Brand AC/DC – 35,000 people cannot be wrong!
Written on February 2, 2010 by admin
A few nights ago I was one of the 35,000 screaming and jumping people in the stadium while AC/DC rocked their socks off …. Or in Angus’ case his school uniform off! Although I would not call myself a fan I was mightily impressed by AC/DC’s first Wellington show.
So what does this have to do with branding? How about awareness – loyalty – market penetration – sales – income …
Notwithstanding the recent economic climate, there was a fair amount of folding stuff spent last night – let’s start with the cost of tickets – general admission and reserved seating tickets sold for $160 – multiple that by 35,000 and that’s a fairly big number! And remember that this is one of two concerts in Wellington.
According to Wotzon – the day AC/DC tickets went on sale in New Zealand was Ticketek’s biggest sales day in Wellington ever. More tickets were sold on the internet than ever before for a Wellington event. Not only that, AC/DC smashed the record for the fastest ever rollover to a second show for a stadium event in Wellington. Due to the huge demand, a second and final Wellington concert was put on sale within hours of the first going on sale. There was a high level of awareness and loyalty to the band for the sales to be a such record rates.
It has been estimated that 1 in 50 New Zealanders have bought a ticket to this rock and roll extravaganza – that is amazing market penetration!
Next the merchandise – many a great “product” is futher promoted through sales of merchandise. I would estimate that about 90% of concert goers were wearing AD/DC branded clothing be it t-shirts, hats, bandanas etc. No doubt most of these people pulled their trusty AC/DC shirt from their drawer before heading out but many people were splashing out further money on the BLACK ICE tour merchandise being sold at the concert – including t-shirts, programmes, and cool light-up devil’s horns.
I will admit that perhaps AC/DC is an extreme example of a brand gone wild but you must remember that like all new products or services they had humble beginnings with their first gig at Chequers in Sydney on New Years Eve 1973.
Angus Young at Chequers Nightclub, Sydney – 1974
From those humble beginnings, through their various line up changes, 37 years, 15 studio albums and worldwide sales of 200 million albums later AC/DC are clearly a mega brand. On 4 November 2009 AC/DC were announced as the (Australian) Business Review Weekly top Australian earner (entertainment) for 2009 with earnings of $105 million. Now that’s quiet a nice income to split 5 ways. (I’m pleased to see that they displaced The Wiggles from the number one spot for the first time in four years. Children today clearly have too much disposable income!)
Obviously a percentage of the ticket, album and merchandise sales are going to the promoters, record companies and licensees however these boys are doing more than their share for the economy (and I have not even touched on the money spent on transportation, accommodation, food and alcohol) last night.
This was not a dirty deed done dirt cheap!
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