, 2009 was a day many of us won’t forget. The top story throughout the news media was the death of some super famous celebrity, but it wasn’t the only thing that was on the mind of music fans.
One of my favorite bands, Phish, unveiled a flash movie on its homepage, to “Save The Date” for a three day weekend festival, to take place over the Halloween weekend. This was a major announcement by the band, on a fan standpoint, for three reasons. First, Phish had broken up in 2004, before reuniting earlier this year. Second, they are famous for having weekend-long festivals, which inspired the multi-band events such as Bonnaroo, where they headlined this past June. Finally, Phish once had a long-standing Halloween tradition, where they would cover an entire album from another band in the middle of their epic three set shows. They have covered entire albums by The Beatles, The Who, The Talking Heads and The Velvet Underground on past Halloweens. However, they have not played a Halloween show since 1998, so the demand for a 2009 Halloween show would be in high demand. For Phish to host a Halloween concert as part of a larger festival, it instantly creates tremendous supply that would not be there if such a concert was at a 20,000 seat venue like Madison Square Garden.
The one major detail that Phish has not announced with this “Save The Date” is the location of the festival. The band began with a map of the continental US. Every few days, the homepage is updated with a new flash movie, creatively removing some states from the map (and the case today, returning previously deleted states). Message boards have been buzzing with rumors about where the location will be, as well as remaining tour dates for 2009. Early speculation has pointed to the site of the Coachella music festival, outside of Los Angeles, with hotels in the area being booked. However, in the current state of the map, California has been removed.
Where will this Phish festival take place? Time will tell. However, on a pure marketing standpoint, the “Save The Date” campaign has been a huge success. It has been bringing fans to the band’s official website on a daily basis during what would normally be a quiet time for web traffic.
