WHEN I take some CD media packs to the postbox I realise there’s a postal strike today and they won’t be picked up ’til tomorrow (Friday). Bah!

On the upside, the loch’s looking pretty calm, so i might get out for a paddle later.

A lot on my to-do list tho’, so I get wired in as soon as I get back to the studio.

When I’ve made some progress I decide on a quick pre-lunch paddle, but when I get to the bay it’s starting to get pretty windy…then further out it’s really choppy and difficult to steer the board. I call it a day and head back to shore.

After lunch we work out a t-shirt and hoodie order for our screen printer then i spend some time putting together an ad campaign for the upcoming shows. I’ve done a lot of Facebook advertising in the past with varying amounts of success..but I’m not convinced it should be the backbone of the paid promotion/advertising for this upcoming tour.

Bandsintown has in interesting approach so I start messing about with the creative and targeting. The downside is the minimum campaign budget is £150…a lot to spend just to see if something might work.

Print ads, even in niche publications, just don’t work. Never really have, and never will. They’re OK for building awareness but there comes a point where they don’t really work. Most of the folks that buy/read these publications are well aware of me and my music…and they’ve long since decided if they like it or not. The folks that do are on my mail list, follow my socials etc and don’t need an ad to let them know about tour dates, new releases or whatever. In saying that, I did take a small ad for the forthcoming album and UK dates in one of the blues mags, but that was more to support the publication than anything else. It’s had no effect at my end at all!

We discus budget (or lack of it) and the pros and cons of the various online ad options and decide to give the bandsintown thing a whirl. Organic socials, email list, posters, and ‘traditional’ press/media/PR all play an important part, but paid promotion/advertising is also necessary – especially when trying to build or reach new audiences. I have to be willing to ‘put my money where my mouth is’…’or speculate to accumulate’ as the cliches say!

I spend a while tailoring the tour campaign creative…but before I finalise everything I send a note to the bandsintown folks to see if they have any incentives or discounts so first time advertisers can asses the suitability of the platform and it’s paid services for their own needs. We’ll see what they say…and we’ll see if the campaign makes any difference to anything. Watch this space.

Matty and his girlfriend Lindsay are coming later tonight to stay a coupla days and I’m doing pizza tonight…the dough is ready to be balled up and I need to make some pasatta.

Back in the studio I start work on an animation idea I have for a video to go with Devil May Care – the title track from the forthcoming album (18 November). I’m using some free software called Synfig Studio which is quite powerful, but not very intuitive…I wanna create my main character animations int here then compile the lot in Final Cut. it’s gonna be a steep learning curve.

Matty and Lindsay arrive just after 9pm so i close up the studio for the day and crack open a beer. The it’s pizza time…