Folk/pop musicians Michael and Adam Scharff discovered the power of a good list this spring when they tapped their e-mail fan base to help win the “Donny & Marie” show’s “Be a CyberStar” contest.
The Scharff Brothers – self-described musically as what would happen if the Indigo Girls and the Everly Brothers had children – have long maintained a small but loyal database of fans. The list has been used for direct mailings about upcoming gigs, and e-mail updates are sent to the one-third of the 1,000-name file who provided their electronic addresses.
But the real potential of the list came into play in April, when they entered the “Donny & Marie” contest. Adam was at home feeding his then-6-month-old son when he heard the announcement about the contest. The Portsmouth, NH-based duo quickly shot a five-minute “Hard Day’s Night”-style video showcasing their music and humorous onstage banter, and became one of 10 finalists whose video was posted on the Osmond siblings’ Web site (www.donnyandmarie.com).
E-mail votes – Web visitors could vote once a day over an eight-day period – would decide which of the 10 would be narrowed down to the final three that Donny and Marie would judge. So the brothers e-mailed their fan base, encouraging them to vote daily.
“Every time someone voted you would see the percentage change, so people would see they had an effect,” says Michael.
Not ones to miss an opportunity, Adam says they also contacted “every friend we knew with a computer,” urging them to vote and have their friends vote. The brothers also enlisted their comrades in the musical community, who in turn e-mailed their fan bases about the contest.
Unfortunately, the show didn’t provide the final actual vote tally, but it was enough for the Scharff Brothers to make it to the finals, where Donny and Marie selected them as the winners.
The band’s redesigned Web site (www.scharffbrothers.com) debuted in early May, and offers fans a chance to join the mailing list, as well as purchase T-shirts and CDs through Folkweb.com.
While site hits are still only in the triple digits, they’ve gone up 500% since the Scharff’s appearance on the show in early July.
And no, it wasn’t a fluke that Adam was watching “Donny & Marie” that fateful morning the one time the contest promo was shown. He watches the show regularly and admits he liked them “even when it wasn’t hip.”
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