![](\"http:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/e\/e4\/Zoltan_Bathory.jpg\")
Five Finger Death Punch (FFDP) doesn\u2019t have the name recognition of a band like Foo Fighters, but that may be about to change. An unusual united strategic marketing effort by the group\u2019s management, label, promoters and agency has propelled the Las Vegas metal act from headlining rock clubs to a 2015 arena tour in the span of two years. <\/p>\n
Formed in 2005, FFDP has sold some 2.9 million albums in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan, but as of 2013 the act had yet to graduate from ballrooms and second stages at festivals. \u201cWe had a band that was selling records; we just didn\u2019t think there was a proper global effort to elevate them\u201d as a live act, says Allen Kovac, CEO of FFDP\u2019s management firm, 10th Street Entertainment.<\/p>\n
So, during the course of two meetings, one in April 2013 and another a year later, Kovac engaged FFDP and its support team to devise a cohesive plan to develop the band as an arena act.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe idea was to drop two albums within six months, each preceded by promo tours in the U.S. and Europe\u201d that included press and radio \u00adappearances — \u201cstuff they hadn\u2019t done before,\u201d says Kovac. In Germany, for instance, Kovac worked with international promoter Marek Lieberberg to navigate the country\u2019s four regional radio markets and with his social and digital teams to raise awareness of the band there.<\/p>\n
In Europe FFDP played festivals behind the July 2013 release of The Wrong Side of Heaven and the Righteous Side of Hell Volume 1. When Volume 2 arrived in November, the band was packaged as support in the United Kingdom and Europe for Avenged Sevenfold. \u201cEven though their guarantees were lower,\u201d Kovac explains, \u201cplaying in front of 10,000 people\u201d enabled FFDP to headline 2,500- to 3,000-seat venues — up from 500 — when it returned the following spring.<\/p>\n
In April, Kovac called a second meeting that included the band, FFDP\u2019s lawyer Doug Mark; business manager Bernie Gilhuly; North American agent Ron Opalesky from William Morris Endeavor; executives from North American promoters Frank Productions and NS2; the head of the band\u2019s North American label, Prospect Park president Jeremy Summers; and, by phone, International Talent Booking agent Ian Sales.<\/p>\n
The brainstorming session led to a fall North American mini-tour — packaged by the band\u2019s primary stateside promoter, Frank Productions — that had FFDP co-headlining with Volbeat. Frank, NS2, Prospect Park and the band\u2019s overseas label, Eleven Seven (which Kovac owns), also pooled resources for a $750,000-plus shared global marketing and ad spend that, for instance, used Live Nation direct marketing to raise awareness of the tour to fans of similar bands. The result: The band doubled its per-show gross, and Kovac says FFDP \u201cmade 200 percent more [in touring revenue] than they\u2019ve ever made on the road.\u201d And when the group releases its sixth album in May, it will embark on an arena tour that will take it to North America and Europe in the fall and early winter and Japan and Australia in early 2016.<\/p>\n
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Source: Billboard Biz<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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