SUNSET STRIP MUSIC FESTIVAL

The Sunset Strip Music Festival: Traditional PR and New Social Media

Jonathan Barba

California State University, Fullerton

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Abstract

Public relations are expanding to social media. Today, corporations hire social media experts to

run a plethora of social media accounts. These emergent communication forums are gaining

popularity and utility within the practice of public relations. However, the carefully developed

art of public relations will not be overrun by social media. The challenge for today’s

practitioners is discovering ways to explore new communication frontiers while still being true

to traditional PR practices. The Sunset Strip Music Festival (SSMF) serves as en exemplary

model of utilizing best practices in public relations as well as incorporating more innovative

social media tactics. This case study examines the Sunset Strip Music Festival as a public

relations campaign. Specifically, it traces traditional public relations practices, and the influence

of the social media site Twitter.

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The Sunset Strip Music Festival: PR and New Social Media

The Sunset Strip Music Festival is a three day music festival held on the Sunset Strip in

West Hollywood, California. SSMF tickets grant access to six prestigious music venues along

the Sunset Strip: the Cat Club, the House of Blues, the Key Club, the Roxy, the Viper Room,

and the Whiskey a Go Go. In 2008, the year examined in this study, the ticket also granted

access to additional outdoor stages along a one mile portion of the Sunset Strip. Tickets sold for

$39.50 presale and $50 at the gate. Nic Adler, founder of SSMF describes the event, “The street

fest is part music festival, part club experience, and part celebration of The Sunset Strip.”

(Behrens, 2009)

The public relations activities enacted to promote SSMF can be categorized into

traditional and non traditional PR practices. SSMF executed a traditional public relations

campaign utilizing branding, an event cycle, sponsorship, and celebrity appeal. Simultaneously,

SSMF developed an innovative social media campaign that forged new utility for public

relations in social media, specifically Twitter. This campaign couples traditional public relations

discipline with innovative use of social media creating a professional, effective, and

contemporary public relations effort.

Situational Analysis

The Sunset Strip was once a rock and roll Mecca. In recent years, however, its reputation

has been dwindling. Zach Behrens (2009), a Los Angeles blogger for the the site LAist notes

that The Sunset Strip built its reputation in the 70’s and 80’s. Vannessa Franko, a Southern

California journalist recalls the Doors, Bob Marley, Motley Creu, Guns ‘N’ Roses, and the

Police performing on the Sunset Strip as far back as 1966. (Franko 2008) She states, “The Strip

was the setting for some of the most important music to come around in the last 50 years.”

(Franko, 2008 ppg. 2)

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Recently this hot bed of music has cooled significantly. Blogger Zach Behrens laments,

“These days it can feel like a ghost town.”(2009) Nic Alder, through personal communication,

states that the Sunset Strip is suffering from increased local music venue competition and the

affects of the weaker economy. A Los Angeles County reporter cites Universal City, the

Hollywood Corridor, and the Third Street Promenade as specific venues that are detracting from

the draw of The Strip. (Franko, 2009) These threats, manifested in weak foot traffic and

decreased venue attendance, are the driving force behind the founding of the Sunset Strip Music

Festival. The Sunset Strip Music Festival is, at its very core, a public relations mechanism to

revitalize the popularity and reputation of this historic music district.

Goals and Objectives

An overarching goal of the Sunset Strip Music Festival is to revitalize The Sunset Strip as

a prominent attraction for music lovers. Promotions for the Sunset strip music festival are

intended to highlight the rich history of the location as well as promote The Strip as an exciting

destination for locals and tourists alike.

One discernable objective of the campaign is to preemptively create awareness in music

consuming publics of The Sunset Strip’s rich history. This objective is apparent in materials

leading up to the weekend of the festival, September 10th through 12th. A press release issued

July 23, 2009 emphasizes the term “World Famous Sunset Strip.” (Sunset Strip, 2009 d para. 6)

This same press release uses the term “Iconic Boulevard” in a quote by SSMF Executive

Director Todd Steadman. This same press release, issued by SSMF’s official PR firm, the Mitch

Schneider Organization, expresses that a goal of SSMF is to “Promote, preserve, and perpetuate

the legendary Sunset Strip Music Experience.” (Sunset Strip, 2009 d para.10) In using terms
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like “world famous” “iconic” and “legendary,” the SSMF campaign seeks to educate potential

patrons of its historic reputation.

A second objective of the campaign, under the overarching goal of revitalizing the Sunset

Strip, is to highlight the diversity of entertainment available to today’s patrons. In personal

communication with Nic Adler (Oct 2009), he expresses that few people actually come to the

strip as a destination. Instead people go directly to specific venues for a specific event and

directly home after. Adler expresses a desire to present the entire strip as a blanket location for

“spontaneity” and “living in the moment.” The tools and tactics of SSMF repeatedly promote the

entertainment diversity of the sunset strip as well as the aforementioned history.

Tools and Tactics:

The tools and tactics of the SSMF campaign can be divided into traditional PR practices

and non-traditional practices. Both categories work to achieve campaign objectives and the

overarching goal of revitalizing The Sunset Strip.

Traditional tactics include branding, sponsorship, celebrity appeal, and the utilization of

a strategic event cycle. Non traditional tactics were comprised of social media tactics, and can

be best illustrated through the use of twitter.

Branding

The Sunset Strip Music Festival and its acronym SSMF are an encompassing brand for

all of the venues that collaborated on the festival. According to Nic Adler, through personal

communication, a stylized SSMF logo was created for the festival by the design company

Signature Creative. Branding themselves as one entity, the venues and businesses of The Sunset

Strip can speak to the history of the location, promote The Sunset Strip as a destination for

spontaneity, and also promote the diversity within the encompassing brand. Working towards
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the goal of revitalizing The Sunset Strip as a whole, the first logical tactic in that process is to

brand the entire Sunset Strip for one robust public relations campaign.

Sponsors

Sponsorships for the Sunset Strip Music Festival brought both resources for the event as well as

prestige. This then contributed to the objective of reestablishing the reputation of the festival

and the strip as the hot spot for music in Los Angeles. Sponsors of SSMF included; the Andaz

Hotel, Virgin America, V Australia, 98.7 fm, Jack Daniels, Ticket Master, Signature Creative,

City Of West Hollywood, West Hollywood Marketing and Visitor’s Bureau, Coffee Bean & Tea

Leaf, Metal Jeans, Miller Light, LA Weekly, Whole Foods West Hollywood, and Art Guitar.

(PRwire, May 14)

Celebrity Appeal

The use of celebrity appeal can be traced to the goal of revitalizing the reputation the

Sunset Strip and the objective of connecting the location to its history. Multiple press releases

from the SSMF campaign lead with the mention of either Korn or Ozzy Osborne. (Ozzy,2009 a;

Ozzy,2009 b; Korn, 2009 a; Korn, 2009 b) This use of celebrity not only increases the

newsworthiness of the event, but also creates the connection to the rock and roll foundations of

The Sunset Strip. A press release, for example, leads a story with Ozzys name, mentions his

roots at The Sunset Strip, and goes on to mention the details of the SSMF event. (Ozzy, 2009 b)

The campaign was able to propagate its messages behind the headline of a celebrity name.

Event Cycle

The Sunset Strip Music Festival displays a tremendous grasp on the traditional practice

of creating an event cycle. A timeline of events created sustained and measured newsworthy

moments where SSMF could promote its objectives of historical reputation and modern diversity
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of entertainment. On May 6th a press release announced Ozzy Osbourne would join the festival.

It also highlighted his five day stint at the Whiskey a Go Go with Slayer decades ago.(Ozzy Set,

2009 a) The city of West Hollywood issues a press release May 13, 2009 that announces the

next days “Faces of Sunset Boulevard” event. (Faces, 2009) This press release also highlighted

the history of The Strip as well as listing the diverse venues that participate in the festival. A

press release issued September 9th highlights the declaration of Ozzy Osbourne day by the city of

West Hollywood, and also highlights Ozzy’s historic connection to The Sunset Strip. (City,

2009). On September 10th a detailed press release announces the official party of the Sunset

Strip Music Festival along with detailed information about the history of The Sunset Strip and

the participating venues. (Virgin, 2009) Additional press worthy events included a call for

volunteers on August 6th (News, 2009), multiple announcements of featured artists(Behrens,

2009 a; Behrens, 2009 c; Korn, 2009 a), and even a Twitter event on the 9th of September. (The

Sunset, 2009 c)

Twitter

The SSMF campaign did two revolutionary things with its use of twitter. First it used

geography oriented twitter strategies to activate public through the creation of “tweet-crawl.”

Second it was an early pioneer incorporating the use of twitter “hashtags” and usernames in

press releases. Though many corporations and organizations are becoming privy to the

advantageous of twitter, SSMF has a documented press release on September 3, 2009 that

utilizes the Twitter username @thesunsetstrip in the opening line of the release (The Sunset,

2009 c). Additionally the press release mentions the Twitter user names of all six major venues

of the sunset strip along with the hashtag #stripcrawl. This infusion of twitter lingo allows

journalists to find the corresponding twitter conversations that give the press release the added

emphasis of a robust social media conversation associated with the campaign.

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The #stripcrawl tweet-crawl event was an ingenious innovation by the SSMF campaign.

Where most social media experts utilize twitter as a listening device and a tool for two way

communication, the SSMF campaign expanded the boundaries of twitter, incorporated

geography, instantly mobilized target publics and converged social media with traditional media

practices.

Among the six venues of the SSMF and the Sunset Strip Twitter account there are tens of

thousand of followers online. SSMF created a tweet-crawl under the title #stripcrawl to activate

these publics. The tweet crawl starts with one venue announcing an amazing deal for a specific

amount of time. This action, through Twitter, was able to get people out to that venue. Then

another venue would announce, through Twitter, that their amazing deal would be next and

would end at a certain time. The crowd at the first venue then walks to the next venue. This

happened throughout the night of the tweet-crawl among the six major venues on the Sunset

Strip.

The implications of the tweet-crawl expanded the functionality of twitter into the realm

of activating publics to real time geographic locations. Conversely the integration of twitter

usernames and hash tags in formal press releases expanded the realm of public relations to the

point where using twitter lingo (such as hashtags and at mentions) in a press release may, and

arguably will, become as common practice as including a phone number and website.

Evaluation

The SSMF did a successful job through a qualitative analysis of their press clippings.

However, on a quantitative level the campaign did not have the type of local media saturation

that is possible with such a large event. Though the goals and objectives were eloquently

addressed in the tactics of the campaign, message exposure and thus the reputation and
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reintroduction to the Sunset Strip Music Festival could be expanded. In the end the qualitative

goals were met, but they could be expanded to larger quantities of publics.

Future Recommendations

Future Recommendations include seeking more televised coverage of the festival. Also

Nic Adler, through personal communication, admits that promotions slumped in the final weeks

leading to the campaign due to focus on the logistics of the event. In the future it would be

recommended to pursuit more press coverage in the final weeks of the campaign. This could

include paid advertisement, but ideally feature stories could be pitched. In the short term one

could focus on local media saturation. In the long term one could focus on national diffusion of

SSMF’s growing reputation.

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