Interscope Records

[Dan]

How Do You Guys And Girls Think About How Interscope Have Promoted,A Different Kind Of Truth?

Dont Be Shy.:D

[Yount]

I think that word of mouth is the number one reason any good album spreads and sells.

I haven't noticed the promotion as much just because the album has been kicking my arse, I'm in to it! Interscope don't have to try and convince me.

I did love that full building advert of the train I assume was in NY somewhere where they had even painted over the windows. There would have been at least one old VH fan who must have driven past this and discovered the new album out and nearly stacked their car.

[vandeleur]

ok i will try and reign this in a bit , i think the album is killer. Am sure i have mentioned this on these boards a gazillion times .
Am not sure there has been enough promotion on the disc as i would have liked , I think the choice of first single was carzy and the video for it baffling . I know cd sales and singles arent were the cash is and its tours , but surely a smash hit album would have helped with sell out shows or at least make the demand for tickets higher. ( plus am biased i wanted a vh album at number one for dlr)
Saying that just seen the stw video and its a class choice for single.
As for promotion in general , they have the number one publicity magnet on the planet and ther keeping it under wraps. Fuck it let dave do letterman , stern let him hit any electronic media device know to man ....
Build it and they will come ...... deep breath .

[ZahZoo]

I think mostly the promotion was excellent and some of it pure genius...

The genius part... dropping the exclusive videos to the 3 fan sites (Army, Links & VHND) in between Christmas & New Years. Perfect timing when a lot of folks kill time on the interweb... plus going deep into the fan base is like an earthquake off-shore that kicked up a huge tsunami that slowly stalked the fans for the next couple of months. The New Years display of the album artwork put the world on notice and was relatively inexpensive... yet got global exposure.

The marketing genius is all of that cost virtually nothing for Interscope to produce. The fan sites did virtually all the heavy lifting for internet bandwidth and hosting costs. The official sites only linked to someone else's hosted content. The key... global buzz with the core consumers... cheap as hell.

The fall short of the mark items... really poor timing and coordination among release dates and geographies. It should have all popped within 24 hours globally. I think this hurt sales and in some ways promoted piracy to an extent that could have been mostly avoided... especially releasing it days to a week or more in the Southern Hemisphere and Europe before they released in their largest market... the US. The delay, underestimated demand and mixed distribution channels and cost variance for the vinyl release is pathetic...

On press/media promotion... the exclusives were great. The ultra-controlled print/internet media interviews with Dave only... were safe and reasonably acceptable. The lack of anything from the Van Halen's other than the old-timer's campfire chat in a climate controlled bubble is cool... but has left a gap. The total exclusion of Wolfgang in the press or band generated promotion seems to me to leave a huge gaping hole that could have generated interest from the younger new and potential emerging fan base... missing a huge opportunity to tie old with new...

Somewhere between the label, management and the band lies this strategy of isolation of the Van Halen's... maybe it's not hurting things much... but they are missing some huge promotional value among musicians and the youngsters...

[kwame k]

I agree......but when you have, by all accounts, one of the greatest guitar players in the world in your band. Just Ed's name recognition alone could of generated huge amounts of press and keep interest alive long after the release date of the album. If Ed could of done some kind of Master Class on how he plays or a song by song break down of his style, live in front of an audience would of been huge......like the Story Tellers VH1 thing.

I still think that they didn't do a lot of press/media because of the drama of the past and having to answer a million stupid questions about old grudges. Hell, I wouldn't want to rehash the past in every interview either.

Unleashing Dave would of generated more interest but again, do you really want to see 50 interviews about what he thinks about Bassplayer not being there or the latest bashing Spammy is doing. So that kind of ruins the media blitz.

Ed has never been good at interviews live and off the cuff. Alex isn't either. Wolfie, who knows!

The best the band could do now would be to play some big TV events or do a few festival shows where there's a multi-generational audience.

I wanted my band to have a #1 album and crush the tarnished legacy that Spammy left but in reality we got a kick ass album and a tour, after a rough start, that's kicking ass too!

The next step for the band should be a real World Tour, a second US leg, a 6 month break and release another album.....do it properly next time and learn from the mistakes made this time.

[So this is love]

ok i will try and reign this in a bit , i think the album is killer. Am sure i have mentioned this on these boards a gazillion times .
Am not sure there has been enough promotion on the disc as i would have liked , I think the choice of first single was carzy and the video for it baffling . I know cd sales and singles arent were the cash is and its tours , but surely a smash hit album would have helped with sell out shows or at least make the demand for tickets higher. ( plus am biased i wanted a vh album at number one for dlr)
Saying that just seen the stw video and its a class choice for single.
As for promotion in general , they have the number one publicity magnet on the planet and ther keeping it under wraps. Fuck it let dave do letterman , stern let him hit any electronic media device know to man ....
Build it and they will come ...... deep breath .

Me thinks...they said... fellows we could do a tour with the new album and have fun lets not overdo it we`re 57 after all...fuck the interviews and all that crap we`ve been there before...lets just have fun and see where it gets us by summer...they are multi millionnaires old farts (no disrespect but looking at it realistically)...Ed is being a great father for his son giving him stage experience and Wolf is being great for Ed...Dave seem to have fun...that`s all folks.

[ZahZoo]

You're dead on regarding the past drama avoidance.. they could have managed it with a hard-nosed interview criteria. You ask, we walk approach. But obviously the path of least resistance is to just say nothing and talk to no one.

[vandeleur]

They could still do shows were they play , ie do letterman play the song . Letterman says thats the new single from your new favourite band .... Single charts or something
Maybe am being greedy , the media blackout sucks ... I know the reasons why .. But I wanna watch a bit of dlr magic .... Fuck we need some new davisms for our signatures lol
I ain't whining .... Am grateful for what we got ..... Just want more

[DLR Bridge]

At the risk of sounding like a complaint, I'm a bit surprised that Interscope hasn't tapped the mad video directorial skills of a one Mr. David Lee Roth for some outrageous treatments to the singles. Lack luster video and Van Halen do not belong in the same sentence.

[Mushroom]

While all the =VH= armchair quarterbacks disagree with the album promotion, or perceived lack there of, they project their emotions as if =VH= is doing it wrong. Maybe =VH= is satisfied and do not regret one bit. It's the armchair quarterbacks who are dissatisfied because they want the world to know =VH= is back and they want the record to sell millions. 99.99% of the world couldn't care less.

I see nothing wrong with Tattoo as a first single. It's the most accessible song on the record that probably would have the most mass appeal for the general population.

Nobody here has mentioned the ADKOT banner that hanged in Time Square during new year. Look for footage on youtube. That's pretty special.

What about Stay Frosty clip on primete TV?

Videos are not what they used to be. EmptyV is not what it used to be.

[chi-town324]

lets get real, as much as "she's the woman " kicks ass...its pretty lame just to splice together some live footage and call it a video....

[fourthcoming]

Maybe Dave can dress up as Napolean, Wolf can be a samurai, Al can be Tarzan, and Ed can be a cowboy in the next video. 1983 was a long time ago. I like the new video....all I see on youtube is comments by people who think the editing is piss poor.......jeez.....stop already. At least the vocals sync up this time not like the Tattoo video. 28 friggin years since a VH video with Dave and people are still unhappy? Really? Panama was a great video, I seem to remember live footage spliced in there.....tons of videos back in the day had live footage or simulated live footage spliced in. And Warf is in the new video representing the ARMY.....how bad can it be?

[Hardrock69]

I will just say could be better, could be worse, and leave it at that.

[ZahZoo]

While all the =VH= armchair quarterbacks disagree with the album promotion, or perceived lack there of, they project their emotions as if =VH= is doing it wrong. Maybe =VH= is satisfied and do not regret one bit. It's the armchair quarterbacks who are dissatisfied because they want the world to know =VH= is back and they want the record to sell millions. 99.99% of the world couldn't care less.

Nobody here has mentioned the ADKOT banner that hanged in Time Square during new year. Look for footage on youtube. That's pretty special.

What about Stay Frosty clip on primete TV?

Videos are not what they used to be. EmptyV is not what it used to be.

Shroom... step out into the light and off the compost pile for moment...

We're discussing Interscope record's promotion of ADKOT. The Van Halens featuring Diamond David Lee Roth are the talent. Interscope Records, a subsidary of the huge Universal Music Group conglomerate is responsible for the promotion and distribution aspects in marketing the record and have a partial role in promotion of the tour with Live Nation Entertainment corp... and VH is managed under Irving Azoff's Front Line Management group. Azoff is also Chairman of Live Nation. These are the "business entities" that are responsible for the promotion and marketing. VH's role is make the music and perform at the shows.

The New Years display of the album art work has been mentioned a few times in this thread... EMtvy is dead but go check out the Artists pages on Interscope's web site... then check out the professional videos available for their younger pop artists. Clearly VH is totally low to trending no-budget on producing videos to support their singles and tour. Is that good enough..? Maybe for some... but as our Toastmaster General has coined... A Little Ain't Enough... Plus Van Fuckin Halen has always been about the big show... hell even with Cherone the promotion was 100x bigger than this.

I have no idea what the fuck "primete TV" is... is that something on the Monkey Channel or what? Stay Frosty did make it's debut as a stellar backing track for a scene on the CBS show CSI during a visit to a strip club. Now if that ain't a prime opportunity for a Van Halen-esque music video featuring Diamond Dave and some beautiful women mixed with live band shots... I don't know what is. Seems to me they miss a proverbial "Glory Hole" opportunity for a Stay Frosty video...

[chefcraig]

I have no idea what the fuck "primete TV" is... is that something on the Monkey Channel or what? Stay Frosty did make it's debut as a stellar backing track for a scene on the CBS show CSI during a visit to a strip club. Now if that ain't a prime opportunity for a Van Halen-esque music video featuring Diamond Dave and some beautiful women mixed with live band shots... I don't know what is. Seems to me they miss a proverbial "Glory Hole" opportunity for a Stay Frosty video...

Given the approximate age of CVH fans, to not film a video featuring some provocative imagery of Marg Helgenberger does indeed sound like a lost opportunity.