Maria Brunner, Entertainment Marketing Specialist, Instructs Students

Entertainment marketing specialist and owner of InSight Management, Maria Brunner shared her expertise with students in the Entertainment Management program the week of September 20, 2009. Brunner, a founding member and core instructor for the program, is a marketing dynamo with a client list ranging from the likes of Eric Clapton to Tony LaRussa. Her client list also includes the people behind the mega-production, "Walking with Dinosaurs - The Live Experience." Brunner is the owner/manager of InSight Management, a marketing firm that has offices in Scottsdale, Arizona and Nashville, Tennessee. InSight provides marketing services for various tours, festivals, fairs, and other entertainment events.

In MGMT 101 Introduction to the Entertainment Business she discussed various approaches to marketing entertainment events. She also spent time discussing the exciting and often stressful lifestyle of people behind the scenes in entertainment.

Brunner began her guest lecture in Event MGMT 401 by relating her experience with "Walking with Dinosaurs- The Live Experience," to learn how marketing relates to individual events and how an event influences your marketing agenda. She explained the importance knowing the artists' brand to execute the proper marketing approach.

In Venue MGMT 295 Brunner began with student role playing between venues and record labels. She explained how cause related and lifestyle marketing benefits artists and the community to generate revenue. Cause-marketing is when an artist can be paired with a non-profit organization for mutual benefit. She explained lifestyle marketing by giving the example that country act, Sugarland, are yoga fans and how involving yoga centers on the tour jumpstart ticket sales and marketing efforts.

"How transparent are you and what does that mean to you," Brunner kept with the same theme in all classes, by explaining that transparency in all transactions is important. "Honesty and integrity will take you far in the entertainment industry," Brunner stressed.