Samsung, AT&T Partner For Summer Concerts
August 03, 2007
- Touring
| Digital and Mobile
By Mitchell Peters, L.A.
Queens of the Stone Age, Ludacris, the Bravery, Kinky, Big & Rich, the All-American Rejects and Plain White T's will perform as part of the inaugural Samsung/AT&T Summer Krush, a free summer concert series designed to highlight a line of music-centric Samsung mobile phones.
The trek launches Aug. 13 in Los Angeles with a performance from Queens of the Stone Age at the Music Box at the Fonda. From there, the jaunt visits 1,000- to 1,500-capacity venues in Atlanta (Ludacris), Chicago (the Bravery), Miami (Kinky), Dallas (Big & Rich), New York (the All-American Rejects) and San Francisco (Plain White T's) through mid-September. A limited number of free tickets will be available through radio promotions, AT&T retail outlets and consumer contests.
"For AT&T and Samsung, this [concert series] makes sense because of the music aspect of the products and the services we'll end up promoting," Kim Titus, director of PR at Samsung, tells Billboard.biz. "We're always looking at opportunities to expand our marketing reach and getting the word out to potential consumers."
Each concert will feature an hourlong music performance and provide product-sampling kiosks to showcase the music capabilities of the Samsung BlackJack, Samsung Sync, Samsung a717 and Samsung a727 mobile phones. Along with prize giveaways and rock'n'roll-themed (temporary) tattoo parlors, fans will have the opportunity to "bling" their mobile phones at customization bars.
Additionally, as part of the sampling kiosks, memory product manufacturer Kingston Technology Company will provide concertgoers with a 1 GB Samsung-compatible memory card, providing additional space for music, photos and games.
The concerts are also part of an effort to promote AT&T Wireless' first over-the-air, full-song music download service through a recent partnership with eMusic. As previously reported, AT&T subscribers will have access to the entire 2.7-million strong eMusic catalogue through a service dubbed eMusic Mobile.
"It's fitting that we have this concert series as we're giving consumers easier ways to access music through their wireless phones," Kiliaen Van Rensselaer, executive director of national promotion at AT&T, tells Billboard.biz. "A lot of people think they need a separate MP3 player, but now all these devices have that stuff built in. It's a simple and cool feature to be able to download a full song over our network, and enjoy it right then and there."
Those attending the concerts are required to be at least 18 years old, with the exception of Miami, which is 21 and older.
Aside from the concerts, none of the participating acts have signed on for additional promotional campaigns with Samsung or AT&T, according to organizers. The shows were booked by Los Angeles-based PR and marketing firm BNC.
Further info about the Samsung/AT&T Summer Krush can be found online via its Web site.
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