‘Oh, Rocky we love you, oh Rocky you’re our kind of town, the place I was born in, the place I’ll be settling down.’ I think that was the opening lyrics to a jingle for the Rockhampton Permanent Building Society back in the 1970’s. I’m sure some of you remember it and some may even know the rest of the lyrics. Together with great imagery of Rockhampton, plenty of repetition on the one commercial television (RTQ) and radio station (4RO) at the time, that jingle was a powerful marketing tool. As evident by being able to recall part of it some 40 plus years later and who it was for, even though I don’t think the business name was included in the lyrics.
Last week I sat in on the recording of the Emmaus School song by their 30 odd strong choir. It was written by 3 staff members a number of years ago and I’m sure many past Emmaus students still know the first verse: Long is the journey and hard is the ground, our weary feet on the highway sound, footsteps behind follow close through the night, joining us then at the end in the light.
Powerful words. The song may not be considered by the writers or the school as a marketing tool, however, the song does enhance a strong emotional connection to be maintained with, and by, present and past students, as well as staff, with the school and its values. Marketeers strive for that association with their brands.
I got thinking about how powerful music is while helping organise the Beef Capital Cares Drought Appeal Concert. Monday morning on the radio the announcer talked about how a number of Australian music artists have willingly provided, royalty free, the recording rights to one of their songs to be included on a compilation double album, Drought Relief, to raise funds for young Australians affected by drought. Here in Rocky, the place I was born in, we have local musicians, and even a couple of out of towners, freely willing to play at a drought fund raiser concert. So many in fact, that the original plans to be a 4-hour concert have blown out to 9 hours. Terrific value as the ticket price has remained at $29. Children 17 years and under accompanied by an adult are free.
The Beef Capital Cares Drought Appeal concert will hopefully raise 10’s of thousands of dollars for the QCWA Drought Appeal, provide a great platform for these artists to build their fan base, and be one cracker of a day for everyone involved. But what will be that emotional connection that one remembers the next day or 40 years from now? After all it’s not the first, or the last, time that musicians have performed for free at charity events and a paying audience turned up for a good cause. Idealistically, I hope that we can importantly reflect on the 11th of November, 2018, not only as the 100th anniversary of the Armistice which ended the First World War, but a day Rockhampton showed that being the Beef Capital of Australia is more than a tri-annual expo and bull statutes, it’s giving back to those in their time of need, that give to keep Rockhampton its Australian capital status; and you were there. Maybe a song might get written about it. Oh, Rocky a region that proudly wears the Beef Crown…
Tickets are available now, visit www.Rockhamptontickets.com.au.