Turn your brand into an experience, just like Radiohead

Back in 2005, I wrote to someone in the Government about online ticket pricing. Touts were buying up tickets and reselling them at inflated prices, and the average fan didn’t stand a chance. Nothing changed. It only got worse.

You’ll have seen the recent chaos around Oasis tickets and dynamic pricing, where demand pushes prices higher and higher. Getting tickets has become a test of fast fingers and sheer luck.

Now, twenty years later, something might finally change. The Government plans to ban reselling tickets at a profit. There are odd exceptions, like Wimbledon debentures, but it’s still progress. Let’s hope they stick to it.

I’ve slowed down on gigs myself. Prices are high, the process is stressful, and the beer doesn’t help. From a gig a week, I’m down to a handful a year.

This week though, I got lucky. Or rather, my friend Jon did. Tickets for Radiohead at the O2. One hundred and fifty pounds for Level 4. Face value. A lot of money for two hours of music in the cheapest seats available.

Was it worth it?

Short answer. Yes.

Long answer. One of the most remarkable live experiences I’ve seen. A precise blend of songwriting, musicianship, staging and pure spectacle. I didn’t pay for a gig. I paid for an experience. Something ethereal and genuinely moving.

The show was in the round. The band shifted positions and swapped instruments with an effortless flow. Screens cocooned them one moment, then lifted away to reveal digital, real-time imagery.

For a shed-style venue, like the O2, managing to make the performance feel immersive, inclusive, bombastic, epic and intimate is a great feat, and true to the quiet, quiet, loud, loud, quiet aesthetic of the musical dynamic Radiohead spearheaded in the 90s and 00s.

And that’s the thing about going out to gigs.
In a huge arena or a small bar. Alone or with mates.
Music can stir emotions that most other art forms can’t.
Music has the power to transform lives.

Sure, art is good. Movies are great. They’re trying. Think of the push toward experiential exhibitions like Van Gogh. 3D films never quite worked, but IMAX laser projections come close. (Wait until next year for Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey. Tickets sold out a year before release.)

Brands are all about experience.

And just like some great bands, some can do it better than others.

But the principle holds.

You may not be hosting a gig in an 18,000-capacity venue with a thirty-year back catalogue, but you can still think about how your brand can be more epic when it needs to be, quieter when it can be, and create your own dynamic brand experience.

Enjoy your Quick PINT