[ Closed ] Joe B Business Cards (Page 1 of 4)

Jim, Jane and others I think that would be great to have a business card size type of promo to give away, either at the door or the merchandise table.  It is not a big investment to print up a bunch to hand out.  Something like that could come from the street team but it would be great if Joe/management/PR rep could come up with something like this.  Believe it would go along way.  We would be willing to hand at the door too.  Anything to help...

Great idea, Jim. And the bonus to that is it's easy to hand to a talent buyer.

I know it's much better than handing them a handwritten piece of paper.

Excellent idea. I too had similar thoughts after receiving an email advertisement from Vistaprint, a printing company who offers free business cards (you pay only shipping). They offer this service in exchange for a small advertisement for their company which appears on the back of the free cards, but you can also pay extra and have their ad removed.

They offer a number of different styles, and you can design your card right on the website and view it as you put it together. I must have tried 15 or 20 designs but never could come up with one I really liked enough to post as a suggested or recommended design for the Street Team - but I guess there's nothing saying they have to uniform, either.

Their website is http://www.vistaprint.com and then click on the "Free Business Cards" link under the business card heading on the left side of the page. From there you can select your background and design your card.

If everyone wants to do their own business cards as part of the Street Team, all we need to do is figure out what information we want on them. Do we want them to be like a typical personal business card that shows "The Joe Bonamassa Street Team" instead of a company name, followed by Joe's website URL and then each person's invividual name and contact info, or a more generic "Joe Bonamassa" advertisement with his website info and maybe a very abbreviated bio? After we decide, I think we should get the OK from Joe and Management on the text we are putting on them, because we will be distributing a promotinal item with Joe's name on it that will appear to be "official" in nature...(I'm just thinking outloud here). For example, I don't know if Premier would want their phone # on them. Anyway I do tend to favor  the personal business card angle, as I think it more accurately reflects how our passion for Joe's music has motivated us to spread the word.

Anyway Jim great idea. Would you like to spearhead this, and take it to the point where we can add it to the list of Street Team, "Programs and Ideas" on the Fan Website? Or if nothing else moderate our discussions of the topic here and kind of guide things along until we get this done?

This is a fabulous idea!!!  I was in a situation last night, where I could have used a couple of cards just like this, but ended up exchanging e-mails on scraps of paper.

We went to see Johnny A in a very small cofeehouse.  We had to stand outside in line until they were done their soundcheck etc. and so we were mingling.  Long story short, we met a bunch of nice people and are talking music, who has seen who at the Dallas guitar shows, guitars, where everyone first heard of Johnny A, etc. etc  and one of the ladies starts talking about this young boy who plays unbelievable harmonica that she saw on TV.  It turns out to be LD Miller...she never heard of Joe Bonamassa...she's asking me how to spell it and I take off my sweater and show her my Blues Deluxe tank top...You had to be there, but for some reason all the guys thought I was going to do a New Orleans move without the beads...one track mind men have, I was just showing her the name on my shirt!!! 

Great idea for the business card!!!  I agree with leaving management's phone# off. Website, music links, yes...The stickers are a great idea also, but cost more money I'm sure.  I've received them in music stores as promotions.  Stu, those stickers I sent you that time, I picked them up in an independent record store, they stuff them in your bag at the counter along with your purchase.

P.S. Jim- Johnny A says hi!  What a guitar player...what a great night...there may have been 50-60 people there tops, which could lead me into another story...

Angela,
What did you think of Johnny? Some people here think he is a bit on the mellow side. You know not exactly Pat Travers, but he can shred when he wants to.

jim m

Jim,

I think Johnny A is amazing! He has a really unique and eclectic way of blending jazz, rock & other genres and making 'Jeff Beck and Chet Atkins collide and concur'.  We were within five feet of him, which was a very different experience than seeing him be the warm-up for B.B. King about a year ago.  I watched his hands and his feet on his pedal board; he is a highly skilled guitarist. I like all kinds of music, so I can appreciate his style in a 3 piece band with no vocals. I also think he is a very talented composer and he covers Hendrix well and went into Deep Purple's Smoke On the Water and Led's Whole Lotta Love, which was sweet.

I think I have a soft spot for up and coming musicians, although Johnny has been around for a bit.  I was totally blown away by the fact that Johnny was embraced by Gibson Guitar in 2003 and has a signature Johnny A guitar, 2 music books for both CD's and he's playing in a coffeehouse that holds 92 people and didn't sell out the first show!!! Personally we benefited from the small venue, but I always wonder how one survives financially.

Johnny had some kind words for Joe...and I told him he needed a street team...Anthony might take on a new hobby, he's hooked on him.

My next street team goal is to get Joe played on WXPN, which owns the World Cafe.  People in line heard of Johnny on WXPN. Not too long ago they had Derek Trucks on as a guest in the studio, Bonnie Raiit also.

I like the "less is more" idea, too, now that I've thought about it...

Also, instead of Street Team cards, maybe we could just put Joe's website address and Stu's fansite address, with the link to the Street Team Coordiantor page.  All of the info people need is on these two websites.

A nice photo, or logo, or picture of his gold strat or something, with his name under it and the website addresses- simple and to the point.

Good idea with the business cards/ flyers , i'll shoot the idea to Management and see what happens,