Category Archives: Pranks

CHASING BENNY: Email Strategies To Get Famous People To Notice You, Even If They Ultimately Reject You

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Benny said “Thanks but no thanks.”After spending the last 5 years of sending out cold emails for a business I co-run while doing the same to get shows for The Dirty Marmaduke Flute Squad and Wild Bonerz, I‘ve come up with a some guidelines for writing effective emails when requesting something actionable.

There are 3 rules to know when requesting a stranger to take action:

  1. Assume that they are busy. In fact, assume that they have reached a level of busyness that you can’t even begin to understand.
  2. Assume that they are reading your message amidst hundreds of others. Assume that they read their email on their phone. Make your request as short and direct as possible. Don’t fill your message up with a litany of details.
  3. No response IS a response. Follow-up politely but after about the third time with no response just move on.

With this in mind, posted below is the transcript of emails that led to Benny Mardones listening to Innocent Night. After recording the studio demo, I researched Benny to see what he has been up to. It turns out that he had just released a new album on a label called Warrior Records. I contacted the Jim Ervin, president of Warrior Records to see how we could get Benny on the album.

Subject: Information regarding Benny Mardones

Hi Jim, I am interested in featuring Benny Mardones in a new song by indie rock band The Dirty Marmaduke Flute Squad. Please let me know if this is at all possible and who to contact to investigate further.

Thanks, Nikc Miller

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Hi Nikc,

You would contact me.  Please feel free to forward any potential details.

Regards, Jimmy

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Jimmy,

Thanks for getting back to me.

Basically, we are a rock band that happens to be huge fans of Mardones and “Into the Night.” We wrote a song and recorded a sort of tribute to that song called “Innocent Night.” There is a bridge to the song that is 6 lines and wanted to get Benny to sing it. Along with that, the song would be listed as “Innocent Night featuring Benny Mardones” on the album.

We own a studio, or can do it remotely which may be easier since we are located in Baltimore, MD.

Please let me know how to proceed.

Thanks again, Nikc

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Hi Nikc,

Yes, Benny’s vocals would most likely happen remotely here in Los Angeles.  Is the song in a ProTools session?  Do you have a recording of “Innocent Night” that he may hear first?  Regardless, I will be happy to take this to Benny, but unless there is up front compensation offered it probably will not happen.

Please advise, Jimmy

***
Jim,

The band discussed it and has decided to offer $500 up front for Benny to record vocals for the entire song. Please let me know if this is possible and we can discuss further. I appreciate the time you’ve taken to correspond with us.

Thanks again, Nikc

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Hi Nikc,

Benny has looked at everything, but he does not feel that the song is right for him.  Regardless, he did ask that I pass along his thanks and appreciation in considering him for the project.

All the best, Jimmy

We knew it was a long shot, but had to at least try. Of course when making our offer we forgot The Golden Rule Of Mardones:

“[Mardones] still lives quite well on the royalties received from ["Into The Night]…” (source: Wikipedia)

Obviously $500 isn’t gonna cut it for Benny. The point is that we got Benny to actually listen to and consider performing on this crazy child-molester song that alluded to his own biggest hit. For us, that’s a huge win in and of itself.

By the way, Andrew Warner recently wrote a similar post about email strategies. His site Mixergy is a collection of hundreds of interviews that he conducts with the world’s most powerful CEOs and entrepreneurs. So he is constantly requesting the attention of the unreachable. Check it out!

If you like this post check out:

CHASING BENNY: Listen To Songs You Hate For Song-Writing Inspiration: The story behind “Innocent Night” and about how this song was inspired by Benny Mardones’ hit “Into The Night”

On Going Overboard: NACA, East Stroudsburg University part 2

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Aside from the promotional tactics that we utilized at NACA a few weeks ago, we decided to have a little fun and mess with our friend Scott Alexander.

Our relationship with Scott goes way back to when he was performing and living in Baltimore. Now that he is living and working in Brooklyn, we see him a whole lot less. Recently we got to see him more because we partnered with him as an agency to present at NACA (more on this partnership’s Fails and Wins in an upcoming post).  When we do see him, he never fails to remind us that we drink and goof off way too much. Based on that concept we decided to have Ryan and Curtis convince him that I had seriously gone off the deep end and that it was time to intervene.

Not only was Scott unamused, he was actually visibly upset. By the end of the weekend I caught him on video telling us about how we should be careful about Going Overboard when we get to fooling around (he meant this on a personal, as well as, professional level.)

Just a few days ago, he challenged me to talk a little bit about Going Overboard and how it can hurt your band. Instead, I’d like to put my own positive spin on this concept.
 At its most basic incarnation, Going Overboard means doing something outrageous.  When you do something outrageous and it goes horribly wrong, feelings get hurt, you lose a few fans, and you miss some opportunities. On the other side of the coin, if you try something outrageous and it works out, you look like a genius, you gain a TON of fans, and people beat down your door to get a piece of you.

Some good and bad examples of Going Overboard:

  • Radiohead went overboard when they decided to let fans pay what they wished for their new album. (This is now imitated so much that its practically protocol for indie bands trying to sell an album)
  • Kanye West went overboard when he hopped on stage to speak his mind during Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech. (He looked terrible for it. She gained a ton of sympathy. The parodied scene became an Internet sensation.)
  • Barbet Schroeder went overboard when he walked into a producer’s office and threatened to cut off his own finger with a chainsaw if his movie lost financing. (He’s still directing tons of films with all ten digits firmly in place.)
  • Devin Townsend went overboard when he decided to do a stylistic 180° shift. He gave up drugs and alcohol while writing, recording, producing and releasing 4 albums in a two year span. (He is now, arguably, more popular than has ever been.)

Whether the results are positive or negative, it’s a lot riskier to go overboard. It’s not necessarily more effective than consistently reinforcing the boundaries of taste. But it is definitely more fun, creative, and rewarding. It results in getting further along with relationships than you would have by just being polite. The most intriguing thing about Going Overboard, is that it is rarely intentional or planned.  Going Overboard just sort of happens. Then things, good or bad, (finally) start to happen.