Remember Rick Springfield? Probably not, right. Think 1982 and Jessie’s Girl, still struggling? Well, it turns out that his fans remember him. Rick is working on the Nine Inch Nail’s model of connecting with fans + reason to buy = $$$ (Look up Michael Masnick’s talk here if you don’t know what I am talking about.)
Rick is so good at it he has made a documentary about his fans love for him and his love for his fans. View the trailer here – http://rickspringfielddoc.com/
Talk about connecting with your fans. Personally, my favourite bit was “he can do whatever he wants to Jessie’s Girl, just so long as he keeps his damm hands off my wife.”
Rick’s site is amazing, www.rickspringfieldmerch.com the amount of merch on there is huge and he sells premium stuff, autographed albums and guitars, premium packing of CD’s and special concert tickets that include attending the soundcheck and meet and greets before and after the show. Even better than all of that – why not join Rick on a Rick Springfield themed cruise? Travel the seven seas, and explore new places all with Rick Springfield and his band playing all the way through.
Check out the video from last years cruise.
http://www.rickspringfieldcruise.com/multimedia.html
What’s the lesson in all of this for you?
This guy is a bona fide Rockstar and you can get this close to him. He loves the fans and he gives a lot to them. He truly connects with the fans and gives them a reason to buy. (Good luck downloading a cruise on the internet) He is giving the fans a true Rick Springfield experience. All bands can learn from this – updating your Facebook and sitting at the merch table after the gig is not connecting with fans. I not saying that taking them on a cruise is, Springfield has a workout that most of his fans are 35 to 45-year-old women who remember having a crush on him 30 odd years ago. You have to workout what your fans connect with you for…and meet them there.
