Punk Rock Guerilla Marketing 101

1.Catch stray dogs & carve your bands name in their fur....Hell go all ART-SHIT on Everybody!!

.....Actually this is about a question I got and I thought it opened up a BIG Can of worms about Punk & Marketing. The question was:

"How did Nuclear Skull get Advertising in Metal Edge & Metal Maniacs? Did your Label buy this space for you?"

....The answer is NO!!...NO!!!....D.I.Y & Let it Fly doesn't mean include Labels and Managers etc, it MEANS = DO IT YOURSELF!!.....I once knew this woman who said "FUCK THIS!!!" and told the Decorators to "Lay Off" the Front door and on Saturday at 10am went to work on the door hammering and nailing up Things & Stuff while her work week, Mon thru Fri Husband was sleeping in, OR trying to sleep in. It didnt turn out well, but the point is - She tried and did it herself.

...And thats the answer to the question = I did it myself, and like in Real Estate and ALOT of other Scenarios I happened to be in the "Right Place at the Right Time doing the Right thing." To be more precise, I responded to the advertising address listed on ad space within a classified area within these magazines and followed the direction and paid $20 for 2 small lines in which I used minimum words for max efficiency & the www.nuclearskull.com contact......I did this for 8 mos or so wt CRAZY results of people sending Demos and ALL HELL BREAKING LOOSE......

.....So this went on for a year or so and BE AS IT MAY, what was going on is these 2 old ex-advertising industry Jewish ladies in Port St Lucie, FL. had this advertising scheme where they were soliciting numerous print magazines and buying several months of ad space in advance of STRAIGHT ACROSS THE BOARD orders and they got discounts, and so they were breaking up the ad space & re-selling it and this is how they were making money.

...As time went by living in FLORIDA, a Tropical Storm popped up, Several in fact, but one in particular that hit HARD and the old ladies either got BLOWN AWAY into the Gulf Of Mexico or they said FUCK IT!! We are out of here, OR I DON'T KNOW???? They just disappeared off the map. No return mail response, disconnected phone - GONE!

Somehow in "The SPIN of the Wheel of Life" in my then constant rabid obsession for promotion & The ROYALLY FUCKING BLESSED SON OF A BITCH I AM, with the absence of the 2 old ladies and contacting the magazines directly, I ended up taking over the entire 5 inch x 2 inch space for the whopping cost of $60 a month, and I bought a years worth of this advertising in advance. Now I don't know about now, but at the time these magazines had "legs" and traveled the world. As a result of this we got in front of ALOT of peoples faces and it didn't hurt that I was designing all the ads myself and was using the "M60 Machine gun Skull guy" with skulls leaking out of his barrel. It was crazy to say the least and not a day went by without receiving a stack of mail not to mention the net traffic.

Finally, the owners of the magazines sold out to another publishing company and "the writing was on the wall". In the transfer, I somehow was receiving billing statements for The Eddie Trunk Radio Show under my name (WTF right?) and in opening this mail I discovered that Eddie was paying $5000 a month for the same ad space!! I was informed that I would be "grandfathered" in on my ad purchases BUT after my time ran out I too would be paying this enormous price. I had a good run lets put it that way.

So that's the story. And I'm not selfish or greedy and will throw you guys a bone: If any of you out there reading this have bands or projects you want to promote (Music, Books,websites, etc.) there are still several outlets to get some great exposure on the cheap = Maximum Rock-n-Roll in San Fransisco, The punk rock bible, is one zine that has legs and travels the entire globe and offers up some really inexpensive ad space and packs a bang for the buck. Also there is RAZORCAKE out of LA. which is not as globally widespread as MRR, but still offers ad space on the cheap while getting you in front of the target audience. Also subscriptions to the above are highly advised and will defiantly improve your life with some good reading.

DIY & Let it Fly!!