Doing charity is of course always a good way of doing marketing. But I think the important rule here is that it really has to be honest and come from the hart and not just be ment to be a marketing campaign. I just realized this after three bands I am friend with did something great. I put this under online music marketing, but again the marketing of something like this should just be the side effect (at most):
After their third tour together Van Canto, Ordan Ogan and In Legend announced that they will post a piece of Bastian Emigs drumset on ebay (feel free to join the auction). The piece is signed from all band members. They said they would donate the money to the charity organization (Médecins Sans Frontières) Bastian Emig the front man and composer of in legend and drummer of van canto is working for. After less than 6 hours the auction is at already 905 Euro. Today the 1000 Euro barrier was taken!
See everyone that is the amazing thing about the web! If something is really great the information about it will spread very fast. This movement costs nothing for Van canto! Social meadia will really help to push this (but it would have been pushed without social media) Here nothing is sold. Just good things happen. Noone seeks for attention. Interesting how on the other side people wonder what weired things they can do in order to get recognition and how simple it is to start a real viral effect by just doing something really good which does not even cost you money or effort!
I am sure many bands could do this or similar things. Even though I have worked together with in legend quite a lot and also with van canto quite some time I like those guys much better now (not that I didn’t like them before. but using your popularity to do good things is very charismatic) Things like this are good for your brand value and brand reputation (besides the fact that they probably also feel very good to do!). Especially this auction really helps charity organizations which is much better than DJ Sammy who stole the idea from a charity organization and didn’t donate any money yet!
Hope the move of Van Canto, In Legend and Ordan Ogan inspires others to do similar things.
And since I really like their Idea here is the current video of van canto: