When I signed my first record deal, to a Chicago indie label that intended to promote my album by purchasing air time on MTV, little did I know the amount of innovation this tiny label would be unleashing upon the indie rock world.
Granted, we had no idea at the time that what we were doing was innovative. We were just looking for any side entrance into the big game.
Our first priority was to distinguish ourselves from every other unknown indie band vying for your cash.
By 1988, vinyl's days were numbered, but the ease with which any band could afford to have professional retail-ready cassettes duplicated made the idea of pressing up tapes unappealing.
CD's, on the other hand, were still in their infancy and, while expensive to have manufactured, the idea of being the only CD among the stacks of tapes on Metro booker Joe Shanahan's desk might give us just the edge we needed to get our foot in the door.
It worked, of course, as Shanahan called one afternoon out-of-the-blue to compliment me on the snazzy new CD and to discuss dates for my Metro debut.
Meanwhile, as part of my label's master plan to move units via MTV commercial air-time, we began cold-calling cable providers to ask about ad rates and to find out how one went about getting your own commercial on TV.
The first thing we'd have to do, of course, was film a commercial, which wound up being a walk in the park once one of the cable providers mentioned that they had a complete production studio and, for the size of the ad buy we were looking at, would be more than happy to provide use of the studio, a camera person, and one film editor for an afternoon.
Of course, we'd have to drive to Champaign, IL, where we had actually recorded the album, ironically enough.
Once there, we borrowed a bass from the Last Gentlemen, and went in to shoot our spot.
Keep in mind that, while the label owner and I had painstakingly spent the past week honing the voice-over script down to a clean, tight 30-second spot, we had absolutely no idea what to do visually so, once inside the studio, we popped the top on a few wine bottles and just started filming crap.
Obviously, when in a TV studio, you make use of as many kitschy editing f/x as possible so that, upon seeing the commercial 30 years later, you are immediately mortified by how poorly both you and the commercial have aged.
Thankfully, all such copies of said commercial appear to have been destroyed.
Having said that, with our hot new commercial in-hand, it was now time to begin scheduling when the spots would run. Very early on, we discovered that there was a huge difference in ad rates during prime-time and, say, 3AM.
In fact, you could air your spots every morning at 3AM for a month for the same amount of cash you could air the same spot three times during prime-time.
The only question left to ask was "Would more potential customers be watching MTV sober during prime-time or buzzed to the hilt at 3AM?"
3AM it was.
Also, buying ads on MTV in Champaign, IL was much cheaper than buying the same exact air-time on MTV in the Chicago market, so we stuck to smaller markets.
While we were doing this strictly to sell CD's a la Slim Whitman, buying all this ad time over the course of weeks and months had an unexpected effect on my overall "brand recognition" and, thus, when I pulled into Champaign for my first solo show, the commercial's comedic nature had actually made it quite popular on-campus at the University of Illinois and, as a result, the show as standing-room-only.
Compare that to my previous experience a year earlier when my band played to three people and you just might start to believe in the power of television.
Once we realized just how effective even commercials aired in the wee hours of the morning could be, we began targeting our commercial to sync with my live dates. If I had two shows in St. Louis, for example, we simply ran commercials in the St. Louis market for a month or so leading up to the show and wound up not only selling CD's, but also beefing up our attendance numbers.
Of course, what we were doing back then is what is now known as strategic target marketing or some other corny term to describe when you don't just throw a dart blankly at a map.
While it certainly wasn't as glamorous as having your fancy rock music video aired on MTV, you sure as hell couldn't argue with the results. For only a fraction of what the major labels were spending on one music video, we had bypassed the gatekeepers at MTV and gotten on the network without the network having any say in the matter.
How did we do that, you ask?
We were purchasing our ads from regional cable providers, not from MTV directly, yet we were getting the same exposure afforded Warrant, the Pixies, and Guns n Roses.
By doing so, we could surgically target our airings to specific cities and times for maximum impact and keep building the momentum.
Meanwhile, every band signed to a label was making a $125k video that MTV might never air for whatever reason and, six months later, they'd be working at Chess King and wondering where it all went wrong.
It made me question why all of these powerful management companies and labels with serious stacks of cash in the game would sit back and allow MTV to arbitrarily play God.
But WHAT IF?
What if more bands and labels had taken the initiate to use MTV like any other service that can be purchased. If MTV won't play your video by choice, then what's to stop you from buying enough airtime in local markets to show the video...or, better yet, a commercial hyping your new album and upcoming string of shows in the St. Louis market, for example.
Doing so would have been very affordable and, truth be told, money well-spent compared to shooting a five-minute soap opera with some flavor-of-the-week director and owing your label $100,000 for a rock video that MTV never even considered.
Live and learn, I guess.
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my face on your mtv