Disclosure: Cherry Suede is a Label 2.0 member. They have some kick ass music and are one of the most forward thinking groups I have had the opportunity to work with in the indie music space.
Many musicians enter contests. Whether its to open for another band, play a festival, get on radio or to win some free gear or something. The promotional strategy generally goes something like this:
- Get link to share with your fans to enter contest.
- Send out as many Myspace bulletins as possible.
- Crowd th Twitter timeline with requests to go vote.
- Same on Facebook.
- Maybe an email that is nothing more than asking them to vote with no WIFFM.
Sounds about right, right?
I was reading on Shoemoney’s blog about how he enters competitions and wins and its not from doing any of that above stuff (Shoemoney is one of the dopest Internet Marketers in the game and has a really cool free course that shows you exactly how to get started).
Essentially it was a referral competition. Whoever sent over the most referrals for a new product was to win $5,000 in Apple products. Pretty cool prize.
Now, Shoemoney is a household name in Internet Marketing and has more Twitter followers and blog readers than many people can imagine. And they are loyal. When he won the contest many called it unfair, like he obviously should win because he has bigger numbers than the rest of the people that entered.
Shoemoney is not one to let this slide so he responds:

What he basically said was – yea, I have more stuff going on that you guys, but I also tried really hard to win. And everyone else just went through the motions.
The Cherry Suede Version
Cherry Suede has done something similar for a recent (ongoing) contest in their quest to open for Bon Jovi. Instead of begging their fans to go and vote for them (which has been made a little harder than it should be – fault of OurStage), they have created a fun and innovative way to get their current fans involved as well as reach out to new fans.
First is a video that shows their fans how to vote:
Next is a custom landing page (that they paid someone to build and code) that features a really personable video, an opt-in form and requests to join their Twitter and Facebook accounts.

How This Page and Contest Works:
Fans are sent to this page via press releases, local press and blogs, social networks, videos and other promotional pieces that Cherry Suede is working on and has released already. The page is not a build it and they will come. There is an entire promo piece to get them to the promotion.
Once on the page the fan can watch the video and get the scoop on the contest. From there they enter their name and email, agree to the terms and can opt into Following them on Twitter and joining their Fan Page on Facebook.
Next they click to share this “right now” on Twitter or Facebook and the fans network is immediately notified. The message on Twitter looks like this:

The fan is also directed the contest page. This is genius. In working with them to get this page live, I am really impressed with how seamless and powerful and application like this is.
Even if they don’t win the opening spot (which they have a really good shot to do), they are building their email list, their Twitter followers and their Facebook Fan Page.
What are you doing to avoid spamming your fans and just going through the motions? Let us know in the comments.
If you want to learn how this came together and get access to similar templates, consider joining Label 2.0. This is the kind of education and assistance you get from not only Eric and myself, but also the creative minds of the other members.
I encourage you to check out Cherry Suede, listen to the music and consider voting for them. I would love to see them play the guitar on stage with Bon Jovi and then give that thing away to a lucky fan!
-Greg









