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How do you connect with your audience in 2024? Just look at Fred again

Anybody who is looking to shake up their processes in a bid to connect with their audiences might benefit from looking at one of the hottest names in music right now.

Appearing on the latest episode of Mumbrella’s one-on-one podcast series amidst Fred again..’s recent whirlwind Australian tour, TEG CEO Geoff Jones called the UK artist and producer a “phenomenon”.

For those who missed it, Fred again.. first announced a surprise pop-up show at the iconic Sydney Opera House in late February, which saw over 145,000 fans queue for tickets and, predictably, sold out instantly. Soon after, the South London-born musician announced arena concerts in Sydney, Melbourne and the Gold Coast; within an hour, over 100,000 tickets were snapped up for the shows and over a reported one million fans queued on Ticketek, which TEG owns, trying to get their own.

“This guy is just something else,” Jones told podcast host Neil Griffiths.

“He marketed the whole tour. We promoted it. He marketed through Instagram.”

Fred again.. also played a number of surprise pop-up shows throughout the country during that arena tour run, including The Domain in Sydney and Wellington, where he sold 8,000 tickets in 30 minutes.

He even performed at Port Melbourne’s Timber Yard – a gig that was pulled together in less than 24 hours by everyone involved, including the venue director and their team.

Fred again.. performing at Timber Yard, March 2024

“I went to my board and said, ‘Listen, we’re going to promote this guy, Fred again… He is as hot as a pistol. Only problem is, he’s going to announce on a Thursday and the first concert’s the following Monday,’” Jones recalled.

“Typically, we will announce an artist a year out. Well, a year for Fred [is] three days, you know? He did a show last Saturday, The Domain, sold out show. Fred decides, ‘I want to do it again.’ This [is] how much he cares and has so much sympathy and authenticity with his fan base.

“He goes out to the people who were on a wait list and had missed out on tickets and goes, ‘Hey, listen, I’m going to do this again tonight. Do you guys want tickets?’ And he straight away sold thousands of tickets to those people.

“That’s just a redefining in the data digital age – how you connect and how you do things now.”

Listen to the full podcast with Jones here.

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