Since 2011, the Percussion Marketing Council (PMC) has offered retailers the chance to partner with Vans Warped Tour to promote the excitement and benefits of drums and drumming to the thousands of attendees that gather at each tour city.
The dates and venues for this year are all posted here as 2018 marks the Vans Warped Tour’s final cross-country run.
“This is a tremendous opportunity for any percussion retailer to grow their customer base,” says Billy Cuthrell, Percussion Marketing Council’s Vans Warped Tour Lesson Lab program director. “We have been collaborating with the Vans Warped Tours for over six years and encourage any educational-minded music retailer to host a PMC First-Free Drum Lesson Tent operation within their regional market.”
The partnership between the PMC and Vans Warped Tour is founded on the PMC’s non-profit status, bringing an educational element to the summer concerts, while offering local participating drum retailers the opportunity to connect with the energized youth market to create new players and customers.
Cuthrell says, “It’s a win for the retailer on all fronts. While getting your business’s name out in front of thousands of loyal music devotees, you’re also supporting your local community. Just by bringing plenty of your store’s business cards, hanging your large store banner within the free drum lesson tent and having promotional/educational store materials to hand it out to all that come by the playdrums.com tent for that first drum lessons you are going to get attention and customers”.
The PMC promotes that alliance to retailers as a free and simple process. Once the hosting retailer’s date and venue is confirmed the playdrums.com Lesson Lab pop-up tent is scheduled to ship directly to the store free-of-charge along with supporting collateral materials to help make the day successful. The local hosting percussion retailer provides free first-five-minute drum lessons to any attendee that signs-up during the day at the playdrums.com Lesson Lab tent. The hosting retailer collects the beginning drummer contact information so that the retailer and the PMC can then follow-up with each individual that experienced his or her first drum lesson during the Vans Warped Tour event. The number of drum lessons given in one day could range from seventy to over a hundred.
“There’s plenty of cities and dates on the Vans Warped Tour schedule still available and retailers should check vanswarpedtour.com/dates for current 2018 US tour dates,” Cuthrell says.
