Allen & Heath is one of the go-to names in sound reinforcement for FOH engineers, touring bands, midsize venues, arenas, and theaters of all sizes – and for good reason! These guys aren’t repeat (and I do mean “repeat”) MMR Dealers’ Choice Award-winners for nothing.
We recently touched base with director of marketing Jeff Hawley to talk about A&H’s presence at the 2025 South by Southwest (SXSW) Music Festival.
Anyone who reads MMR or gets our weekly e-newsletters is surely aware of how active AM&S brands are in the live event space and festivals. Allen & Heath is a key AM&S distributed brand in the US and they just had a huge presence at the recent SXSW in Austin as well as touring out with Neal McCoy, supporting the Milwaukee Irish Fest, and powering last summer’s 2024 Guitar Fest. How important is it to AM&S for brands like Allen & Heath to be key components at these high-profile events and concerts?
Jeff Hawley: Yes, we’ve been busy! We continue to be present in a variety of settings with support on the ground with Allen & Heath USA in a big way. Telling these stories via PR in trade publications like MMR is one of the ways we see benefits from our efforts – making sure that key MI and PA dealers know we’re always doing our best to get close to the market and build up demand. We’re out there getting our hands dirty! That’s one obvious “customer” we are targeting with our huge presence at festivals and live events – the readers of MMR.
When we are out in force at events like SXSW, another important focus is the rental and production companies and local partners in the pro audio space that we work with. We have contacts with many audio engineers from touring and local freelance and house engineers at local Austin venues as well. As Allen & Heath was the production audio console for dozens of SXSW venues, this direct interaction and opportunity for feedback and training with those engineers is invaluable. I’d absolutely put these sorts of experiential events in the “highly important” category for us overall.
Do you have any metrics or even anecdotal stories that illustrate how brand awareness for Allen & Heath has been elevated via these events? Have you witnessed a direct “bump” in demand for specific models or lines after being associated with, say, a big festival or show?
Well, I do have lots of sales and market share data over the years to this point. If I told you, I’d have to kill you. [ laughs ] But I can confidently state that the number of A&H consoles at large festivals like SXSW has exponentially grown over the years. Oftentimes I think people say “exponentially” when they really mean “steadily” or “significantly,” but in the case of SXSW it is literally exponential from a couple small showcases and venues to now over 300 performances and stages across the city. The really cool finding here is that each year we see more and more venues switching over to A&H in the interim between the previous year and the current show run. So the amount of production consoles we’ve provided is increasing, but that is on top of the number of venues that already just have A&H in place “organically” now. Importantly, those sales are flowing through the local MI/PA sales channel.
We see a similar overall bump for A&H at festivals and shows and venues of all sizes – SXSW being just one subset of the full touring and production and installed audio market. Of course, as engineers see more and more of AM&S brand or product X as the backline or provided production gear, they are more likely to accept and request it on future shows.
This association with the big shows and festivals is great for us. But I’d argue that the same associative value can come along for dealers and musicians and connected music industry folks at all levels. I’m obviously a marketer and can talk up A&H all day long – but I think there is real value out there in supporting similar sorts of events from the dealer standpoint as well.
From a larger MI industry/“making music-makers” stance, why and how are these types of gatherings and events crucial to sparking interest in musical performance and driving potential customers to lessons and music retailers? How might music dealers capitalize more on the exposure provided by festivals and concerts in their area?
This “making music-makers” is a mission that I’ve been supporting for many years, even before my time at AM&S. I think every brand within the industry should be doing their part to devote some portion of their marketing mix to building this “top of the funnel” awareness of the coolness and overall societal value music performance and production brings about. As we’re all collectively vying for the same discretionary income collectively as a music industry, obviously it is important to brand “Music” as best as we can. Here is where I think the local dealers and independent music teachers and all of the various connected music folks can connect up with events like Milwaukee Irish Fest or SXSW or the Duluth National Hot Dog Day Concert in the Park. I just made that last one up, but the point is that you don’t have to wait for a huge concert or festival to come to your local area.
Just about every community out there has opportunities to get involved and come in as a sponsor – even if it is just a banner sign and providing a simple portable PA for the park stage. This ties to the “associative value” point I mentioned before. I remember how much of an impact it made back in my college days to see Anaheim Band Instruments with their little tabletop of trumpets and trombones at the Fullerton College Jazz Festival. I’m sure it influenced my decision to work there and ultimately end up on a path into branding and marketing. “Wow, if that store is cool enough to show up and support the things I love, I should support that store!” In a way, my career all started with a retailer’s decision to set out a display table and some horns at that event.
Are you aware of any specific MI retailers who’ve been especially savvy and taking advantage of the inherent promotional opportunities provided by live performances? Specific examples?
There are some great examples here, sure. Sweetwater GearFest was an awesome model I thought. Obviously a little thing called COVID threw a wrench in that live event plan, but that sort of merging of commerce and performance had a great vibe. There are a lot of smaller regional and more targeted events like the Christian Musician Summit up here in the Pacific Northwest that I also think are good examples. In that case there are a few really engaged dealers – both local and national – alongside performances and educational sessions on worship mixing and playing guitar in a church setting, et cetera. Our Allen & Heath rep force has hosted several awesome events pulling together audio training and mingling and selling in interesting and effective ways. Also great keyboard and keyboard focused events co-sponsored with dealers on the AM&S Music Creation Division side of things. Ping your AM&S contact if you’d like to brainstorm more cool ideas on this front. We’re all ears!
To what degree do you feel industry organizations such as NAMM are helping both MI suppliers and dealers tap this avenue of driving demand via these sorts of events? Do you feel more could be done?
I personally am not sure that NAMM’s resources are best utilized in planning or directly staging these sorts of events at scale. Perhaps that is something that they’ve tried in the past, I’m not sure. But I do think that refining the “public” days at NAMM is a possible interesting way forward. I might get some heated letters to the editor on that take, but I’d argue that for a certain subset of the musical population NAMM is just as snazzy and as aspirational as SXSW. Certainly we are at the show to show off our wares to dealers – but I’m not sure that means to the exclusion of end-users and the general public. After all, who is going to buy these instruments en masse at the end of the day? Only people in the industry? I can only fit so many guitars on my own office wall.
All of that to say that I’m sure the NAMM folks are looking carefully at both the short-term and long-term goals of the NAMM Show and the advocacy function of NAMM. The goal is obviously to strike the balance between making the show work for manufacturers and dealers and creating the buzz and excitement necessary to increase overall demand. I’ll leave that call in the capable hands of the NAMM management team.
I will add that Zach [Phillips] and the NAMM team have done an amazing job at expanding the reach of NAMM to include more live sound and production. The A&H training we host each year is a great validation of the “build it and they will come” approach with record numbers of attendees each year and standing-room only sessions. We started small and created a reason for a new audience to feel connected and find value – and overall demand for training increased. More training is known to lead to more sales. Companies can post video training online (and I’ve designed a lot of that over the years as well), but nothing beats connecting and mingling in person. The short answer is that of course more can be done, but I think most of the lift can be smaller and more local vs. a “top down” push from organizations like NAMM. Just my two cents.
Can you share about some recent or upcoming initiatives that AM&S brands have embarked on, or will embark on, to further raise their profile by partnering with high-profile artists or shows?
We recently expanded the A&H USA Live Sound & Touring team to enable us to continue the highly successful Allen & Heath University training across the US while also providing in-person support to more festivals and high-profile engineers and artists. One new aspect of SXSW for 2025 was the production and sponsorship of a dedicated AM&S showcase. Allen & Heath was everywhere, but we also partnered with our sister JAM companies (KMC Music, The Music People / On-Stage Stands) to provide a full backline and PA as we highlighted up-and-coming musical acts. From sE and CAD mics on On-Stage stands to Randall amps and NORD keyboards and over to an A&H dLive at front of house with BASSBOSS in the PA mix, we provided it all.
Not only was this effective from a content gathering perspective for the included brands, but we once again were able to make those direct connections to musicians and engineers and promoters and production staff at all levels. We’ve done similar things with GuitarFest at the Honda Center in the past. We are banking on the “halo effect” of these efforts to increase traffic into retail and generally create more music makers in the world. I’d certainly think more of these types of activations are in the works for the future.
Any final thoughts on this larger topic you’d like to share with MMR readers?
I’d just like to urge dealers to get creative and reach out to manufacturers with these ideas and opportunities. Not every advertiser in the pages of MMR has the product breadth in their lineup like JAM to cover a large production from top to bottom, but just about every company you work with is on the lookout for ways to connect more closely with their fanbase. Back to my fictional Duluth National Hot Dog Day Concert in the Park example, I think it is important to also not wait for the Super Bowl to swing into town. Start small, think of interesting ways you can connect with the community. Ping indie guitar strap companies and kazoo brands for support, don’t just think JAM-level folks.
Music is inherently a community activity – we are most often performing with a group and (we hope!) performing for an audience. Let’s make sure we are all doing our part to be visible to that community as cool people and as fellow musicians and music lovers. I doubt very seriously that you have anyone on your staff that hates music. Get your music-loving staff involved and more connected to their passion, position your business as the local go-to resource, and let’s always remember to tell the story of why music is a key part of what makes a community a community. The good news is that the story is best told by kicking up the volume and letting the jam begin. What could be wrong with that?!
