FEATURE

Marketing Support Act’s Ausmusic T-Shirt Day

Each year, the Australian music industry bands together for Support Act’s Ausmusic T-Shirt Day (AMTD).

Support Act is the music industry’s charity, delivering crisis relief services to musicians, managers, crew and music workers across all genres who are unable to work due to ill health, injury, a mental health problem or some other crisis, such as COVID-19.

AMTD sees music-lovers and businesses support Support Act’s work by buying t-shirts, fundraising and donating.

We spoke to Helen Lear, Support Act’s Communication and Marketing Manager, about this year’s successful campaign.

They’re still counting, but this year, we know that AMTD made $671,000+ in donations this year, growing from $637,000 in 2022 and $600,000 in 2021.

AMTD’s Strategies

Lear shared some insights into the strategies that led to this success.

“There is a huge amount of planning and strategic thinking that goes into each Ausmusic T-Shirt Day (AMTD) campaign. It would be hard to pick one strategy that’s the winning ticket, but the one thing that I think really pulls it all together and creates a strong integrated campaign is the cross-departmental work.”

“Having the comms and marketing team work alongside fundraising, partnerships and community engagement is what really brings it to life, ensuring that every tactic we implement and every message we send is working in harmony and generating success across the board.”

“Having incredible partners and supporters as well is paramount, from our Fundraising Advisory Committee, which comprises some of the best brains in the industry; to Mushroom Creative House, who come up with this year’s Community Service Announcement (CSA), logo and messaging; to digital agencies EzyRaise, Comes With Fries and Marlin, who have all shared their wisdom and expertise to bring the campaign to life,” Lear explained.

The Audience

AMTD has one of the Australian music industry’s largest audiences - ”anyone who loves Aussie music!” As Lear said.

Importantly, it gives this audience an insight on a world they might not be familiar with.

“The great thing about the day is that it takes issues that are traditionally industry-specific - financial instability, elevated levels of psychological distress, rising costs of performing and touring - and educates the wider public on them. AMTD is a great opportunity for music lovers to understand more about what goes on behind the scenes and gives them impetus to raise funds so that we can continue to support them.”

“This year’s campaign and CSA gave a real insight into the huge amount of work that goes on behind the scenes to bring the music we love to life, and how in music, every little bit matters. This really resonated with people and brought more awareness to the industry as a whole, not just the performers on the stage.”

Driving Engagement With Social Media

Lear explained that Social Media is consistently a key driver for AMTD campaigns, both in terms of awareness and conversions.

“We worked closely with our digital agency, Comes With Fries, to develop a strategy that includes a mixture of fun and easily digestible/sharable content, such as ambassadors sharing their tees/talking about the day and fun transition videos/UGC, combined with a focus on the work we do and the impact that donations have through impact stats posts and staff videos.”

“Collabs are always a huge boost for us, particularly when someone with as many followers as Kylie accepts your posts! It’s also a huge boon when a mega celeb like Chris Hemsworth, Nicole Kidman or the Prime Minister post in their favourite Aussie music tee, which they all did again this year.”

Key Tactics and Measuring Their Effectiveness

Support Act’s approach to AMTD fundraising makes excellent use of the community element of the Australian music industry. Lear elaborated on this approach, and why it works so well.

“A key driver of our fundraising is to leverage the peer-to-peer element of the campaign, inviting businesses, social groups and fan clubs to create teams, set fundraising targets and encourage customers, staff, family and friends to donate to their team.”

“Companies, in particular, are encouraged to make a day of it and create and implement team building and staff engagement activities that could range from morning/afternoon teas to music trivia games, BBQs, staff band performances, video vox pops talking about which tee a person is wearing, raffles and mini auctions.”

“This year our major corporate partner, AAMI, matched donations for the first time, which recorded a very noticeable increase in donations.”

Campaign Challenges

For AMTD, one of the biggest campaign challenges faced is keeping audiences engaged and interested from its announcement to the day itself. Lear told us that on average, the campaign runs for eight weeks 8 weeks, so it’s important to find enough content and fresh information to keep the campaign ball rolling.

“One strategy we’ve found has worked well over the past couple of years has been to announce things in phases,” she explained. “Phase 1 starts with an announce of the date, launch of the website and the Premium T-Shirt Range for that year. Phase 2 then starts four weeks later when we announce our ambassadors and this year’s CSA. Doing it this way gives us two bites of the cherry and keeps us interesting and relevant throughout those eight long weeks.”

Connecting With Corporate Donors

Lear also revealed how Support Act engage and involve corporate donors in their campaigns, and their influence on fundraising.

“One of the key ways that we engaged corporate donors this year was to create a dedicated column on our fundraising leaderboard that not only highlighted their corporate donation, but any team (staff) donations also rolled up into their total. This provided great visibility and acknowledgement of their support. We reinforced this with individual social posts and EDM mentions that highlighted these contributions and thanked our corporate donors for their support,” she said.

“We also received some incredible in-kind support from partners across the industry and made sure that these were acknowledged in media releases, donor EDMs and on socials.”

Leveraging Digital Marketing Channels

Lear told us that digital marketing channels are the key drivers of traffic and conversions for the AMTD campaign.

After organic search and direct-to-website, organic socials bring in the third largest amount of traffic. Additionally, Support Act’s EDMs are also very effective in terms of strong open rates, click throughs and conversions in terms of donations, purchasing t-shirts and setting up fundraising teams.

“One channel that really performed well this year was partner marketing, where we aligned with some of our key friends in the ticketing industry to share content in their EDMs and websites, which drove a significant amount of revenue, so big thanks to them!” She explained.

Artists as Ambassadors

Those who’ve followed AMTDs campaigns would have noticed the involvement of ambassador artists, which Lear describes as “hugely important for the campaign.”

Lear explains, “Not only does it give us great content to share and amazing media talent, but it also gives us exposure to their audiences of loyal and devoted fans. We always ensure each year to select ambassadors from as wide a range of musical genres and demographics as we can to ensure representation across the board and spread the message far and wide.”

Artist collaboration also materialises in the form of Support Acts’s Premium T-Shirt Range. All of the net proceeds from the t-shirt sales go to Support Act, thanks to support from Love Police and Gildan Brands.

“In terms of collabs with artists for our Premium T-Shirt Range, this is always a really fun process and an exciting one to see what designs we’ll get, whether it be an original or a catalogue print from the depths of their archives!” Lear explained.

“Year after year, we find that the heritage artists with mega fans like Cold Chisel, Midnight Oil and Paul Kelly have the most successful merch sales, but this year High Tee’s ‘Women In Music’ swept the number one spot with its representation of Aussie female music icons including Kylie, Tina Arena and Missy Higgins.”

Digital Fundraising Challenges

Across the eight weeks of the AMTD campaign, Support Act are tasked with engaging those who have signed up to actively fundraise, without overwhelming them with multiple asks. Lear explained that this is one of the biggest challenges of the campaign.

“There are so many things we want to tell them, so it’s tricky to stick to the task of fundraising alone!”

“Tracking and measuring conversions and ensuring we’ve set up conversion-focussed tracking is also key so that we can closely monitor how the campaign is performing. Some things are tricky to measure accurately, but meticulous tracking and being able to draw from multiple sources like the fundraising platform stats, Google Analytics and Meta data helps us to see the bigger picture,” she said.

Moving Towards 2024

As they finalise the campaign and fundraising counts for 2023, Support Act are already looking forward to AMTD’s 2024 campaign, and considering how to implement their learnings from this year.

“There are always many learnings following each year’s campaigns and improvements to be made, which we will be starting to think about very soon!” Lear says. “Starting the campaign as early as possible is something we always try to do, with this year’s planning beginning in February. It may be even earlier in 2024!”

^{Written by Olivia Gliku}

NEWS

The Headlines

TikTok Unveils New Artist Accounts

TikTok has recently expanded its foray into the music industry by launching 'Artist Accounts', a new feature tailored for artists on the platform.

These accounts, accessible to any artist with at least four songs released, offer a suite of promotional tools designed to enhance the connection between artists and their fans.

Key features include an artist tag to signify their status, a 'New Release' tool for spotlighting tracks, and a 'Music Tab' that organises an artist's catalogue in a user-friendly format.

Additionally, the 'Add to Music App' feature integrates with streaming services like Spotify and Amazon Music, allowing TikTok users to save discovered songs directly.

The 'Behind the Song' feature provides artists a platform to share the inspiration behind their music, further engaging with their audience.

💡Insight - These new tools from TikTok are a good asset for artists. They're a nice way to really ramp up engagement with fans. I'm quite keen to see how TikTok's going to blend its music streaming service with these features - NL

Matchbox Twenty's Digital Fan Hub

Matchbox Twenty has embarked on a novel venture by launching a digital fan network in collaboration with Fireside, a platform co-founded by tech luminary Mark Cuban in 2021.

For $25 monthly fans gain access to an array of exclusive content and experiences.

These include live online meet-and-greets with band members, virtual fan club gatherings, and a unique 'virtual backstage pass' providing insights into the band's pre-show rituals, after-show events, and behind-the-scenes moments.

💡Insight - Fireside is a new interactive video platform, launched by a Billionaire. This is their first dip in to music, but I would expect to see more high profile artists joining the platform - NL

TikTok Expands Ticketmaster Integration

TikTok has recently broadened its collaboration with Ticketmaster, extending the feature to 20 more countries, including UK, and Australia.

This feature enables users to seamlessly purchase event tickets directly through the app and is accessible to verified artists on the platform across these new regions.

Since its debut in the U.S., the ticketing function has seen significant engagement, with over 2.5 billion views on related videos, highlighting its appeal to both well-known and emerging artists.

💡Insight - While TikTok isn't the pioneer in integrating ticketing into its platform, it stands out due to its unparalleled viral influence. - NL

LEARN

Maximising Fan Engagement with Instagram Broadcast Channels

Instagram Broadcast Channels presents a dynamic opportunity for artists eager to deepen their engagement with fans.

This feature is gaining traction among artists for sharing exclusive insights and fostering a closer fan community.

Designed specifically for creators, it provides a one-directional communication channel, similar to a mailing list, enabling interactive fan participation.

However, it's important to remember that this data isn't owned by the user, so it's best used in conjunction with your own mailing list.

Despite this, Instagram Broadcast Channels is a valuable tool worth exploring, as detailed over here on Amplify You.

FAST FACTS

Impress Your Boss with This Fast Fact

👉 Shazam has over 300 million monthly active users globally, up from 225 million users in August 2022.

Originally introduced in the UK in August 2002, Shazam began as a unique text message-based service.

Users could discover the titles and artists of songs by simply dialling “2580” and holding their phone near the music source.

Following this, they would receive a text message with the details of the song. (Link)

KEY FINDINGS

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