Supporting Seattle Arts: SMASH
SMASH Benefit Concert 2022: David Bowie Tribute Night
At Polite Society, our connection to the local music industry runs deep. From postering to partnerships we have a fond love of the local scene. We realize that the culture of Seattle wouldn’t be the same without the great organizations and venues that support underserved musicians in the area. We understand that at many turns creativity sometimes falls short of being able to pay the bills in a place with a high cost of living. That’s why we sponsor and support SMASH, Seattle Musicians Access to Sustainable Healthcare. They are one of our favorite non-profits.
SMASH does amazing work for their members all over Western Washington, keeping our music scene thriving and helping musicians with a variety of services. Their free(!) membership helps remove the barriers to medical, dental, hearing, mental health, and medical insurance benefits that otherwise would be difficult to access for those with financial challenges.
Aside from just providing access to their amazing services, being a member of SMASH enters you into a vibrant network of music supporters, healthcare partners and other community organizations, strengthening the bonds within the local music community and beyond. This network includes the UW Speech and Hearing Clinic, Sonic Guild, and the Seattle Drum School just to name a few. SMASH puts on amazing fundraising shows all the time so check their calendar for upcoming events!
Thank you SMASH for all that you do for our community and musicians! We are thrilled to be involved with you and your work.
Chateau Ste. Michelle: Pride in the Park Sponsorship
Our handcrafted Pride display for Chateau Ste. Michelle
How does one of the largest wine distributors in the country approach a local pride event sponsorship in a fun, meaningful and tasteful way? Chateau Ste. Michelle approached us with exactly that task after buying a sponsorship for Seattle Pride’s Pride in the Park at Volunteer Park.
The goal was to create an “Instagrammable Moment” that would have visitors interested and engaging with the booth at the event. After brainstorming a few concepts we decided on a build-out of a large 3D backdrop that would bring both color and impact to the scene. We were going go make a huge PRIDE sign that people could photograph and that would serve as scenery for their selfie backgrounds.
Chateau Ste. Michelle loved the idea, so we were a go! Now the issue was… how were we actually going to build this from scratch? From concept to execution was going to require a bit more effort and materials than we originally thought.
Another consideration was how to situate this onsite. The field at the park is not flat, so our concept had to stable enough to hold the letters upright without tipping over, but also ensure that the bases were big enough to weigh everything down and hold the large rainbow arrangement of flowers we wanted to display.
The ensuing work involved a few weeks of precise measuring, cutting wood, gluing down foam blocks to hold the flowers, wrapping the bases in mesh, attaching ivy wraps, mounting the letters, and building the arrangement. The photos below outline the process.
The end result was an impressive sign that would be visible from across the park. We installed the piece on the morning of the festival and tented it off for shade. People lined up straight away to see what we were working on and we even made it on a local news report! The installation was semi-viral at the festival and brought a great number of visitors to the Chateau Ste. Michelle booth. Everyone wanted their photo taken in front of the sign.
At the end of the day we came to pack it back up and we were very glad we had put the tent up over the display - it was pouring rain that evening! We carefully loaded the display back into the truck and luckily nothing was damaged or too wet to save.
The activation was so successful that Chateau Ste. Michelle approached us again for another Pride activation the following year!
Starting to lay out the base
Shaping the caging once the foam is set
Tying the ivy blanket onto the base
Planning the flow of the plants across the piece
Almost ready for the letters
Finally taking shape
Ready for the big day!
Setting it up at Volunteer Park
People were lined up to take their photo before we were even done setting up
It was a hit!
Even the pets loved it
Why Should You (A Musician) Use Street Marketing?
Seattle’s culture is inextricably linked to its music scene, thanks in no small part to its great venues like the Paramount, Neptune Theatre, the Showbox, Neumos, Chop Suey and many others. The local industry is further supported by great organizations and nonprofits that provide services, practice spaces and equipment, training and skills for musicians young and old. These venues, organizations, touring acts and local musicians alike have long turned to posters to help get the word out about their upcoming shows. It remains a staple of the industry’s marketing tactics for shows of any size.
Polite Society is a specialized marketing agency that focuses on street and experiential marketing techniques, which can help musicians get their music and message out to the public in creative and innovative ways. We can help you develop a comprehensive marketing plan and then implement it in an effective and efficient manner, including everything from setting up and executing guerrilla marketing campaigns to forging partnerships with local businesses and organizations.
When considering options for outsourcing awareness efforts, here are some of the most prominent benefits for a musician partnering with a street marketing agency like Polite Society:
Reach a Wider Audience: A street marketing agency can help you reach a larger and more diverse audience than you would on your own. Through our marketing efforts, you can reach potential fans you may have otherwise missed.
Word-of-mouth and artist social media pages are often heavily relied on by artists to gain notoriety, but how can they reach people that aren’t already familiar with them in some form? A pole poster campaign is a great starting point. These campaigns are cost effective and are a direct way to grab the attention of people who frequent the area. People looking for weekend plans or fun things to do will be intrigued by a strong poster design that jumps out to them. Awareness is a huge part of getting people in the door for local shows, so this form of street marketing can help artists easily see a return on a small investment by reaching a larger audience than other methods they may currently employ on their own.
Wheat pasting is another medium to consider in tandem with, or instead of, a pole poster campaign. Wheat pasting has the added benefit of dedicated locations on utility boxes, meaning an artist’s event is featured alone instead of with a grouping of other shows and events on a pole. While this service has a slightly higher price point, the possibility of added benefits is worth considering if it’s in the budget.
Create Lasting Connections: Street marketing campaigns create a more personal connection between you and your fans. By engaging with them in a physical space, you can create a more direct response that will last much longer than a digital connection.
Messaging can easily be lost on the endless feeds of social media. However, street marketing is a direct approach to reaching an audience while creating more unique and personal engagement. In addition to pole posters and wheat pasting, hand-to-hand flyering is another great way to create this memorable connection with an expanding audience. Street team members can ensure that messaging is getting directly into the hands of consumers who may be less receptive to other forms of marketing. This more personal touch can have a greater influence on people by giving them a reminder to take with them rather than relying on their memory of a show date on a poster or social media feed.
Leverage Location: Street marketing campaigns allow you to target specific locations and tailor your message to that specific audience. This can be very effective in reaching potential fans in a certain area of the city or a specific demographic.
Street marketing offers the flexibility of giving musicians the ability to target specific neighborhoods close to music venues where they’re performing and reach people who are already frequenting or living in the area. These people are more likely to attend shows close to home or work, and posters can very easily remind them about upcoming shows and venue schedules. We regularly post in and around neighborhoods where prominent music venues are situated, reinforcing the local music culture and keeping awareness high.
Using a street marketing agency can be a powerful and money-efficient way to get awareness about your music out there and connect you with your fans. Polite Society can suggest a specific service or mix of services and suggest campaigns that are well within your budget. You can trust us to create an effective marketing plan and get your message to the right people in the right locations. If you’re looking to expand your reach and develop meaningful relationships with your audience, consider using street marketing for promoting your next show.
ACI Mural Installation: Rethinking Traditional Street Marketing Tactics
We are no strangers to the use of wheat paste as a street marketing standard. It has been our go-to medium for installing posters outdoors for years. However, when ACI Mechanical and HVAC Sales approached us with an opportunity to decorate their new warehouse and office in Portland, we had to consider every option for executing their idea. We were tasked with telling a visual story of the company to liven up their space in a way that would reflect their character and values to visitors.
After weeks of designing the layout and planning the install methods, we found ourselves returning to the reliability of an old friend, wheat paste, to execute the vision. This project wasn’t going to be a simple wildposting install though. The final design came out to over 1,000 unique sheets and about 5,000 total pieces of paper, all to be arranged carefully so as to create a massive collage of local scenes and company memories that would adorn the interior of the ACI building. When it was complete, we had covered 3,000 square feet of wall space with an intricate array of enlarged black-and-white photos, and added colorful cutouts of local graffiti to bring a pop of color onto the backdrop.
The final effect brought the warehouse to life. The inside had been transformed from blank, unremarkable beige plywood into an enormous canvas of memories that completely encircled the office space. We found a way to turn our expertise in wheat pasting into an interior decorating tactic and got us to rethink how our materials could be used in new and exciting formats. With a lot of wheat paste, a vision, and plenty of planning we had turned the ACI office into a space that the employees couldn’t wait to show off.
Watch us in action putting the final touches on this great project in the video below! See the rest of the project on our Youtube page here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCT71YYbMOUqR-AA6zJFyDDw
Supporting Seattle Arts: Children's Film Festival Seattle
Northwest Film Forum
We love being surrounded by so many amazing arts organizations in our neighborhood, some of which we are lucky enough to have right here on our Pike Street block. Our close friends at Northwest Film Forum (NWFF) always have something interesting going on, which is especially true this week as the Children’s Film Festival Seattle begins!
Children’s Film Festival Seattle is celebrating 15 years of intergenerational connection through film. This year, over 175 films will be screened at NWFF, including feature-length films, short films, and documentaries all aimed at kids aged 3-14 and focused on the experience of childhood.
47 countries will be represented by these films, allowing the young festival-goers to experience life through the eyes of children from all over the world. Additionally, this year will feature a shorts program devoted to celebrating LGBTQ kids, workshops aimed at inspiring the next generation of filmmakers, an Indigenous Showcase screening, and several other programs that have us in the Polite Society office trying to borrow our friend’s kids so we have an excuse to go.
It’s easy to see why this local festival has gained a lot of traction this year, and you can read a full write-up about Children’s Film Festival Seattle in the Seattle Times here.
The festival runs at Northwest Film Forum from February 27th to March 7th, with a special closing day on March 8th at the Rainier Arts Center. You can view the schedule on the Children’s Film Festival Seattle website.