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HARRY JACOBS LIVE ALBUM RELEASE

The Harry Jacobs Chamber Music Society is excited to bring to AU students a new wave of live music in a way we haven’t done before. The society is planning on positioning itself in a local grassroots capacity that encompasses the entire sphere of Augusta University. The live release that is being planned here will be available in CD format and will be purchasable both through the new AU Music Department website/blog & physically on release day & beyond. Harry Jacobs is committed to excellence and integrity as a well-established chamber society in the Augusta market.

However, as Augusta University is also meant to be a place for students to have meaningful and fun experiences, we understand that having a little fun ourselves is what is meant to be. So, this album release will be supported by experiences such as a free giveaway competition, a listening party, and more! This album release will mark a new time in Harry Jacobs as we expand out to the students in a manner that allows for growth in support, membership, and revenue. This release matters to us and our goals as a world-class cast of musicians and we hope it will matter to you as well!

I – Executive Summary

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II – Goals & Objectives & Metrics

Obtain at least 500 new blog visitors/subscribers on the site over 12 weeks and retain them; this includes HJ members, AU students, Miller Theatre attendees(explained below), and newcomers from the regular Augusta area
Promote release with 3-5 posts on the blog per week and with blog updates on the official AU Music Department site
All concerts from Harry Jacobs in between start of promotion and release need to have at least 300 seats filled up each time; 125 for members & 175 for students; this will need to be done with both in-person and online promotion based on updated information regarding our advertising plan; that advertising will take place over the course of 3 months so the next two concerts including Boston Brass & the Galvin Cello Quartet concerts will be where we receive our measurements of this
Understanding that it is difficult to fill 736 seats for performances in the Maxwell Theatre, we will partner with the Miller Theatre for more opportunities to sell seats to their typical regulars; promote to them via conjoined advertising on their website & ours to obtain at least 100 more paying customers for our concerts, creating a total of 400 seats filled for each concert
The best way to decrease the bounce rate from the blog would be to sell the articles in a lighthearted or college-esq manner; in other words, write the articles in a language that college-age students will resonate with going back to the executive summary we have written to maintain AU’s student culture; We believe this along with removing the dates, keeping as many internal links, created custom-made videos(1 per week leading up to release), and relevant AU/HJ related content that fills the page; Calls to Action for the album release, etc. will decrease bounce rate by at least 5-7%
Sell 150 albums in total; 50 upon release day; 100 over course of the rest of promotion after release day; 3 free albums to giveaway winners from promotional contest

HARRY JACOBS LIVE ALBUM RELEASE

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HARRY JACOBS LIVE ALBUM RELEASE

The Harry Jacobs Chamber Music Society wants to incorporate a new batch of radio shows(2 total)(in the form of a podcast format) for AU students in cooperation with the local NPR station based in Augusta, WACG-FM that allows for extra support and a reduced timeline for creation and ongoing maintenance and management. As opposed to a traditional radio station that is constant; this will be in the realm of a weekly show that is pre-recorded and will contain a time-block of Harry Jacobs recorded songs over the course of the release timeline; It will also contain podcast-style commentary on the upcoming release, upcoming HJ concerts, and the AU Music Department as a whole. Following this, we want at least 50 weekly listeners that contain persistent listeners and interchangeable listeners as well
The Harry Jacobs Chamber Music Society also wants at least 100 attendees for the release party
Perhaps the most important goal of all is to get the percentage of conversions we receive from the 500 visitors/subscribers to blog over the course of the 12 weeks planned out before and at release; Harry Jacobs wants at least out of that 150 total to subscribe to the email list, or sign up to our free release giveaway, or purchase the CD upon release for a conversion rate of 3% which is fairly typical; 2-5% is ideal in most situations

II - Goals & Objectives & Metrics

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HARRY JACOBS LIVE ALBUM RELEASE

Weaknesses

Strengths

Not a large budget given the localized efforts, some ideas may need to be cut before and after end of album release timeline, even with additional resources from AU & NPR station
Since there is no direct competition, the primary competition is ourselves which can be a challenge with no external motivating Chamber Society competing against us
Not everyone would be willing to cooperate(Miller Theatre for example)
Student Attention Span is admittedly short unless we can appeal to the culture and interests of them.

Ability to create a new market in Augusta for Chamber Music
Ability to create a new form of revenue for the music department, HJ, and AU as a whole
Ability to form new opportunities similar to Music Industry certificate for academic success; such as new music-based degrees, etc.

Opportunities

Threats

As stated in the weaknesses section, there is no direct competition, only ourselves
The direct threat to our marketing and release plan are the deadlines and timeline itself
Budget deficits in regards to acquiring external resources, self-created resources like blog and radio weekly shows (sponsored by NPR)are essential to getting everything in order
Student dropoff throughout process i.e. blog writers, show hosts, concert attendees, visitors to site, etc.

Very localized effort that creates singular focus in market
Promotion through weekly blog updates
Easy access to large # of potential album buyers(students at AU, NPR station listeners, and already invested HJ members)
No real competition across the local Augusta market for chamber music

III – SWOT Analysis

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Instrument

HARRY JACOBS LIVE ALBUM RELEASE

Saxophone

Piano

Extra Target Info

No financial sociographic is required
We want integration of music department students and other students as a means of music majors promoting through word of mouth to our primary target which can be done through a promotion campaign

Target Audience
AU Students(priority target) – Summerville campus students are main goal, but all students from all campuses are to be welcome and targeted as well; no specific demographics or sociographics here, we want as many students as possible; typical college OR older
HJ paid members – these are particularly older in age and already have experience with/ HJ; so this is also priority in terms of our target audience
Another major target are those that attend shows at Miller Theatre; the artistic variety in shows offered there means that the appeal translates over to HJ and our performances
Future & Possible Music Department majors leaving high school; primary demographic being 18-year-olds who are interested in potentially pursuing a music major/career; promotion & impressions of the Department are key

IV – Target Audience/Persona

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HARRY JACOBS LIVE ALBUM RELEASE

IV – Target Audience/Persona

Ideal Persona – The Specific Individual That Harry Jacobs Wants
18-22 Years Old
Heavy Mobile User & Heavy Social Media User
Stays Up To Date On News & Headlines
Artistic/Creative & Nerdy
Music Lover
Open To New Experiences
Detail-Oriented – Can Translate To Music Listening Activities

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HARRY JACOBS LIVE ALBUM RELEASE

V – Content Plan

This will include all blog post and radio show topics & ideas for promotion & engagement posts; 3-5 blog posts beginning first week; escalates to 5-7 near album release day

Week 1 Blog Posts: Establishing the plan & building awareness of live album Release
Week 2 Blog Posts: Selling the brand of Harry Jacobs
Week 3 Blog Posts: Detailing current efforts with/ behind-the-scenes photos; Week 3: Radio shows/podcasts(2)(pre-recorded) start this week with contest being announced along with song rotation
Week 4 Blog Posts: Special Christmas edition with themed pics of Harry Jacobs members; Week 4 Radio shows: Christmas themed; speaking about music and the holiday
Week 5 Blog Posts: Email/Subscriber list is created for paying customers; Week 5 Radio shows: Detailing how Harry Jacobs can fit into the back-to-school routine for new semester
Week 6 Blog Posts: Promotion of next 2 upcoming Harry Jacobs concerts; Week 6 Radio shows: Promotion of upcoming Harry Jacobs concerts as well
Week 7 Blog Posts: Reaction to released teaser snippet of album from previous week; Week 7 Radio shows: Hinting at release date of album
Week 8 Blog Posts: Teasing announcement of listening party date; Week 8 Radio shows: Reveal of live album release date
Week 9 Blog Posts: Reveal of listening party date; Week 9 Radio Shows: Announcement of giveaway winners from contest
Week 10 Blog Posts(increase from 3-5 to 5-7): Last reminder/promotion for listening party; Week 10 Radio shows: Reflection on all hard work and hype for near release date
Week 11 Blog Posts: Hyping upcoming release of live album and full look at operation of entire promotion and team; Week 11 Radio Shows: Hyping upcoming release of live album & discussion of near HJ concert after live album release
Week 12 Blog Posts: Same as week 11 with more looks into operation & different pictures; Week 12 Radio shows: Hyping up live album release that is in week 12

Full Timeline/Schedule: See Appendix A

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VI – Budget/Action/Distribution

Live Album Recording for the 9 songs on album; 3 artists; 3 songs each; Diana Thompson-Brewer, Leonardo Colafelices, & Miles Hoffman; Smash House Recording for 75$ each hour; want to take whole day; 16 hours, on a Saturday to record 9 songs

Blog setup: Bluehost & WordPress Registration for domain; $11.99 per month for 3 months & beyond

Radio Shows sponsored by NPR local Augusta Station; TVC Lab equipment & designated times each week already provided and then mixed down

CDs ordered through Disc Makers; $294 for 150 CDs including CD w/ content, color printing, DVD black cases, full color wraparound cover, and poly/shrink wrap; CD Baby is not available as they have ended physical distribution; all distribution will be handled independently by AU Music Department & Harry Jacobs Chamber Music Society

Physical Promotion such as flyers over course of 3 months; we want at least 100 flyers sent over 12 weeks; 8 flyers a week plus 4 the week after release; 8.5x11 on 100# text weight paper is $0.30-$0.40 per flyer

Concert Promotion for Boston Brass & Galvin Cello Quartet; based on Professor Brumfield’s calculations, we want to spend roughly $1000 for promotion for each concert for more people to attend

Recording: $1200

Blog: $35.97; $143.88 for year

Radio Shows: No cost

CD orders: $294

Physical Promotion: $30-40

Next 2 Harry Jacobs Concert Promotions: $2000

Cumulative Budget: $3677.88 or around $3700

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HARRY JACOBS LIVE ALBUM RELEASE

On behalf of everyone involved in the planning of this live album release, we want to say thank you for dedicating your time to Harry Jacobs Chamber Music Society & the overall student body at Augusta University.

It’ll be an absolute pleasure to showcase our talented musicians to college students who ordinarily would never listen to our music. We want to make this process as fun & engaging for the students and the Augusta community at large.

We want to engage in the culture of college-age students in the best way possible to open up their minds to a world of sound that they simply may have not thought possible.

As we continue this plan & it’s process, we at Harry Jacobs Chamber Music Society are proud to keep serving Augusta University & Augusta at large.

We want everyone we can possibly pull aboard to help us give AU students & staff something to celebrate and cheer!

You will find almost everything included in this plan in the timeline/calendar presented in Appendix A along with an additional notes page regarding the student’s proposal whom we followed for this plan.

VII – Summary/Conclusion

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First Blog post gets written and ready to release

Cover Creation Continues; includes photos of each artist in album taken by HJ & AU Music Dept

Negotiations with local NPR \

Augusta station start for

access to start contest & prize giveaway promotion

Blog Posts continue after Monday negotiations;

negotiations continue

NPR Station becomes a sponser for contest and gives access to weekly HJ feature shows

Blog post trend continues; this time detailing all of our efforts with fun pictures

First round of weekly NPR sponsored shows begin with announcement of giveaway contest starting

Christmas special blog post appealing to college students regarding HJ with pics from the society in christmas themed pics

First blog post gets planned over weekend; live recording of 9 songs for album in studio; 3 artists; 3 songs each

Budget is fully outlined as of today as planning started on first day of December

Continue to post to blog this week

Blog Post; negotiations continue

Blog Post; negotiations

continue

Blog Post; negotiations

continue

Album Artwork begins to get put together;; negotiations

continue

CDs get ordered through Disc Makers; new cost as of 2023 - $294 for 150 albums;we want 150 sold with last 3 being the prize from free giveaway

CDs start being mastered & designed

Blog posts continue; CDs being mastered & designed

CDs being mastered & designed

Next round of promotional shows sponsored by NPR; Christmas edition; CDs being mastered & designed

It’s obvious that school is out at this time, but the posts still keep rolling in with special attention given through email to all students

CDs being mastered & designed

Blogf gets created;

live recording of 9 songs for album in studio; 3 artists; 3 songs each

CDs being mastered & designed

CDs being mastered & designed; for 31st too

2023

Sunday

Monday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Tuesday

Wednesday

First blog post is released;

starting promotion of Music Dept.

& HJ

Next post establishes goals

& objectives

of blog

Last post of week lays

out release plans

Begin Cover Creation for CD

VIII - Appendix A - Timeline

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2024

Friday

Saturday

Tuesday

Sunday

Monday

Thursday

Wednesday

CDs begin to get manufactured; first wave of email list cleanup

Blog posts continue with promotion of next 2 HJ concerts

Next round of podcast shows also promoting next HJ concerts

CDs being manufactured; 500 word contest continues

500 word contest continues; beginning of semester really kicks off w/fun activity here

Next wave of entries into contest gets announced for tomorrow the 12

First teaser snippet of album gets released to AU & public through blog;, email, all existing Music Dept. Social Media; next wave of entries

Closing the week with approval of proofs

Blog posts ramp back up in time for beginning of semester; email list for subscribers is created and promoted through all email

Next round of radio shows/podcasts with an emphasis on how HJ can fit in the back to school routine

CDs being mastered & designed;; outreach to

our target audiences ramps up with the announcement of who is participating in contest

Contest process begins with 500 word challenge being promoted across campus through word of mouth, blog post, and email/blog subscribers

CDs getting manufactured

Next wave of blog posts throughout week talking about the teaser snippet

Next wave of podcasts also talking about teaser, but hinting at the release date to come in the next week

CDs being manufactured

Blog posts teasing the release date reveal tomorrow

Next wave of podcasts by NPR revealing the release date to be February 23; a month to the day

CDs being manufactured

Next & Final Wave of entries is announced for contest tomorrow; announcement of today

Final wave of entries into contest is revealed and is announced contest is ending on the 26th

CDs being manufactured

Release date blasted across blog, word of mouth, HJ, NPR local station, & existing AU social media

Physical pre-order stations are set up across the AU Music Dept. & various locations including JSAC, Miller Theatre(small station there) other prominent campus locations; blog gets pre-order page added to it

500 word contest ends with the three winners being announced on the next rwave of radio shows Tuesday

CDs being manufactured

CDs get shipped to the AU Music Dept.; blog posts concerning the shipping

Next wave of radio shows announcing the three winners of the free album giveaway

Another round of pre-order stations for the middle of the week

CDs being manufactured

CDs getting manufactured\

VIII - Appendix A - Timeline

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2024

Friday

Saturday

Tuesday

Sunday

Monday

Thursday

Wednesday

Blog post planning goes double as we release instead of 3-5; now 5-7 a week in light of release

Blog posts describing the anticipation and the hard work it toook to get here with videos and pics of HJ and of AU students working hard

2nd to last wave of radio shows as we reflect back and continue to hupe the release and the giveaway winners

NPR Augusta station gives a direct shoutout to HJ and the music dept. and allows the entirety of Augusta to be exposed to the album ‘s release

Final Ramp up for final round of promotion before release on February 23rd

Continued promotion of next HJ concert; Boston Brass; Feb. 25th

Videos on blog of wild behind the scenes action from all portions of marketing; podcast, writers on blog, listening party, pre-order stations; laughter; fails, etc.

Bliog posts start to shift in planning ideas for more

Last promotion across blog, social media, and word of mouth strategies for listening party tomorrow

Blog posts detailing the length of tracks and # of tracks; 10 per album

Off

Final Round of Blog posts fully hyping the release and getting people ready for what’s to come; full scale look at the operation and the entire crew in the operation in a picture

Radio Shows final round promoting HJ; hyping up release and discussing Boston Brass

Same as the 12th

Same as 13th

Full scale joint promotion across entirety of AU with word of mouth, emails, social media, subscribers,etc.

Do the same as before in full joint promotion

across physical and digital means

(not

ro be confused with selling the CD;; purchasable

through blog and stations

(purchasable through blog and physical stations already established

CDs get delivered

Same as 14th

RELEASE DAY! We want to sell at least 50 of the 150 CDs from 9 A.M. to 7P.M.

Promotion of album will continue until at least 50 more copies of the CD are sold with last 3 going to the giveaway winners as promised

Promotion continues through blog

Promotion Continues through radio shows

VIII - Appendix A - Timeline

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2024

Friday

Saturday

Tuesday

Sunday

Monday

Thursday

Wednesday

Promotion continues through blog

Promotion continues through radio shows

Promotion continues through blog

Promotion continues through radio shows

Blog Posts start returning to AU Music Dept. Focus

Radio shows start returning to AU Music Dept. Focus

Expectation that last album(150th) is sold here

VIII - Appendix A - Timeline

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VIII - Appendix B – Student’s Proposal

Our plan for students to enjoy our new Harry Jacobs live album comes from one student’s marketing proposal to us. We have modified a few things and have built upon such work, but we just wanted to allow everyone, including AU’s wonderful student body to understand where we got all of our ideas, plans, & models from. The one thing to consider is that this IS an evolving plan and has been derived from the student’s work for our purposes to provide a meaningful experience to the students & staff at Augusta University with this release.

https://lms.augusta.edu/d2l/common/viewFile.d2lfile/Database/MTExMDk4MzY/Marketing%20Plan%20Outline_Alex%20Howard.pdf?ou=437232

https://lms.augusta.edu/d2l/common/viewFile.d2lfile/Database/MTExNjQ4Njk/Chapter%202%20Workshop_%20Alex%20Howard.pdf?ou=437232

https://lms.augusta.edu/d2l/common/viewFile.d2lfile/Database/MTExNzc3Nzg/Chapter%203%20Workshop_%20Alex%20Howard%20.pdf?ou=437232

https://lms.augusta.edu/d2l/common/viewFile.d2lfile/Database/MTEyMTAwMzY/Workshop%204_Alex%20Howard.pdf?ou=437232

https://lms.augusta.edu/d2l/common/viewFile.d2lfile/Database/MTEzMTkzNDg/Chapter%206%20Workshop_Alex%20Howard.pdf?ou=437232

https://lms.augusta.edu/d2l/common/viewFile.d2lfile/Database/MTEzNDI0MTU/Advertising%20Plan_Alex%20Howard.pdf?ou=437232

https://lms.augusta.edu/d2l/common/viewFile.d2lfile/Database/MTEzNjgxNzc/Radio%20Promo%20Plan_%20Alex%20Howard.pdf?ou=437232