HOT TOPIC 30 YEARS OF PUNK(TM)

HOT TOPIC -- 30 years of punk (TM) by Joyce Schwarz, Hollywood2020.blogs.com and freelance entertainment marketing, promotion and emerging tech consulting (www.joycecom.com, email: [email protected]). If you've never been to www.hottopic.com or stopped at one of their stores in your local mall...then you've missed out on one of the real retail revolutionaries for the past three decades! I had the good fortune to hear Hot Topic's exec Cindy Levitt, VP, Licensing, music and marketing speak at the PMA Starpower conference at Universal Studios this week and she did not disappoint the audience. In fact, her frankness and info on how HOT TOPIC is keeping in touch with their community on a local basis is fascinating. Levitt knows her brand and she knows her audience and she believes in the power of local marketing and engagement.

HOT TOPIC LISTENING PARTIES:

Levitt mentions that in the past month Hot Topic's music listening parties at their local stores (all in malls) attracted more than 4000 attendees. As several of the other panelists commented, these are no doubt the opinion leaders in their social circles.

In checking out the 'Hot Topic' listening party promos online I was pleased to see that there were lots of posts still on the net (more than 20,800 listings on Google alone) from various blogs and zines. Here's some sample links:

Come visit Hot Topic on Friday, June 2, from 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm for the Underoath Listening Party. During that time a limited number of customers will also ...
westfield.com/meriden/news/HotTopicsListeningParty.html - 29k - Cached

Music Refuge - [Hot digity dog, they have all the dolls, it's just ...

UnderOath listening party at hot topic, posted on June 3, 2006 @ 11:21am | 68.221.254.*. rockn4ever [Member] Posts: 1114 Member Since ... www.musicrefuge.com/?go=forum& id=1020&section=general - 23k - purevolume™ | UNDEROATH Cached - Similar pages This Friday, June 2nd make sure you are at any Hot Topic store from 6 pm - 8 pm! Hot Topic is throwing a "Define The Great Line" Listening Party! ... www.purevolume.com/underoath - 110k - What's a listening party: The Hot Topic listening parties are very kewl and surprisingly low-cost: For example on Friday, June 2nd you could go to any Hot Topic store from 6 pm – 8 pm! Attendees heard “Define The Great Line” in its entirety, way before release on June 20. Listening Party attendees got a free download card to download the new Underoath song “Writing On The Walls” with any Underoath purchase (while supplies last). AND Listening Party attendees got 25% off all Underoath merch, 6p.m. and 8 p.m. UNDEROATH? Never heard of the band-- get kewl man ....here's the link to them: Underoath Cached The official site for the Christian metal band from Florida. www.underoath777.com/ - 2k - Jun 8, 2006 - click JPEG to see their site--  They will be playing the Van's Warped Tour this summer WHAT I find do interesting that Underoath seems like a perfect band --since it is a Christian metal band with a big following -- it may attract more attendees to a mall versus a club where some Christian music lovers are loathe to go to. In the past many of the Christian bands actually went to High schools to play in person because they would not book club gigs. BUT REMEMBER this was not an in-store gig--rather it was a listening party-- listen to the new CD in it's entirety in advance-- I like the way HOT TOPIC promo'd the event with blogs and zines and other online promos. Kudos to Cindy for a nice venture into a new area of retailing! more about hot topic: http://www.hottopic.com --located in City of Industry -- near Los Angeles, I've been a big fan--the stores have a 'goth' edge at first but when you see all of the music they promo and the mix between clothing, accessories, jewelry and music --it seems like next-gen retailing or enter-tailing (entertainment and retailing) at its best.

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