Summer Of 2025: So Happy, It Hurts!

The CMO had experienced a whimsical weekend – one that had begun on a high note, literally and figuratively speaking! He was so happy, it hurt a little! His childhood hero had come alive in flesh and blood and crooned to him literally. Watching 65-year-old Bryan Adams energetically, enthusiastically endearingly and effervescently perform in front of 18000 folks had been an exercise in dopamine.

The ‘togetherness’, the ‘camaraderie’, the ‘belonging’ of community was unparalleled! When he had booked his concert tickets, he had expected to see a sea of salt and pepper. But was pleasantly surprised to see Gen Zs, Millennials and Boomers. In a sea of diversity, there was a likeness as generations headbanged, sang the lyrics in perfect unison and fell helplessly in love. Bryan enthralled at 65 – 18 till I die in the same inimitable style as he had on VH1 and MTV over 30 years ago. It was as if time had stood still on his vocal cords, his craft, his charisma. It was the performance of a lifetime – worth every penny of the concert ticket. Adams regaled with his mad skills - guitar strings, played the mouth organ, twerked, shared nuggets from his life, showcased his fantastic photography (self-shot) coming alive on the projectors, heartfelt dedications to his late father, 96-year-old Mama Jane and his dear departed friend Tina Turner.

The 3 hours melted into oblivion as the collective euphoric mesmerism had the audience begging for more. Adams kindly obliged with encore performances. He had the fans willingly take off their t-shirts and twirl it midair, non-dancers twerking and all the kinfolks shining their mobile lights when he requested!

He exited so graciously, like a lover passing in the night – leaving everyone wanting for more, yet happy and satiated till the next time! It was a perfect exercise in marketing brilliance!

For starters, the product – Adams himself was perfected. Two – the brand – Adam and boys had stayed true and consistent eliciting deepest brand love. Three – the content – simple replete with personal touches (own songs, own narratives, camaraderie between him and boys (all between the ages of 65 and 75!). Four – the place – not too big, not too small – just right to make the experience moving, motivational and magical. Fifth – the price – super ROI with a willingness to pay more if needed next time (the sweet spot) Sixth – the pre-marketing touchpoints – from Book my Show to Zomato to influencers to outdoor hoardings to paid and organic digital marketing to radio spot bookings. It was 360, just right but not too much, just enough to want to go without feeling overwhelmed. Oh, and the collabs at the venue itself – F&B partners, merchandise, photo booths by the Dewar and there was Heaven – beautiful moonlit night and dreamy weather to go with! It was Kick Ass Rocking Music (in the words of Adams himself!)

The CMO wondered at this point about the financials of a concert? How much does the artist really make? Event Management, marketing, crew, production, travel, accommodations, artist manager – each entity seems to be rolling in dough as one would imagine! These are big budget events – almost larger than life!

And that’s when he realised why it all makes sense– it’s funnel marketing at its highest hitting all the chords from upper to lower funnel alike – simple. It’s the live, the real, the connect, the bond – the indescribable authenticity and the purity of that ‘shared moment’ between the artist, the music and the fan. Nothing, like absolutely nothing can come close to that surreal experience. One that becomes part of the artist’s folklore, one that gets shared via the oldest channel known to humankind – word of mouth, one that creates that emotion best described in the words of Adams, ‘The only thing that looks good on me is you or ‘I need somebody, somebody like you!’

Of course, now with the world opening and more Indians experiencing western artists overseas, there is an organic demand for them in our soil. One that is already hardcoded with a musical DNA. Vice versa our musicians making waves in foreign lands – aka Diljit Dosanjh, AR Rahman, Zakir Hussain, Pandit Ravi Shankar has overtime made live music accessible and aspirational. In a nation like ours reach, depth and impact are bound to make economic sense.

This is already evident – from 8000 concerts in 2018 to now 16000+ expected by 2025, we have witnessed a 2x growth in demand.

The music publishing industry has parallely seen a shift with 7% of the publishing revenue being raked in by live concerts! That’s an 800+ crore revenue stream right there and growing.

This was evidenced when Adams called out the 18000-audience number on stage, a huge upswing from his last India tour in 2018.

‘Can’t stop this thing we started’ – sang Bryan.

That’s a literal descriptor of what’s to come – India’s live music space is going to open a plethora of opportunities – regional, fusions, collabs, local, hyperlocal to international, small towns and urbane India alike – the possibilities are infinite and musically, lyrically fascinating.

In the words of Shakespeare, if music be the food of life, play on! Summer of 69 is here shining bright and beautiful in 2025!

Samyukta Ganesh Iyer

Guest Author The author is a Brand Consultant & Executive Coach| Former CMO Sephora, Baskin Robbins, Kaya