Captain T
Back in 1997, when “The X Files” was still on the air, a friend of mine who called himself Captain T recorded an album that was all about conspiracy theories, Area 51, and aliens. It was intentionally funny, but he stayed in character. He acted like a guy who was trying to tell the world about government cover-ups.
We wanted to send his album to college radio stations, but couldn’t afford to hire a real radio promoter, so we decided to do it ourselves. We decided to make his marketing an extension of his art and image.
I had visited many college radio stations and saw that the kids there would receive twenty packages a day, all exactly the same, in the same boring envelopes, with a little cover letter saying the same thing: “Please consider this album for airplay.” I wanted to be considerate and give them something different.
So we bought 500 black envelopes, 500 sheets of brown paper, 500 alien head stickers, and 500 huge red labels that said “CONFIDENTIAL! DO NOT OPEN FOR ANY REASON”.
We did a mail-merge to the 500 program directors at 500 college radio stations, so that each one got a personalized printed letter that said this:
Dear __name__,
You don’t know me, but I live in the bushes behind your station.
I have been here for 12 years, and your station has saved my life many times over.
The music that you play has kept me going through my darkest of days and for this I owe you everything.
So I must tell you that a man named Captain T found me in the gutter yesterday, and he taught me about what is really going on with the government cover-ups, and what really happened down there in Area 51 with the aliens. This man has a message that you have to get out to the world, because people need to know the truth!!!
Signed, the man in the bushes, looking through your window right now.
We took each letter out to the backyard and rubbed it in dirt, then crumpled it up. Then we put the crumpled letter and CD into each black envelope, sealed it with an alien head sticker, and finally covered it with the huge label that said “CONFIDENTIAL! DO NOT OPEN FOR ANY REASON”. And that’s what we mailed to each radio station.
Now imagine you’re that college kid receiving twenty boring packages per day. Then you get this scary black package that says “DO NOT OPEN”. When you open it, it’s covered in dirt and says, “You don’t know me, but I live in the bushes behind your station.”
375 of the 500 radio stations played it.
Every now and then, my friend Captain T gets approached by someone that used to work at a college radio station back in 1997. They tell him they still remember it, because it was the coolest package they ever got.
Something so crazy it worked.
Kinda surprised you never got any restraining orders against you though. :P
Hey, I still have that CD and still play it for all my friends. Plus it has a great guest vocalist on the We Are the World cover (I'm just saying).
— Derek
Ed! You remember! Cool!
Muy buena historia, excelente la manera de darse a conocer, además soy fan de The X-files :P
This blog always makes me laugh so hard. I GOTTA find a way to incorporate this into my album promo.
Perfect! Totally tweaking a campaign like this!
Standing out from the crowd :)
An interesting opportunity now is for all those companies sending out Christmas cards as their only contact with their database for the year, everybody is doing the same thing, try something different!
This is great! I love this Captain T story.
This is, quite likely, my favorite article of yours (which may change, as I'm rereading all your articles this morning... still, LOVE this article!)
Thanks... will be sharing this one to my many artists that turn off their creativity once "promoting' their work.
☺ Thanks for finding this old post! — Derek
Definitely a stellar example of creativity in marketing. Thanks!
Great concept! Definitely a Purple Cow!
this ranks with marketing of skateboards by World Industries as described by Rodney Mullen in his book The Mutt: "this is Joey. Joey does not have polio, leukemia or even AIDS. Joey has something much worse. he is one of thousands of children in america who suffer from a tragic disease known as Confusion in the Marketplace....." or the "Have you seen him?" ads with the really old chinese guy by Peralta (?)
little as tiresome as someone trying to be different when they have no idea how to do so. sounds like you cracked the code.
because i'm getting nowhere in a job hunt, i think i might try something like that! : - >
Anybody can share the title of that CD because I really wanna try to find it online. Thanks! Jaroslav
His site is CaptainT.com and the album I produced is called “U.S. Aliens” — Derek
Cool story, very cool.
It's sure nice to be remembered after a passage of years. I've had that happen to me.
I have even had the opposite. A man sitting next to me at a big round New Years supper in Chinatown was sure he had never met me before because he would have remembered. Such a compliment.
I have never been remembered due to directly concentrating on being remembered. No, only because I was being, as Derek would say, considerately an individual, and creative, fun and nice.
"Staying in character" is easy for my sort of fun as I have made a lifestyle choice of reaching out and risking being me, which is something we can all think about and tend towards, over time.
It helps me to be considerate if I remember that old saying, "Because I am afraid to love, you are alone."
So wish I had the CD and could show it to my clients as they mostly don't get it and they need too
Hey Derek, I'm in the halfway through reading the book of "Your Music and People". This post made me laugh at the moment I imagined the letter read by the college kid who actually turns over his head, and looks into the bushes, feeling the shiver down the spine.
Is there any chance we, the readers, can view an image of the crumpled letter? Or even better, with the responses from those college kids?
I believe I am beginning to understand your marketing skillz. Truly innovative and creative. That is 75% of the total stations which makes this a success. This is a process that has to be learned and applied. What you don't know you don't know. Now that I know I need to apply this technique in one of my projects. Thank you Derek for always being there and sharing. Hope you end up on the top selling list with your new book.
I played it on the college station. I also obtained a copy (via CD Baby I think), which I still have and still play.
I'm enjoying this book so much! This chapter made me laugh out loud...SO good!
Don't know why but I want to CRY reading your posts like this Derek.
I love your articles. I'm not commenting on all of them, but I've read most.
This story is awesome :)