Michele Jacangelo
What She Plans: As the music magazine's executive director of conferences and events, Jacangelo runs 11 large industry events related to topics like dance music and mobile entertainment. Most are conferences with about three days of sessions and three nights of parties, some with an award show attached, like the Billboard Latin Music Conference and Awards. "What we do is provide the forum for the industry," she says. "We cover today's hottest topics, because it positions Billboard as the expert in the area, which we are." With nine events last year, her division—a growing profit
center for the magazine—brought in almost $1 million in sponsorship revenue and $1 million in registration. Registration was up 70 percent from 2004, partially because Billboard added a new conference. The magazine expects those numbers to increase with this year's two new events.
Staff: She oversees a team of four who work with the magazine's editors to develop programming, a sales team to sell and develop sponsorships, and a marketing team to bring in paid attendees.
Age: 39. "But I'm young at heart, honey. This job keeps you young, let me tell you. I have to pay attention to who the hottest artists are and pay attention to my MTV."
Career Path: Her best friend growing up in New Jersey had a number one single (remember Tommy Page's "I'll Be Your Everything"?), and that experience convinced her to work in music. She majored in marketing at Penn State, then took a job at Saks Fifth Avenue before she was hired as a secretary at Billboard by a co-worker's husband 15 years ago. After planning a national sales meeting, she moved into events. "When the director left [in 1998], I fought for the job, and they gave it to me."
Biggest Challenge: "I have no musical background, and there are times when I am actually producing a show with bands, background, and sound. You have to have the right people to help you out. But that's the fun part, too. The music is what makes it such an exciting place."
Favorite Music: "Latin is one of my favorite types. My first event was in 1992, and Jon Secada and Ricky Martin presented. I fell in love with salsa. Then we launched a hip-hop show, and that was great too. And I'm a Jersey girl, so there's always Bon Jovi."
You added a new conference about touring to your event schedule in 2004 and another in 2005. What were the challenges of starting those new events?
It was actually the answer to the challenge of how to continuously be the expert in the industry. With the change in climate in the music industry, artists are starting to make a big part of their money touring. So we provide the forum for the touring industry: What are the challenges? How to grow it? How to make it bigger? What works? What doesn't? We also had an event about wireless and mobile music. The technology that we're going to be seeing is amazing. Ringtones were one of the hot-button topics last year. That's the direction the industry is going in, and we have to provide the forum for that.
How do you work with the editors to come up with content that will attract attendees to your events?
They're the experts. I can help drive it by asking the right questions and structuring things in the right way. But they write about this stuff every week, so they know what the hot buttons are. So we sit in a room, and I say, "Hey, what are people talking about?" and they give me a bunch of topics, and we start talking about things. I trust their expertise. Also, they book the speakers. They invite them, and we do the legwork.
One of the really cool things we do at the Latin Music Conference is a teen panel. We put 10 teenagers on the stage and ask them questions. It's hysterical because they're completely honest and open. We'll ask them, "When was the last time you bought a Latin CD?" And they'll say, "I didn't, I just download."
How many sponsors do you have per event?
They're all different. For small symposiums, we have two. But for Latin, we have "Heineken presents the Billboard Latin Music Awards in association with Burger King." For that, we probably have 20 sponsors. The sponsorships can be anywhere from $1,000 to over $200,000.
How do you present options for sponsors?
Something that we're really good at is taking what the client wants to get out of the event and customizing it. Last year, Absolut was launching its Apeach product, and it coincided with the Latin conference. We did a peach carpet for the artists, gifts, peach drinks, and branding. We got them great press, and we put their spokesperson on as a one of the M.C.s at the show. [We don't] offer a generic menu, where someone else says, "I want my display table here, and I want my logo, and a free gift bag." We try to make it more personalized than that.
How do you sell your sponsors on the value of your events?
We try to figure out what their goals are. Is it to sell more products? Is it to see their name branded everywhere? We try to sell them a package that fits. Then, when we deliver on it, we show them that we hit their goals. Some are easier than others. For someone who only wants a big branding campaign with their logo stuck in every space, I can just take a million pictures of all the signage. For someone who wants to move product, that's a little harder. We have to provide really good customer service, go over and above their expectations, make sure they meet the celebrities and the other V.I.P.s, make sure their stuff looks great, and hopefully they'll re-sign.
What are some other creative, customized things you've done for your event sponsors?
For Garnier, we did pretty green fruity drinks that smelled really good and styling stations so that people could walk into the party and go straight to a styling station, where they could get touched up. One year, Heineken had people who were painted green walking around the event. We had a diamond information
center one year for DeBeers. We set them up with a suite at the awards show venue during rehearsals, and we got the artists into the suite to borrow diamonds for the show.
How do you integrate a sponsor that might not have an obvious tie-in without compromising the purpose of the event for the attendees?
There are different things sponsors want. Sometimes it is a speaking opportunity; they want to get in front of a group of people. And we sell a five-minute speaking opportunity at the top of one of the panel sessions. But, to the attendees, it is made very clear that this is a commercial, and they are OK with it. They know what a sponsorship is; they've been going to things like this for years. We don't just put anyone up there though. We'll find out what they're going to talk about—they're not just going to preach to our attendees—and it's usually a reputable company.
Sometimes salespeople will try to fit a round peg into a square hole, and I have to be the one to say no, that's not going to work. I never promise anything without putting it in writing, because you never want anyone to be disappointed with the experience. I am always involved in the logistics of the sales.
What are the challenges of working with some of the big-name artists who appear at the conferences?
It just takes so much time. We don't pay these people to speak, so they can back out at any minute, and there's nothing we can do about it but beg them or someone else to come. A lot of the people are high maintenance, and I will turn cartwheels for them. I have had celebrities send their own lighting and makeup people to sites to make sure that everything is just perfect. It gets stressful, but then you just say, "It's not like I'm saving lives here. I'm just trying to get Ricky Martin through a garage onto a stage." What else have you learned about working well with sponsors? Once there was a sponsor who I was giving tickets to as part of their package, and the people who were setting up the concert put a huge partition in front of their seats. Now, before every single concert, I go and sit in every seat to make sure that it's a good view. Otherwise, I literally remove the seat and won't let anyone sit there.
—Erin Parker
Posted 04.12.06
Photo: Dan Hallman for BiZBash
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What She Plans: As the music magazine's executive director of conferences and events, Jacangelo runs 11 large industry events related to topics like dance music and mobile entertainment. Most are conferences with about three days of sessions and three nights of parties, some with an award show attached, like the Billboard Latin Music Conference and Awards. "What we do is provide the forum for the industry," she says. "We cover today's hottest topics, because it positions Billboard as the expert in the area, which we are." With nine events last year, her division—a growing profit
center for the magazine—brought in almost $1 million in sponsorship revenue and $1 million in registration. Registration was up 70 percent from 2004, partially because Billboard added a new conference. The magazine expects those numbers to increase with this year's two new events.
Staff: She oversees a team of four who work with the magazine's editors to develop programming, a sales team to sell and develop sponsorships, and a marketing team to bring in paid attendees.
Age: 39. "But I'm young at heart, honey. This job keeps you young, let me tell you. I have to pay attention to who the hottest artists are and pay attention to my MTV."
Career Path: Her best friend growing up in New Jersey had a number one single (remember Tommy Page's "I'll Be Your Everything"?), and that experience convinced her to work in music. She majored in marketing at Penn State, then took a job at Saks Fifth Avenue before she was hired as a secretary at Billboard by a co-worker's husband 15 years ago. After planning a national sales meeting, she moved into events. "When the director left [in 1998], I fought for the job, and they gave it to me."
Biggest Challenge: "I have no musical background, and there are times when I am actually producing a show with bands, background, and sound. You have to have the right people to help you out. But that's the fun part, too. The music is what makes it such an exciting place."
Favorite Music: "Latin is one of my favorite types. My first event was in 1992, and Jon Secada and Ricky Martin presented. I fell in love with salsa. Then we launched a hip-hop show, and that was great too. And I'm a Jersey girl, so there's always Bon Jovi."
You added a new conference about touring to your event schedule in 2004 and another in 2005. What were the challenges of starting those new events?
It was actually the answer to the challenge of how to continuously be the expert in the industry. With the change in climate in the music industry, artists are starting to make a big part of their money touring. So we provide the forum for the touring industry: What are the challenges? How to grow it? How to make it bigger? What works? What doesn't? We also had an event about wireless and mobile music. The technology that we're going to be seeing is amazing. Ringtones were one of the hot-button topics last year. That's the direction the industry is going in, and we have to provide the forum for that.
How do you work with the editors to come up with content that will attract attendees to your events?
They're the experts. I can help drive it by asking the right questions and structuring things in the right way. But they write about this stuff every week, so they know what the hot buttons are. So we sit in a room, and I say, "Hey, what are people talking about?" and they give me a bunch of topics, and we start talking about things. I trust their expertise. Also, they book the speakers. They invite them, and we do the legwork.
One of the really cool things we do at the Latin Music Conference is a teen panel. We put 10 teenagers on the stage and ask them questions. It's hysterical because they're completely honest and open. We'll ask them, "When was the last time you bought a Latin CD?" And they'll say, "I didn't, I just download."
How many sponsors do you have per event?
They're all different. For small symposiums, we have two. But for Latin, we have "Heineken presents the Billboard Latin Music Awards in association with Burger King." For that, we probably have 20 sponsors. The sponsorships can be anywhere from $1,000 to over $200,000.
How do you present options for sponsors?
Something that we're really good at is taking what the client wants to get out of the event and customizing it. Last year, Absolut was launching its Apeach product, and it coincided with the Latin conference. We did a peach carpet for the artists, gifts, peach drinks, and branding. We got them great press, and we put their spokesperson on as a one of the M.C.s at the show. [We don't] offer a generic menu, where someone else says, "I want my display table here, and I want my logo, and a free gift bag." We try to make it more personalized than that.
How do you sell your sponsors on the value of your events?
We try to figure out what their goals are. Is it to sell more products? Is it to see their name branded everywhere? We try to sell them a package that fits. Then, when we deliver on it, we show them that we hit their goals. Some are easier than others. For someone who only wants a big branding campaign with their logo stuck in every space, I can just take a million pictures of all the signage. For someone who wants to move product, that's a little harder. We have to provide really good customer service, go over and above their expectations, make sure they meet the celebrities and the other V.I.P.s, make sure their stuff looks great, and hopefully they'll re-sign.
What are some other creative, customized things you've done for your event sponsors?
For Garnier, we did pretty green fruity drinks that smelled really good and styling stations so that people could walk into the party and go straight to a styling station, where they could get touched up. One year, Heineken had people who were painted green walking around the event. We had a diamond information
center one year for DeBeers. We set them up with a suite at the awards show venue during rehearsals, and we got the artists into the suite to borrow diamonds for the show.
How do you integrate a sponsor that might not have an obvious tie-in without compromising the purpose of the event for the attendees?
There are different things sponsors want. Sometimes it is a speaking opportunity; they want to get in front of a group of people. And we sell a five-minute speaking opportunity at the top of one of the panel sessions. But, to the attendees, it is made very clear that this is a commercial, and they are OK with it. They know what a sponsorship is; they've been going to things like this for years. We don't just put anyone up there though. We'll find out what they're going to talk about—they're not just going to preach to our attendees—and it's usually a reputable company.
Sometimes salespeople will try to fit a round peg into a square hole, and I have to be the one to say no, that's not going to work. I never promise anything without putting it in writing, because you never want anyone to be disappointed with the experience. I am always involved in the logistics of the sales.
What are the challenges of working with some of the big-name artists who appear at the conferences?
It just takes so much time. We don't pay these people to speak, so they can back out at any minute, and there's nothing we can do about it but beg them or someone else to come. A lot of the people are high maintenance, and I will turn cartwheels for them. I have had celebrities send their own lighting and makeup people to sites to make sure that everything is just perfect. It gets stressful, but then you just say, "It's not like I'm saving lives here. I'm just trying to get Ricky Martin through a garage onto a stage." What else have you learned about working well with sponsors? Once there was a sponsor who I was giving tickets to as part of their package, and the people who were setting up the concert put a huge partition in front of their seats. Now, before every single concert, I go and sit in every seat to make sure that it's a good view. Otherwise, I literally remove the seat and won't let anyone sit there.
—Erin Parker
Posted 04.12.06
Photo: Dan Hallman for BiZBash
Related Stories
Mag Puts First Event in Historic Building
H&G Toasts Tastemakers in Stylish Tent
EW Party Offers Sweet Sponsorship Deals
