Roc for the Homeless Benefit Concert

Workflow

1. Develop Event Plan

We knew the overall idea for Roc for the Homeless, but we didn't know the details. This phase involved planning the specifics including where on campus the event would be held, who would provide concessions, who would perform and for how long, and other logistical details to make sure the concept was completely fleshed out. The result of this planning would be a presentation that could be taken to the head of PRIMA, then to the client (RRH), and finally to the school (which included administration, student life, and security). If all parties approved the idea, we'd be full-speed ahead.

2. Get Funding

Upon receiving initial approval from all parties involved, I put together a preliminary budget that outlined how much it would cost to rent event materials, secure concession providers, book talent (if necessary), and included a goal amount to donate directly to RRH. My team then brainstormed ideas for raising the funds necessary and ultimately decided that, by partnering with organizations throughout the school, we could make this a purely Fisher event, and we could increase our promotion by involving more groups of students.

Knowing that Student Government Association ("SGA") is the largest (and best funded) club on Fisher campus, I decided to connect with them first by reaching out the SGA President directly. With her blessing, I presented the idea to the rest of SGA and proposed that we host the event in conjunction with one another. In this agreement, PRIMA would promote, plan, and execute the event while SGA funded it. In return, SGA would gain from the positive PR of hosting an event benefiting the homeless, and they would receive a no-hassle event that they could tout as one of their year's accomplishments. We had an agreement, and the event was funded.

3. Book Talent & Event Materials

The next step was to reserve all the materials needed to put on a concert (stage, speakers, lights, tent, etc) and book talent to perform at the event. For the materials, we knew that our budget was tight, so again, I had to get a little creative when coming up with funds. For this challenge, I went directly to the school's administrative offices because I knew that they needed some of the same materials for an event they had planned for the day after our event. Once again, I proposed an agreement: We rent the equipment together and whatever items are needed for both events get paid for by the school (since the school would benefit from both events). In the end, we did not need to pay for a majority of the items needed for the concert out of our own budget. This cleared funds that would be donated directly to RRH.

Booking talent was a tricky, and I will admit that I got lucky. First, because my account team consisted of some very social people who know a lot of students on campus. These members of my team did a great job in securing most of the acts, but we were still a few performers short of our goal. To attract more performers, I designed and printed flyers to be hung around campus, but the real boost came when I met a student who was planning a similar event to Roc for the Homeless. After some discussion, we decided to combine our events and he would bring the acts he had scheduled for his show over to our concert. It was a perfect marriage, and we had nearly a full bill. All we needed was an emcee for the event and a headliner.

For the emcee, I approached one of St. John Fisher's professors who had a connection with the owner of a local comedy club in Rochester. Upon receiving his information, I contacted the comedy club owner and asked him if he knew of any comedians who would be interested in performing at our event. To my surprise, he said yes. This is how we got up-and-coming comedian, Sean Day (winner of 2019's Rochester's Funniest Person competition), to host our event.

For the headliner, I had heard about a group of St. John Fisher teachers that had a very good band. A band that actually performs at legitimate venues throughout the City of Rochester. Recognizing this as an opportunity that couldn't be missed, I set up a meeting with the teachers and pitched them my idea. They signed on immediately, and also offered to provide help on the equipment setup - a true bonus since I am not familiar with that process at all.

So with some outside the box thinking and a little luck, this digital marketing professional stepped out from behind a screen and completed a number of face to face meetings to book talent. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't very proud of my efforts on this part.

4. Develop Creative

As Creative Director of PRIMA, I needed to make absolutely certain that the creative for Roc for the Homeless was top-notch, and with the concepts developed during brainstorming with my team, we knew it would be. First, we needed to create posters that would promote the event around campus. Three posters would be created, the first as a call for performers, the next to promote advanced merchandise sales and item donation drive, and the third as a last minute promotion for the event itself. Next, signs needed to be developed for display at the event including a stage banner, signs directing people to the show, and posters with merchandise pricing. Third, a web page was to be created for Roc for the Homeless on the PRIMA website, and as manager of the website, I was to put this together. On this page, we would have information about the event, and the ability to purchase merchandise in advance.

Once the creative was completed, merchandise needed to be ordered and printed. To do this, I worked with CustomInk, who provided amazing service. In fact, they even made a mistake on our order, but to make things right, they replaced the mistake item with a better product and rush shipped it so it arrived for the event. Shout out to CustomInk.

5. Promote the Event

Finally, with everything in place, it was time to promote the event - not only on campus, but to the media so that we could garner earned media coverage at the event. To do this, we produced a Press Release that was submitted to local media personalities and stations.

To promote on campus, we continued hanging posters throughout campus, but also visited classrooms and spoke to students about the event and worked with the school's IT department to have promotion for the event displayed on all closed circuit televisions and computers throughout campus. Roc for the Homeless pages were also created on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook and members of our account team (and PRIMA as a whole) were encouraged to share announcements about the event to further reach among their friends.

...and, in the end, all of these efforts would lead us to the Roc for the Homeless event!