MusicBizAdvice.com Case Study: Why Bon Jovi is Music
Business 101-10.2005
"Bon Jovi isn't Music Business 101, Bon Jovi is Music Business 505!"
--MusicBizAdvice.com staff writer / Ask Darcie Founder Darcie Wicknick, upon
hearing the title for this article
Agreed. Good songwriting and musicianship aside (which Bon Jovi has in spades),
when it comes to the business end of the music industry, few artists' business
and marketing plans can come close to what Bon Jovi have accomplished over their
23 year history: Over 100 million albums sold, 2500 concerts (many of which were
sold out), and over 32 million fans in over 50 different countries. Oh, and
while they were at it, Bon Jovi and their team implemented marketing and
business strategies that become standard business practices in the music
industry and are still used today. Whatever your career aspirations, applying
some of the Bon Jovi business philosophy can help you get there.
A few of the ways Bon Jovi changed the music industry: When their first album
came out, Bon Jovi's music was still categorized as "metal" (albeit pop metal)
As such, Bon Jovi was one of the first metal bands to be marketed to a largely
female audience and in doing so, widely increased the female audience for rock
music.
Bon Jovi was one of the first artists to offer special fan club tickets for some
of the best seats in the house at their shows. Now it's a standard perk offered
by many artists' fan clubs.
At the 1989 MTV Video Music Awards, Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora pared down
"Wanted Dead or Alive" and "Living on a Prayer" to just two acoustic guitars and
themselves. Their performance inspired MTV's "Unplugged" series and sparked a
resurgence in unplugged rock music that hadn't been seen since Dylan wannabes
played coffee houses.
In 1989, Bon Jovi were the first band officially sanctioned by the Russian
government to perform in Russia. Their New Jersey album was the first album ever
released on the state-owned record label, Melodiya, by a Western artist. (As
further evidence of the band's business acumen, due to the instability of the
Ruble at the time, the band were paid in wood, which they then sold to a guitar
manufacturer.)
In the early '90's, Jon Bon Jovi became one of the first artists to successfully
self-manage his career when he fired longtime manager Doc McGhee and started the
band's own management company, Bon Jovi Management (BJM). Bon Jovi was one of
the first major rock artists to include women on its management team, paving the
way for other artists to do the same.
One of the secrets to Bon Jovi's business success is that unlike many artists,
they're never afraid to be the first to try a new technology or marketing method
to reach their fans. In fact, they welcome it--which isn't to say due diligence
isn't applied; it definitely is. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. The
point is, Bon Jovi have the guts to be pioneers, while many other artists stand
on the sidelines watching to see if it works out. Just some of Bon Jovi's many
"firsts" are: Being one of the first artists--if not the first--to enlist fans
to help make one of their videos. For their "Bad Medicine" video the band
invited fans to the video shoot, handed out additional video cameras for fans to
keep, and collected the resulting footage at the end of the night, which was cut
into additional footage shot by video director Wayne Isham.
Pioneering the American XS Serialization Program for their Bounce album and
tour, in which each CD contained a unique PIN that the consumer could register
and use to log on to a special website for exclusive downloads, video, and VIP
concert tickets. A lawsuit over the rights to the technology ensued and Bon Jovi
were caught in the middle, but fans liked the content nonetheless.
In the early '90's, Bon Jovi was the first artist to sell merchandise on a cable
shopping channel. On April 12, 2003 Bon Jovi took it a step further and appeared
on QVC for a nationally televised live performance from the sold-out Bounce
tour, with a Limited Tour Edition Bounce CD & DVD/VHS package featuring
previously unreleased performance footage sold on QVC. Over 30,000 copies were
sold during that night, and although reviews on this marketing method were
mixed, we at MBADC think it took cajones to try it. Other artists such as Shania
Twain and Neil Diamond followed suit and appeared on QVC as well.
On September 18 2002, Bon Jovi's concert at Shepherds Bush Empire in London was
the first "live, interactive event across a cinema network." The event was
broadcast to 25 venues across Europe via satellite and high-speed cable
connections and marked the first time fans at various venues could communicate
with each other on the venue screens via text messaging. The Shepherd's Bush
Empire webcast had over one million viewers, and 375,000 viewed the event live.
In 1995, Bon Jovi performed the first-ever outdoor street performance on The
Late Show with David Letterman. In 2000, Bon Jovi and David Letterman teamed up
again for another first when Bon Jovi performed the first rooftop show at The
Late Show with David Letterman.
On September 5 2002, Bon Jovi made history by opening the NFL season with a
kick-off concert in New York City's Times Square and helicoptering over to
Giants Stadium to perform at halftime at the New York Giants-San Francisco 49ers
game. It was the NFL's first-ever Thursday kickoff, the Times Square performance
drew more than a half million people and the performance was shown in a live
half-hour special on VH-1, and Bon Jovi was the first artist ever to perform at
Giants stadium during a New York Giants game.
On the Bounce tour, Bon Jovi introduced new technology by being the first artist
to use a new type of LED video screen on tour.
On November 21, 2004, Bon Jovi was the first artist to do a live concert on
Samsung's INHD/INHD2 High-Definition network channel, paving the way for other
High Definition music programming.
On September 19, 2005, Bon Jovi was the first artist to play at the new Nokia
Theatre in New York City's Times Square. The event was carried around the world
via live webcast, was simulcast to movie theaters across the US and Canada, and
employed multiple new technologies. Bon Jovi and their team are especially adept
at marketing synergy. In addition to the above-mentioned campaigns, during the
course of their career the band has also teamed up with companies such as:
Target (releasing an exclusive CD of previously unreleased material that could
be purchased exclusively at Target stores, filming a commercial that showed the
band in the studio, and doing the band's first in-store appearance in over a
decade)
Duracell (filming a commercial for its Longlife batteries which were used to
power the band's wireless mics, and offering coupon savings on the band's Bounce
CD)
Volkswagen (who marketed a Bon Jovi edition Golf in the 1990's)
MTV (among other promotions with MTV, when Jon Bon Jovi bought his parents a new
home, their old home was sold to MTV to give away in a contest) and VH-1 (among
many other events, VH-1 once had a contest to win a backyard BBQ featuring a
concert by Jon as the entertainment)
The NBA
The Arena Football League (as one of the owners of the Philadelphia Soul, Jon
Bon Jovi brought a new female audience to the fame and teamed up with MTV's The
Real World Philadelphia to build a playground for underprivileged kids as part
of the Soul's community service arm) and in their latest partnership, Major
League Baseball.
The current Smirkwatch campaign, developed by ad guru Donny Deutsch's company,
is synergy at its best, tying in the concept of the album cover art, the "Have a
Nice Day" video (in which the smirk appears everywhere including a crop circle)
with a page of downloadable, printable smirks fans can plaster everywhere.
Taking it a step further, fans can then upload photos of the places where
they've left the smirk (who, by the way, is named Joe V), ultimately bringing
the concept of the video into reality. The combination of fun and Jersey
attitude matches the band's image perfectly.
The synergy continues as Sprint mobile phones are used in the video, and Sprint
will provide telecommunications for Bon Jovi's Have a Nice Day tour...including
a tour bus fully equipped for wireless communication . When Bon Jovi can't be
the first to do something, they're never adverse to being the last. Bon Jovi
played the last two shows at the historic Wembley Stadium before it was torn
down to make way for a new Wembley stadium, now under construction.
And finally, sometimes Bon Jovi even have it both ways: As the most popular
American band ever to have performed at the old Wembley Stadium (5 times during
their career), during the forthcoming Have a Nice Day tour Bon Jovi will also
have the honor of being the first artist to perform at the new Wembley.