Bob Baker's The Buzz Factor

You asked for it. And now I'm delivering. Because, as you know, I aim to please. A few weeks ago I wrote about Outrageous Music Marketing Ideas, and the response was tremendous. So here are some more out-of-the-octagon concepts to get your self-promotion wheels turning.

Stimulate the five senses. Don't think of yourself as someone who only creates music. You're an artist who also creates experiences for your fans -- especially when it comes to your live shows. One way to make an impact and truly reach people is to involve as many of their senses as possible.

You probably focus on the audio quality of what you do more than anything, which makes sense if you're a musician. Next, you probably think about your visual appearance. Of course, you want to look good, professional and appealing. But what else might you do with the visual impact of your shows? For instance, how might you spice up the stage or your sales table?

And what about the other senses: smell, touch and taste?

I recommend you organize a See-Hear-Smell-Taste-Feel event. Your act (and perhaps others) can supply the sound. Invite artists and photographers to exhibit to feed the eyes. Maybe incense or aromatherapy to tickle the noses in attendance. Including food vendors will take care of both smell and taste. Maybe having a massage therapist or a fashion designer with clothes to try on would satisfy the sense of touch.

What if you combined all of these into one stimulating sensory event? Call it the Five Senses Festival or the Five Senses Celebration or Tour. On a smaller scale, you could simply throw an art-music-film-book-food house party.

Earlier I wrote about turning your CD into an interactive trivia game. Here's another idea: A drinking game based on your music. (Although you might get some understandable flack for encouraging alcohol consumption.) This would work like the old Bob Newhart show game. Only instead of sipping after every "Hi Bob," players would take a swig whenever a certain lyric (such as "yeah" or "baby") is sung.

Or add some mystery by announcing that there's a secret message to uncode within your lyrics, song titles or CD liner notes -- a la "The DaVinci Code." Make a game out of it and you just might get an infectious buzz going.

More outrageous ideas still to come.