Our Client:
With capacity for 2,700 people, Carling Academy Birmingham is the most important live music venue in Birmingham and has hosted just about every musician that released a million selling album in the last 10 years.
Academy Music Group own and operate the venue, as well as Academy venues in Brixton, Bristol, Glasgow, Islington, Liverpool, and Newcastle, and the Shepherd’s Bush Empire.
Mission Impossible:
Shortly after opening the Birmingham venue, the group wanted to test the market for a new weekly heavy rock event. The one-off pilot would be publicised for just three weeks yet would need to attract over a thousand customers to be a success – a near impossible task.
KERRANG! provided DJ’s in the main room as well as the main brand for the event while the Academy chose AdStorm to execute the event’s local promotion campaign and to organise the entertainments in the 600 capacity second room.
Adstorm’s Solution:
Richard Maides, Group Operations Manager for the Academy Music Group said, “Design and promotion of the new brand was first class. AdStorm created the new ‘Lashed’ brand, using a grainy urban design suited to the punk requirements of the second room. From day one Rob and the team took responsibility, worked autonomously from a simple brief and delivered great results without placing unnecessary demands on our time.
“Furthermore AdStorm showed initiative to deliver far beyond what we asked for. Rob identified email lists relating to people in the locality interested in Rock music, who were targeted, and ran a promotional campaign via SMS text messages, resulting in a very successful integrated marketing campaign.
“AdStorm was involved with the organisation of the entertainments themselves, and thanks to their efforts the event ran like clockwork.
“Rob and the team recruited DJ Toast from London club Sublime as well as conducting a street marketing campaign by arranging for young people influential in the music scene to spread rumours about the event.
Clearly impressed with AdStorm’s initiative, Maides continues, “Over a thousand people attended after just three weeks’ promotion, far exceeding our expectations.
“Keeping a product going is not easy, and a successful launch is near impossible. AdStorm contributed to an outstanding new product introduction, and the event’s success led us to introduce the weekly Subculture rock night, a brand that is close to its third anniversary and has been an important addition to our event portfolio.”