Road to San Gennaro
NYC Poster Run
Part 1 of 4. The posters went up all over New York: 14th Street, Harlem, the West Side Highway, the Lower East Side, Alphabet City. The best part happened off camera.
Guerrilla marketing, done by hand. The episode opens on the posters going up, then cuts to the ride home and the story of the day: people stopping to look, asking if it's me, scanning the QR code and listening right there on the sidewalk. A fan from South Africa asked for a poster, then asked me to sign it. That was the first signed Calvin Priice poster.
Social media can make you overly performative, chasing how things look and what drops on what date. Being outside, meeting people and having real conversations is the other half of the job. To close it out I swing back by one of the walls next to the L train, still up days later, before heading to Little Italy for the Feast of San Gennaro.
Keep watching: Part 2, Road to San Gennaro. Want to know when the next episode drops? Get on the mailing list, or catch me live on Kick.
Full Transcript
0:01Where is the library? We just finished putting up some Calvin Priice posters all over the city. Um, we went 14th Street. We went to Harlem. We went to the West Side Highway, the Lower East Side, Alphabet City.
0:48We did some posting, you know, guerrilla marketing stuff. You gotta market yourself out here, not just online, but in the real world, man Had some great experience off the camera, you know. I didn't vlog it or anything, but a lot of people, you know, they stopped and looked at the poster. They, they asked if it was me. Uh, and then, you know, you start conversations like that where And basically, you know, it's real life stuff. You know, you start the conversation. They ask you why you're doing it for, you know. I tell them to scan the QR code. I tell them I'm a musician.
1:29They scan the QR code, they listen to the music, and they actually like it, you know. And it's a, an experience that I g- that you give them, you know. You, you have a new supporter right then and there. And, um, basically, um, yeah. It was lit. There was… I gave a poster out, away. Well, this, this girl, she's from South Africa. Um, I think her name was Lala. Leela. You know? She, she, she wanted the poster, so I gave it to her. And then they were listening to my music, and then she was like, "Wait, I want it signed now."
2:15And, you know, it was my first actual Calvin Priice signature post, s- you know, poster. So it was… It's a great experience. It's always good, you know, to be outside. Be you, you know. Have the charisma of yourself. And when you're marketing yourself and when you're doing music and whether… Or art in general, you know, uh, don't be t- Like, sometimes, uh, social media things can get jaded, where you catch yourself being over- overly performative because you want things to cer- to look a certain way. You want a, a certain thing to drop on a certain date. Like, you have this vision.
2:59But, you know, it's also good to be raw, you know? Not so tailored, you know. Outside, meeting people, and creating genuine conversations with people. Um, by the way, none of that was recorded. None of that was, you know. I was, uh, I was just, uh, observing, uh, one of the installers install the posters. And I started installing somewhere, like, on a higher level. So while I was doing it, there's this young lady, this young girl, she- She was like, "Oh, I've seen this before.
3:47I'm so interested in this. Um, like, this, that, and the third. How can I contact you guys?" And then the group of, the group of people that she was with started- came forward, and, you know, that was an opportunity for me to introduce myself as an artist and who I am and what I do and how, what I like to do, you know? But, um, I know I started this vlog super late, but I am actually going to meet my boy, Flipstar. We're gonna go to Little Italy, and yeah. We're gonna go to the, the Little I- Italy event, and there's gonna be a lot of people out there, so it's gonna be cool. It's gonna be great, you know?
4:32It's, uh, the Little Italy Italian festival that they have every year and it's September. It's pretty cool. You know, I love the Italian culture, the food, the, the pastries, the games, the people in general, you know? Um, it's gonna be great. Um, I'm gonna try to mic up. There's gonna be s- a few streamers, but I'ma be vlogging. I'm not gonna be streaming. Or who knows? Maybe I'll go online. And yeah. Peace. See you guys later with Flip So I'm back on one of the sites that we posted, I think we posted on Saturday, and we're still up, guys. This is a competitive sport, but I actually reached somewhere where people don't really, like, bother to go up, and we're still up Right next to the L train subway station.
5:37So a lot of foot traffic But, um, yeah Yeah, but, um, it's pretty cool. We have it up. It's been up for a minute, so hopefully we get a lot of scans, a lot of people looks at the poster, and probably think like, "Who's that?" You know? Um, I should probably mic up the phone. I was charging it for a little bit 'cause we're going to Little Italy to the f- uh, the festival. It's gonna be noisy.
6:20It's gonna be lit. It's gonna be, it's gonna be Gucci. I'm waiting for my boy. Should be out any minute now. Peace.