I’m busy promoting show in late August and part of that equation is postering the heck out of my city. I did a small run in July, simply to be seen, knowing that those posters would be ripped down/postered over by this time. Now with the show a mere 3 weeks away it’s time to launch a bigger assault.
I’m by no means a pro at postering, the cuts on my left hand will show you that. But I’ve postered for a few shows in my day and I can offer a few tips to make your postering experience go much smoother.
- Bring extra tape: Save yourself time and bring along a few rolls of tape. Make sure your tape gun is fully stacked, and remember to bring extra ammo. This is especially true if you’re doing a bit of traveling to get to those popular poster destinations. When you’re on a roll, throwing up posters with style and ease, it’s quite demoralizing to hear the tape give way to the paper layer at the bottom of the role. That stuff won’t stick.
- Bring a boxcutter: Most times you’ll be postering places that already have expired posters on them. It’s well within your musician rights to cut the dead weight off of the poster barrel. Rather than ripping off old posters with your bare hands (which isn’t that easy) grab a box cutter. This way if there’s any dead posters or wayward tape you’ll be able to cut through it with ease.
- Follow poster etiquette: If you see a poster that is hanging on it’s last legs and the date hasn’t arrived yet then be a pal and throw some tape on it. It’s not mandatory but it’s a nice thing to do. You know the whole “Golden Rule” thing. This also accumulates good karma for you. Chances are one of your posters will need some TLC at some point and hopefully you’re paid forward by a similarly big hearted poster-er.
- Be strategic with each poster: There’s a story on how at one point Motley Cure found a great deal on neon green poster paper. The band proceeded to take 1000+ posters and turn Sunset Strip into a neon green monstrosity. The band’s audience lived on the Strip. They knew that’s the only place that they needed to cover. You may be in a different position. Where do your fans hang out/drive by/walk by? Go to those places and make sure your poster is seen.
- Talk to people as you’re postering: Although seeing a poster will tell someone of your show, actually talking to them will do much more to get them in the door. People are always interested in new things that are happening around town. If you see someone eyeing up your poster, engage them with a friendly smile and tell them about your show. Offer to put them on the guest list, or better yet bring a spindle of discs with you and give them away as you’re postering.
Music Consciousness
Voyno
3 Comments
The powers that be say that posters on poles make it harder and dangerous for pole climbers to do their jobs. In Sacramento, where we are based it comes with a 500 dollar fine and assigned clean up duty.
That only has to happen a few times to musicians before the whole community stops.
There are still places to put posters other than poles:
The venue you’re performing in, smoke shops, guitar stores, skateboard shops, hot topic, etc.
One tip: Don’t
Putting posters on Telephone poles is illegal just about everywhere now.
Awww CO5EG…. that’s too bad that they’ve curbed your enthusiasm for posters. They’re still alive and well in many places. As long as you put them in designated areas you’ll be good. I hope your situation gets better soon.
-V