Right now, Live Nation-owned Ticketmaster and the broader ticketing industry are facing a slew of controversies, including the Taylor Swift chaos, those hidden fees charged to The Cure concertgoers, and an overall lack of transparency.
That, combined with Gen Z’s efforts to raise awareness around important issues such as climate change, gun control, and equality, plus their desire to support businesses that give back and positively contribute to the world, means that simply attending a concert can create a lot of noise.
Enter Propeller. Founded in 2015 by Brandon Deroche, this digital marketing platform aims to inspire activism and help build social impact movements through experiences. “I wanted to give artists and other cultural leaders a platform that enabled them to do more than raise funds for causes,” Deroche told BizBash. “I had been working with artists that were very effective at generating large sums of money, which is obviously important, but felt it was a missed opportunity for them to not also educate their fans on the organizations they were supporting and give them more ways to take action.”
Members of the online community earn points for completing socially conscious actions, such as signing petitions, volunteering, fundraising, and registering to vote, in support of movements centered around mental health, LGBTQ+ rights, racial justice, the climate and environment, reproductive rights, and psychedelics. (Propeller typically retains a small fee of no more than 20% from any revenue earned by a cause that uses the platform.)
The more you do, the more points you earn—similar to the Global Citizen festival model, which lets concertgoers take actions to earn points that can then be used to enter ticket drawings. Propeller points can be redeemed to plant trees, donate to causes, and get rewards like VIP concert experiences and trips.
For instance, members currently have the chance to win a trip to Bonnaroo by supporting Bonnaroo Works Fund and Planet Roo nonprofit partners. One winner and a friend will receive roundtrip travel to Manchester, Tenn., a pair of VIP Centeroo tickets, a personal golf cart chauffeur, backstage access, and more.
Deroche said he prefers when event organizers approach Propeller with experience ideas because “we've found that authenticity is the secret sauce in our campaigns. For example, if an artist has an idea they're looking to bring to life and they know what causes they want to support and prizes they'd like to offer, those campaigns tend to perform much better than the ones we had to pitch them on to do.”
He pointed out campaigns with both Lizzo and Bryan Cranston as prime examples. Last year, Lizzo invited a winner plus three friends to San Francisco to learn some “Big Grrrl” moves during her soundcheck, and to watch the concert from VIP seats or from backstage. In addition, Bryan Cranston recently worked with Propeller to support Big Brothers Big Sisters of America by giving members the chance to attend this year’s Super Bowl with him.
For this year's Governors Ball, fans can earn a three-day general admission ticket by meeting the points requirement and completing volunteer work with partner community organizations Chhaya and the Elmhurst Corona Recovery Collaborative (ECRC). "It provides music fans with a non-monetary path to attend the festival while also investing in and engaging positively with the local community," said Tom Russell, co-founder of Founders Entertainment, the parent company of the New York festival. "Governors Ball has a longstanding history of giving back to worthy causes and organizations, and we love it when our patrons get involved alongside us in that effort."
Russell said that Propeller streamlines the process of setting up incentives and tracking activities, making it easier for both fans and festival organizers to participate.
Deroche noted that the platform also makes it easier for folks to get involved with social causes. “A platform like Propeller is necessary to ‘broaden the movement’ so to speak. There are millions of people that care about issues, but aren't truly engaged or taking any sort of action to do anything about it. Maybe they don't know where to begin, or maybe they're just distracted, but by making it more fun and engaging to take action, we can turn a music fan into an informed citizen.”
He added that, thanks to the return of live, in-person events and the record number of tours in 2022 and 2023, “we've had more opportunities than ever before to run campaigns around them.” To date, the Propeller community boasts more than 1.3 million members, has generated 7.8 million actions, and has raised over $5.5 million dollars for nonprofit organizations.
In terms of the future, Deroche said that Propeller is working on producing its own events, improving the platform, and offering bigger and better prizes. “We try to remain open to the rapidly shifting culture and technology to best serve what's needed in the moment.”
