Celebrity Access

Profile and interview by Bob Grossweiner and Jane Cohen, originally run on the CelebrityAccess website, November 7, 2008

Lawrence Peryer, Jr., a new media strategist with more than 13 years experience creating solutions for the music and entertainment industry, is currently president of 23 Omnimedia, a business incubator which provides advisory services and creates branded entertainment properties for a variety of consumer destinations, technology providers and entertainment clients.

Current projects include such diverse projects as Altruik, developer of a proprietary method for automating search engine optimization; Capzles.com, a platform which allows users to express themselves through combined videos, photos/images, blogs and music/audio along horizontal timelines (“capzles”) to share stories; and Gamervixens.com, a social networking site focused on the female gamer.

Immediately prior to founding 23 Omnimedia, Lawrence was president of UltraStar Entertainment, a Live Nation Company. At UltraStar he produced and executive produced websites, online events, broadcast programming and limited edition DVDs for the company’s roster. Co-founded by David Bowie in 1998, UltraStar Entertainment’s roster included The Rolling Stones, AC/DC, Madonna, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Police, Genesis, Bowie and dozens of other superstar music acts. UltraStar, which was part of Michael Cohl’s CPI family of companies, was sold with CPI to Live Nation in 2007.

Lawrence’s implementation of new business models for entertainment brands in the online environment has driven much of UltraStar’s recent success, leveraging the meeting point of content, community and commerce into engaging experiences for bands and fans.

Previously, Lawrence was director of Business Development at CD Universe, a pioneer in online music sales. After transitioning to DoubleClick and IMIX, Inc, where he served as vice president of Marketing, he began his work with UltraStar Entertainment as a consultant in March 2001. At that time he was president and founder of LP Visions, Inc., a consulting firm offering business development and web-based marketing services to companies in the music and entertainment industry.

In January 2004 he was hired as senior vice president of Marketing Services at UltraStar Entertainment, and in May 2005 he was promoted to president, a post he held through September 2008.

Lawrence is sought after for his expertise in web marketing and has been a featured speaker or panelist at the Billboard Touring Conference in New York, Web Marketing Conference and Web Advertising Conference in Monterrey, Calif., and the Internet in Business Conference in Amsterdam.

Why did you form 23 Omnimedia?
I left UltraStar because I saw a big gap between how packaged goods and other marketers bring their products to market and how the music industry generates interest in its wares. There are many tools, technologies and marketing platforms the entertainment industry never makes use of, largely because many people outside the music business don’t understand the web of relationships or how to construct win-win deals in that environment. Similarly, most artists and managers have their hands full focusing on being creative and maintaining, if not hopefully growing, their businesses. With 23, I hope to be able to connect artists with new technologies and services while helping them take their online initiatives, for example, exclusive web programming, to a larger audience through broadcast, on-demand and other channels.

How has band and tour marketing progressed over the past five years?
The single biggest way is probably in the integration between online and traditional marketing, and as part of that in a massive effort to define online marketing as something more than email marketing.

It starts with the artists. Artists and their managers really seem to be taking seriously the responsibility to connect directly with fans and not leave the caretaking of their fan bases, and ultimately their careers, to anyone else. You have the Nine Inch Nails, Radiohead and Coldplay initiatives of the last year or so to distribute music, concert tickets and other opportunities in more creative and exclusive ways, and to make the methods themselves part of the band’s identity. These acts are now not only known for innovating but for caring about the relationships with their fans. In an environment where recording a record, setting a release date and executing a marketing plan is no longer viable, the most successful campaigns will be those that reflect something about the nature of the artist and the music – the unique mystique, altruism, interactivity, community, etc.

Labels, promoters, sponsors, et al are also driving the use of social media, viral tools, brand marketing campaigns and other active channels to drive awareness of music releases, appearances and other artist activity. It’s easy to gang up on various sectors of the industry for their behavior in the first years of the digital revolution or for not, even at this point, having the magic bullet for the monetization of recorded music, but if you believe that digital is a revolution, and not evolution, than it’s no surprise it has been ugly, messy and full of dissension.

I hesitate to call any of this experimentation because there are solid objectives and business needs behind these efforts. It only seems like experimentation because we’ve entered a world where rote efforts aren’t enough.

Finally, we see many more artists concerned about what happens when they are off-cycle, making sure their fans are tended to, updated and engaged. With all of this said, good PR and media-buying is still in the mix. Talent and brains still trump any specific tactics.

What role does the official artist website have in this world?
It has to serve many needs and is arguably the most complex component in the artist’s commercial life.

To begin with, it’s a commercial hub. If the artist is doing or is involved with something, it makes sense that they’re telling their core fans directly. In the ideal scenario, when then artist has a project they aren’t only telling directly, they are selling directly. AC/DC is a great example. It would be harder to find a band of their size with a greater appreciation for who their fans are and how to serve them. Lost in a lot of the chatter about the announcement of AC/DC’s exclusive with Wal-Mart for their new record was a terrific point: Wal-Mart was the only retailer who had the record besides AC/DC.com! The band is making the record available through their website, at the same price as Wal-Mart, including shipping, not only in the retail configuration but in a variety of bundles valuable to fans–CD with DVD, CD with merch, etc.

The official site then is a commercial hub and information center but also a key place to foster fan ommunity and artist/fan interaction. It’s a branding vehicles. It’s one of the few components–the only?–in an artist’s commercial life that has to embody and represent the full experience.

To complicate matters, most people consume their entertainment information through other sources and may not even self-identify as someone who visits artist websites or joins a fan club. Artists need to use the social media and web 2.0 tools to distribute their content and commercial opportunities from their website to the larger online environment. Taking the opportunity to the fan through widgets, feeds, maintaining official outposts on other sites, etc not only extends the overall reach but ensures the artist touches the core fan, the casual fan and the develops new fans.

First concert worked
Promoting shows for my high school bands in the 80s. Over the years it becomes more and more apparent that issues surrounding talent, logistics, making money, et al exist at any and all levels in the live business although we never minded the brown M&Ms being mixed in with the rest I have to say.

First industry job
Running marketing and business development for CD Universe, one of the first online music retailers.

Career highlights
Working with the various incarnations of Michael Cohl’s businesses and the artist projects he brought to the table. As a lifelong Rolling Stones fan, there was something incredibly exhilarating about standing in the field at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass, in 2002 and seeing the marketing messages for the band’s website, which I oversaw at the time, displayed in huge lights on the ring around the bowl. The privilege of working with the team of people Michael Cohl calls upon is like attending an on-going master’s class in how to do great work for artists and fans.

Being part of The Police reunion was fantastic as well. At UltraStar we produced a webcast of their tour announcement from the Whisky A Go Go in Los Angeles which, while attended by only a couple of hundred people, tops, we were able to bring to a worldwide audience as it happened. We provided a video chronicle of that tour online from the first rehearsals and announcement all the way through closing night at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Career disappointment
There’s too much opportunity ahead to be disappointed. Setbacks come and go. “What’s next” is much more interesting.
  
Greatest challenge
Adapting and innovating in such a rapidly changing environment, without letting the technology dictate the business. It’s one thing to chase the pack and another thing to try to anticipate and get out in front of it. I’m always looking for new business and creative opportunities, new and meaningful on and offline experiences for artists and fans and to do it all in a scalable, high-quality, profitable way.

Best business decision
The ones that I allowed to happen and didn’t impose my will on. Letting situations play out and letting information develop but acting when necessary.

Best advice you received
Do not try to outrun bad news. You cannot. Confront problems early: don’t be afraid to be the messenger, just deal. This applies to dealing with partners, customers, clients or bosses.

Mistake you have learned from
Overreacting with emotion is seldom productive. Passion is different than emotion. My only hope is that although I continue to have this lesson reinforced the instances are fewer and farther between.

Most memorable industry experience
I love the personal moments: watching a rehearsal, collaborating with an artist on the vision for their website, demo’ing something I’m proud of and seeing an artist get excited; and delivering a creative or financial win for a manager and knowing that we are letting them check a worry off their list as opposed to adding problems or complications.

Industry pet peeve
That the industry hasn’t figured out how to scale the various business models down, offering artists at more career stages the opportunity to live lives creating and growing, as opposed to working to get ahead.

Industry mentors
So many people who have shared their experience and knowledge in the most selfless ways with me over the years, even when my learning curve probably made their days longer: Michael Cohl and people on his team like Norman Perry, Steve Howard and Gary Moss; Mark Norman, COO at Live Nation Artists; Cathy Cleghorn at Anthill Trading; Tres Thomas at Live Nation Global Touring; and Bill Zysblat at RZO.

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