The Brilliance of The Grateful Dead's Marketing Tactics

In their heyday, Deadheads made Swifties look tame.

Sure, they weren't viciously going after Jerry Garcia's exes, but their passion was unquestioned. What kind of person drops everything in their life to follow a band around the country to see them play hundreds of concerts? Deadheads, that's who.

The community surrounding the band grew up in the '60s and found true critical mass within a couple of decades. And they're still going strong despite the band's retirement, whether through online message boards or at Dead & Co. concerts — these old hippies aren't giving up the music.

For a group known for traveling city-to-city to catch The Grateful Dead's concerts, their work was cut out for them. After all, The Grateful Dead holds the record for the most concerts ever performed. From 1965-1995, they played over 2,300 shows.

But when they left for their 1st national tour in 1967, they weren't sure if anyone would show up outside San Francisco. That's when they had to get creative. The unorthodox strategies they'd employ beginning over 50 years ago would plant the seed for the unparalleled growth of their community.

Here are the 3 marketing tactics The Grateful Dead used to build the most devoted fan base in music history:

👉 Tactic No. 1: Direct Mail

In 1971, the band released its first live album. As the prototypical jam band, they weren't too keen on spending hours in the studio perfecting a setlist. So instead they just recorded a few of their shows, stitched them together, and an album was born.

During the release, they included this card inside their packaging.

The result?

A list of Deadheads over 500K by the '90s.

Who needs email?

👉 Tactic No. 2: FOMO

The Dead couldn't care less about producing albums. It was all about the stage. And every single show was different, with hours-long jams twisting and turning through totally improvised strokes of genius.

Unlike the traditional concert tour, which sticks to a generally consistent setlist, you never knew what magic would come out on stage each night. Sure, a fan could go to a show in their city and say they saw The Dead... but they only saw The Dead that night.

This made it so that no matter how many concerts a fan had seen, they knew the next one would be a totally new experience.

👉 Tactic No. 3: Loyalty

Instead of outsourcing ticket sales to some corporations, The Dead built their own agency internally.

This allowed them to:

- Announce tour dates to their fans first

- Reserve the best seats for Deadheads

Plenty of bands are talented. Many are beloved. But to build a lasting legacy like The Grateful Dead, you need to innovate.