Matt Murphy at Eric Clapton's Crossroads Festival

This is my most recent example of recognizing an opportunity. I created the opportunity for blues legend Matt Murphy to perform at the Crossroads Guitar Festival that Eric Clapton puts on every three years. The line-up for the was already finalized when I found out that Madison Square Garden would be the location for the fourth Crossroads Guitar Festival. I immediately contacted Clapton's manager in the U.K. This in itself required diligent, extensive and exhaustive internet research to locate the contact information. Once I secured that contact then I pitched Matt Murphy for inclusion in the festival. His management came back to me with a green light for inclusion.

Matt Murphy performed on a 35 minute segment that included Booker T Jones on organ, and Keb'Mo, Blake Mills, Steve Cropper and Albert Lee on guitars. This appearance has provided me with photos and videos of Matt to aid me in pitching him for additional performances. 

Added-Value Events Generate Revenue

A newspaper can increase revenue by using their web site as a television and radio station. Because once a newspaper moves to the internet, it then functions as a broadcast entity. The word is your audience. Added-value events in a recession play a major importance in generating revenue. The creation of unique, fun and exciting events will drive traffic to advertiser retail and online locations. In a recession money is tight, and there is increased competition. The added-value event can be the determining factor in getting ad dollars from advertisers. See below the events at KXTR and KQFM. These were events with the sole purpose of securing ad dollars in a competitive market. My enjoyment at KXTR came from creating events that appealed to the upper end demo and using these events to broaden interest in classical music. Such as taking the Kansas City Symphony to a Royals baseball game for a performance of the "1812 Overture" or having a Brahms, Tchaikovsky birthday party at the designer showhouse. Click here to listen to my podcast on these events.

H&R Block Grand Openings Nashville 2004-05

A project that I managed for the Momentum Agency. It required localizing a national program that would draw attention to the grand openings of thirteen H&R Block offices. I created a wide variety of events to accomplish this goal. Crime Dog McGruff was at Green Hills and Clifton to create ID's for the kids. Spiderman dropped down in Brentwood with cake and cookies. Jon Byrd and Suzanna Spring performed country music at the Oakwood Commons office. The Kats cheerleaders handed out photos in Smyrna. DJ Mindub entertained the crowd at the downtown office in the Arcade. Professional and college basketball players Ashley McElhiney, Dontae Jones and Adam Sonn were in Inglewood and the Heritage office to discuss hoops. The H&R Block staff were excited with the variety of events, the media attention and increase in business.

Bud Light Party Passport Nashville 2000

The Entertainment Marketing Agency contracted me to plan, manage and document the Bud Light Party Passport program. I managed a crew of ten during a three month period. We created Bud Light Passports in Nashville area bars. The crew gave away prizes to the winners of the games that were held in the venues. A Final Draw Party was held at the conclusion of the twelve weeks. The headliner was Better Than Ezra. The passports were the contestants entry into the party and a contest for a trip to Hawaii. I transformed the Boundary parking lot into a beach complete with sand, palm trees and tiki torches. The events were coordinated with a variety of radio stations, Budweiser staff and the regional beer distributor. The final draw party had 1500 in attendance and Ajax-Turner, distributor of Budweiser, was extremely pleased with the results. 

Classical KXTR 1995-1996

I turned the fine arts community upside down in Kansas City with my events at KXTR. The greatest event was getting the Kansas City Symphony to Kauffman Stadium on Memorial Day for a performance after the Royals baseball game. I created a contest for the first pitch. The KXTR listeners could purchase seats in the KXTR section and enjoy the game with the station air staff. The Kansas City Royals played against the Detroit Tigers with 25,000 in attendance. I always created an added value event to merge advertisers and non-profit arts organizations. Singles parties before symphony concerts or after show parties for listeners and advertisers at ballet, art exhibits, or designer showcases. The composer birthdays were created to generate new advertisers; classical musicians in a coffee house on Bach's birthday with Bachs lunches. There was no place I was not afraid to take classical music. Station ratings and revenue were increased as a result of my efforts. Check out the logo I created for the staff polo shirts. 

Luxury Theaters 1986-1989

In 1986 I joined up with Tom Moyer's Luxury Theater chain as the Film Buyer of Specialty Films. It was here that I supervised the advertising and management for the Lloyd Cinemas Art House, The Guild Theater and The Hollywood Theater. I brought in The Last Emperor for the Lloyd Art House. It has only 200 seats and the film was so successful that we had to move it to the largest auditorium. In the Guild Theater I put Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing where is played for three months. And I put Action Jackson in the Hollywood Theater where it broke box office records.  Bill Forsyth's Housekeeping was booked in the Lloyd Art House where it sold out all Christmas dates. 

I programmed one screen at the Hollywood Theater into a rep house. This required booking a variety of films that changed every two days. I designed the calendar that displayed the movie title graphics and a synopsis of upcoming films.

And long before Starbucks, I placed an espresso bar at the entrance to the Lloyd Art House. The Lloyd Art House was located inside the 10 screen multiplex known as the Lloyd Cinemas. This was the company's first coffee bar. I had five screens at Luxury Theaters that I was responsible for buying and booking the films, negotiating the advertising with the film companies and the Portland media, along with supervising the managers and staff of each venue. 

The Movie House 1981-1986

The Portland Movie House was owned by the Seattle-based Seven Gables Theater company. This company pioneered grassroots marketing for specialty films. Examples of their success were demonstrated by the ad campaigns for the films Harold and Maude and King of Hearts. Their programming endeared the Portland movie audiences to the Movie House with its quaint art deco style and friendly staff. In the late 1970's this started to wane. Partly, because Seven Gables added a three-screen house that competed with its other venues and the programming was recycling the same film genres. 

My goal was to return the Portland Movie House to its place as the leader in exhibition of challenging, fun and exciting films. I did this by moving away from French comedies to films that reached out to a broader audience. And I set up events to involve a greater variety of Portland's non-profit organizations. There were benefits for theater groups, non-commercial radio stations, political organizations, and I brought in comedians to entertain the audience before the films started. 

The films I brought in to great success were Ingmar Bergman's Fanny and Alexander, Das Boot, The Grey Fox, Blood Simple, The Big Chill, Kurosawa's Ran, the Alfred Hitchcock reissues of his 1950's films - The Man Who Knew Too Much, Rope, Rear Window, & Vertigo, Abel Gance's Napoleon, and the Eric Rohmer films including Pauline At The Beach. 

The Movie House was involved every year with the presentation of the Portland International Film Festival with the Northwest Film Studies Center. It was essential to program the festival with rare and exciting films. And the Portland International Film Festival was our tool for the launching of the next year's new releases. 

I was responsible for the management of the Portland Movie House. This was a daily process of staffing, inventory, payroll, maintenance, and establishing the very finest of customer service. My staff had fifteen minutes to serve 400 patrons every two hours per weekend. I staffed the venue with an unique group of personalities. I wanted a staff that customers would enjoy conversing with in their fifteen minutes. 

KQFM 1978-1980

The radio market in Portland during this period was highly competitive. KQFM was up against KGON with the same format and the highly rated KGW AM with Top 40 hits. I had to build audience, re-enforce the station image and generate revenue with added-value promotions. I worked to combine any two or all three. The slide show lists a sample of events. There were additional weekly events in nightclubs, restaurants and monthly events at retail outlets. My favorite events were the Devo costume contest at the Paramount theater lobby and the Pat Travers Band racing listeners and staff at the Malibu Grand Prix go kart track. 

Moyer Theaters Events 1976-1978

The Moyer Theater chain comprised of movie theaters in Portland, Salem, Eugene, additional Oregon cites and Vancouver, WA. I helped Roger Paulson with the marketing, publicity, promotion, ad placement and event management for most of these theaters. It was small events and big events. The movies were the latest Hollywood blockbusters or small releases. The China Syndrome with Michael Douglas, we did the premiere with KGW AM radio. Once it was the top station in Portland. I contacted JK Gill Books about giving me the window to promote the movie. Longhair Records gave me their window for a display on Dawn of the Dead. The staff at the Town Center theater dressed dead for the event. Russ Meyer and his latest starlet showed up for the premiere of Beneath The Valley Of The Ultravixens at the Bagdad Theater. Gary Busey met with the Portland media to talk about The Buddy Holly Story. Lynn-Holly Johnson came to the Lloyd Center ice rink to promote Ice Castles. I set up a boxing ring for Rocky II in front of the Rose Moyer Theater. We showed the movie Nightwing outside in Delta park. Janet Leigh and her daughter, Jamie Lee Curtis, came to town to promote The Fog.