Of a Revolution....

When your company experiences it’s break-through moment, who will be on stage with you?

Music has always played a pivotal role in my life.  No mere hobby, I have spent countless hours listening, studying, dissecting, cataloging, and according to my friends and family, obsessing over my favorite bands and artists.  However, I lack even the faintest ability to play an instrument, am totally tone deaf, and simply cannot carry a tune.  Really.  It is painful to hear me sing. So I live vicariously through my favorite artists, and in particular, their live performances.

One of my favorite bands is O.A.R.  The acronym stands for Of a Revolution.  O.A.R. was formed in 1996 at Ohio State University but has its roots in Rockville, MD, just outside of Washington DC.  Like several other prominent bands from this era, O.A.R. got their start touring college campuses and other small venues, building a community of young fans that were as passionate as they were interconnected. Their upbeat, funky, and intense sound was best captured in their live shows and O.A.R. built a base of committed fans in a time before the widespread adoption of social media platforms, even within their core fan base.  As the word of mouth grew, so did the band’s reputation. A communal feeling between band and fan developed. O.A.R. embraced the role their fan base played in driving the success and growth of the band, and in fact, encouraged their fans to share concert recordings. Before likes, views, and shares were the common metric of adoption, O.A.R. built a massive following without advertising or marketing.  They built it through their fans.

In 2006, after 10 years and four albums together, O.A.R. played two sold out shows at New York City’s Madison Square Garden.  It was the biggest stage, the biggest concert, the biggest moment in the band’s history to date. The concert represented a mainstream break through for the band.  They knew it and they absolutely crushed it.  The New York Times, in the days after the second show, had this to say about the performance.  Ten years on, the performance still ranks as one my favorite live performances of any band. Ever. 

The band’s relationship with their fans in this pivotal moment was captured so clearly across those two nights. The performances were a celebration, with band and fans all invited to participate.  During an encore performance of the fan favorite “That Was a Crazy Game of Poker” it felt as if O.A.R. invited their entire fan base on stage with them, and it was hard to tell where one stopped and the other started. As a huge fan of the brand, it still gives me chills.

And I had never heard of the band before 2008, two years after these concerts took place!

Over the last ten years, O.A.R. has continued to record and tour.  Though they have attained a fair measure of mainstream success, those MSG moments may have been the apex of the bands popularity.  They still sell out shows across the country, albeit in smaller venues.  Like many bands, as their sound evolved in a more mainstream direction, they lost some of their earliest supporters but their core fan base is as dedicated as ever.

In business, we have our early adopters, our raving fans, our brand prophets, enthusiasts, and super users who go out of their way to promote our product or service. In the early days, we count on these fans to spread the gospel of our brands.  We carefully cultivate these relationships, using every platform available to us.  We engender community.  We build tribes. But when we have our break-through moments along the way to success, how often do we invite them on stage with us to share in a bow? How often do we celebrate the role our early users play in the creation and success of our companies?

When your business has its break through moment, who will you invite on stage with you? And how will that impact your company over the long haul?