One of my all time favourite hard rock bands Soundgarden toured here in Sydney last month. Having followed this band since my teens, bought all their albums and read countless articles about them, I greatly anticipated their return to Australian shores at the Sydney Entertainment Centre - 15 years since they last toured here. On a Wednesday night prior to the Australia Day public holiday and accompanied by close friends who also love Soundgarden, the scene was set for a brilliant evening.
Unfortunately, it was not to be. For one reason…
The sound engineers for the band’s performance managed to absolutely screw up the audio mix. I’ve been to many concerts in my lifetime and this sound was by far the worst I have ever experienced – absolutely atrocious. As someone at the show described – it was like hearing a “bad bootleg tape live”. Soundgarden were giving it their all with powerful playing and singing, yet it was to no avail because of those irresponsible and unqualified people behind the sound mixing desk on the night.
After I calmed down over the next week or so, I had the realization that – just as Soundgarden did that night with their sound engineers - businesses go through the same frustrations and problems with the people they give responsibility to for delivering their message…
I’ve met many business owners, full of passion and purpose and with compelling back stories which amaze me. Yet, on a number of occasions I’ve visited their web-sites, received their business cards and brochures, checked out their promotional video posted online … and been disappointed by the lack of quality. Why? Because I expect and want a consistent representation of the impressive personality I'd met. But I don’t blame the business owner. I blame the creative and production people employed to communicate their message - including creative writers and directors, brand strategists, graphic designers, website developers, video producers and so on - who’ve failed to care and respect the business owner and their story with the poor execution of message delivery.
Other people shouldn’t be allowed to let down your audience.
(By the way I’m still trying to get a refund for my ticket - that is the % going to the management company, not my beloved Soundgarden!).
