Authors explore Grateful Dead's marketing vision

DENVER/NEW YORK (Billboard) - The Grateful Dead was renowned for many things. But were its members business role models as well? Brian Halligan, co-founder/CEO of marketing software firm HubSpot, and marketing strategist/author David Meerman Scott think they were.

The two self-described Deadheads have teamed up to write "Marketing Lessons From the Grateful Dead," which hit stores earlier this month. In their book, Halligan and Scott discuss how the Dead's members were pioneers in embracing many of the marketing and career-building strategies that artists pursue today, such as concentrating on touring, maintaining fan mailing lists, establishing their own ticketing office that offered the most loyal fans the best seats and offering "free" music by allowing fans to tape their shows.

In an interview with Billboard, Halligan and Scott expounded on the Dead's business legacy.

Billboard: Why write a marketing book about the Grateful Dead?

Brian Halligan: Both of us have been Dead fans for a long time. And every time I go to a show, I think about how unique it was that they built this whole phenomenon and how differently they went about their marketing. They completely threw away the rules of rock 'n' roll marketing and started from scratch. We did a webinar where we talked about the lessons learned from the Grateful Dead in marketing and it was super well-attended. So we said, "Screw it, let's write a book."

Billboard: What sorts of lessons can the music industry learn from the band's experience?

David Meerman Scott: They were very early adopters of communication technology and found ways to go around the record company to stay in touch with their fans. That's very applicable today.

Halligan: The Dead didn't make most of their money from album sales, (but) through their concerts. They were very aggressive in letting people "download" their content for free, (allowing them to record) their concerts -- the idea being that the more people who had that music, the more they'd play it, and the more other people will hear it and show up. I think they'd be very liberal in the use of new technology to spread the word and get more fans and sell more concert tickets.

Billboard: What about emerging artists who have access to those tools but are still trying to establish themselves?

Halligan: The Internet disproportionately benefits the little guy over the big guy. You don't have to be the Rolling Stones to get found online. It used to be this hierarchy, but today you can do a lot of it on the cheap yourself. If you give away some compelling content and your music's good, people will start discussing you and linking to you.

Scott: It's really about creating remarkable, free content. It's a really well-produced concert video. It's a snippet of the band backstage. People want to feel involved with the band, and these tools allow for bands to create the sorts of things that let fans get close to them in a way the Grateful Dead could not. I could only imagine the things they could have done given those tools.

Billboard: If the Grateful Dead got its start today, which social media tools do you think it would have used?

Scott: We saw a little bit of it when the surviving members toured in 2009 as the Dead. They did a few things that were particularly interesting. They had an iPhone application that included live streaming video and streaming audio directly from the concerts. They also had photographs from the tour in the app. And they tweeted the set list as the songs were being played onstage.

Billboard: Were there any big mistakes that the band made in terms of managing its business affairs?

Scott: Roadies were making $100,000 a year in the '70s and '80s. They paid their people a lot of money, they got health insurance -- it was a great gig. But the payroll got really big. They were now running a corporation with dozens and dozens of employees, front-office staff, roadies, truck drivers. What this meant was that they basically had to continually tour in order to just make payroll. They created a fairly unwieldy machine that was difficult to maintain.

Billboard: You've both written books on marketing and PR. How does the Grateful Dead compare with other topics you've written about?

Halligan: What's really interesting about the Grateful Dead is that they created their own category. I think it's more important than ever for companies to do the same: to think across industry boundaries and create their own category and get people to follow them. The nice thing about the Internet is that there are lots of potential customers out there, but the bad thing is that there are lots of potential competitors. So if you can create a very niche category, it's a very good time.

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