CPR Promotional Check-Up - Jul 22, 2022

Banner Etiquette

Wednesday was the 37th anniversary of Live Aid. I was working an event called Riverfest that day and missed the whole the. Fortunately because of YouTube, all the performances are there and I think I’ve seen them all. But the Clapton set from Philly was the one that triggered me. Because there was one, small, slightly off-center banner inexplicably behind Phil Collins.

It’s not OCD, it’s just that there are 1.5 billion people watching and someone had just ONE job to do…

There was a Promo Director in Phoenix who referred to herself as “The Banner Nazi” after Seinfeld. It was her pet peeve. Banners were on a doily in the van, non-perforated so she had a T-Bar like an architect and they used that to cut them. She had some other isms too.

She also would, while an event was happening and if she had time, go back and walk it and look for banners that had come down. She shared a photo from a fest where a string if about 20 of the competition’s had all sagged to the ground and laid there except for the two on the farthest left that were help up with just a tiny smidgen of tape.

Banners should be the first thing you see when you get there and the last thing you see when you leave.

They should lead you to an event.

You should never see visible duct tape.

If there are places like concerts that you’re going to go to repeatedly, go and map it out now so you know where all your things go.

Think “overview”. At a fest in Halifax, there was an apartment building that loomed over the event so they bannered the railing of the rooftop party deck and spiffed the management with tickets to an event. In Charlotte was a hotel that looked over fest and had a rooftop pool. Ditto with a Clear Channel fest in Wichita.

From Marcy with JACK in Vancouver:

Zapstraps!

From Tom Davis with Beasley in Tampa:

One thing I always suggest – if bannering outside… Put little slits in the banners so the wind can go through the banner, rather than the banner tearing from the wind.

From Tim Fleming with Summit:

Always purchase perforated banners…straight lines every time and you don’t have to keep up with scissors. Efficient and clean.

I also tell my teams to never hang just to hang. Step back and walk up to a venue like a patron and put banners where your eyes go. Same for driving into a venue.

I use zip ties to hang on fencing so I can cut them down after the gig, roll em up and reuse them.

One of the things I HATE is when my people hang banners across the blow-thru gate in front of a stage. Once the crowd gets into a show you can no longer see the banner and it’s wasteful. If anything, hang a couple on the other side facing the stage so the artists see them and maybe give your station a stage shout out.