North Florida Bluegrass Promo as a Model for Promoters and Bands

Ernie Evans, President of the North Florida Bluegrass Association and a member of Valerie Smith and Liberty Pike, has posted a promotional video to try to boost the visibility and effectiveness of the association's outreach and programmatic efforts.  The video stands as a fairly easy to produce and highly effective means for festival and other event promoters, bands, associations, and others to make their offerings visible in a lively and interesting fashion.  Before I make further comments, here's the promo:

When I saw this piece, I became very excited about its potential to help improve outreach and visibility for a variety of bluegrass organizations and individuals.  Ernie tells me he produced this video in about three hours using Windows Movie Maker, available on most Windows based systems.  I assume the comparable Mac program is at least as effective and even easier to use. It took about three hours to put the promo together, including writing the script and scrounging through his files to find the pictures he wanted to use.  He says, "It's a very simple program to use."  He says that he hopes to capture a portion of the people who tune in to his and wife Deb's local bluegrass radio program.   He comments, "Most associations [and by extension, other potential fans] wait for potential members to come to them, and that's how we at NFBA used to do it.  I am focusing this year on more of an 'outreach strategy.'  I wll have a tri-fold brochure that will be in every tourist and public venue that will allow us to put them in.  We all assume that people understand what bluegrass really is and that there is only a choice to 'like it or not.'"  He suggests that people's attitude changes when they take two minutes to become educated about the music.  His presentation is two minutes long.

Ernie Evans at Work with VSLP

 

A quick look in my All Programs file shows that I, too, have a copy of Windows Movie Maker, which I've never used.  In the next few weeks I'll try to learn to use it, from scratch, and give readers a report.  Meanwhile, Ernie's effort here stands as a testimony to the idea that a relatively small effort has the potential to create big dividends at the box office, in association membership and attendance, in the sale of CD's, and for other associated goals. Imagine embedding a video presentation like the one above in your association or band's web site.  Give it some thought.