Coopertheband: Grass Roots Marketing Kings (And Queen)
Indie rockstars are not typically viewed by many as entrepreneurs, but local band Coopertheband is everything that entrepreneurs should be: talented, driven, and ready to work. For three years now, they’ve been blazing a new trail for musicians old and young in Jackson, Tennessee.
Their most recent efforts featured a grass roots marketing campaign that involved the band performing shows in offbeat venues.
CO.STARTERS Spotlight: Nebulosity Music & Arts Festival
What is Nebfest?
Kari Howard: It’s a 3D music festival. You’ve got three stages, vendors, a fire-breathers workshop you can attend. It’s basically like one big, happy summer music festival right here in Atwood, Tennessee.
Heath McKissick: Nebfest is three days, [. . .] 30+ artists. Rock, reggae, indie rock. [. . .] Everything’s a show. [. . .] We have workshops the whole weekend. You can come and learn how to juggle, you can learn how to eat fire, you can do belly dancing, you can do yoga. [. . .] You pay one ticket, and you just come for the whole weekend.
Kari: You know, we’re in the Bible Belt, and so we’re Southern. So we’re trying to mix this summer fun crowd with the—what should we call it?—“music artsy festival” crowd. [. . .] So we’re trying to just combine the two into one like transformational weekend, you know? They get exposed to the culture that they’re involved with, and they kind of get exposed to the culture of Jackson and the surrounding cities. Yeah, it’s super cultural, and it’s something very unique to Jackson that nobody else is doing.