“Affectionate May” – receiving a group promotion

I am sure that many of us remember the stellar ascent in the late 80s of the group “Tender May.” She burst into our lives like a typhoon, tearing everything in her way, hurting the hearts of many girls, making them cry and “fan” from Yura Shatunov! Many people remember his songs “White roses”, “Pink evening”, “Let it be night”, “On the white bedspread of January”. This is part of our life, our youth. Remember school disco, first love stories. and there was this music around us. She sounded at every disco, in every cafe and bar, in every class, at every girl in a tape recorder … She was everywhere.
Perhaps the younger generation does not remember this time. Ask your family – they will tell you what time it was.

“What is it about this that you had to write an article about it?” – you ask.

Honestly, I never thought about what allowed the group “Tender May” to become popular in the USSR in record time and how they could make their music sound in every city, in every quarter and school.

But quite by chance, a couple of days ago, in the evening I turned on the TV and on one of our television channels there was a documentary about the group “Affectionate May”. Of course, I was very interested. After all, this is part of my youth. The film consisted of an interview with Yuri Shatunov, Andrei Razin, Sergei Kuznetsov and other members of the team. Video clips and interviews of other people about this team were shown. In this film, team leader Andrei Razin talked about how the group “Tender May” became popular in the USSR and won the hearts of many young people.

And how was this done?

What was the secret method used to promote the group?
After the first album was recorded, a problem arose in front of the team of the group – it was necessary to unwind quickly, and preferably without capital investments. For this, Andrei Razin bought a railway carriage of clean audio cassettes and took them to a specialized factory near Moscow to record the first album of the group on them. For a whole month the whole team of the plant recorded these tapes. As soon as the album was recorded on all audio cassettes, a warehouse was leased at one of the Moscow railway stations, where they transported the entire batch.

And this is where the fun began.

At the three railway stations in Moscow, representatives of the group “Tender May” began distributing audio cassettes with the first album to each train manager on the box and agreed that throughout the train’s movement in the cars only this music sounded, and periodically announced the announcement: “If you like this music, anyone can get an absolutely free audio cassette with the recording of this album from the conductor of your car. “For this service, each train manager received 100 rubles (at that time it was a good day s).

Using such a simple reception, passenger trains began to disperse to different ends of the USSR, which turned the first album of “Affectionate May” all day long, and their passengers received a cassette with the first album of the group for free. For 15 days, a whole railway car of audio cassettes was distributed. And a month later, everyone began to talk about the group, its songs were spinning in all public places, and the youth was just “fanatel.”

And at this time the group “Tender May” received the first order to hold 10 concerts in Almaty. And then orders for holding such concerts in all corners of the USSR. But, interestingly, the first performance in Moscow took place only 1.5 years later. First, the periphery was conquered, and only after that –
the capital of the USSR.

At first glance, nothing, but it is only at first glance. For the promotion of the group “Tender May” a trafficking virus was launched into the masses. Very many began to talk about the band, their songs were copied from tape to tape, their popularity was just crazy. which led to the fact that more than 12 fake groups of “Affectionate May” were running throughout the USSR. I emphasize that it was wildly popular.

And what is most interesting – as a result of the advertising actions carried out, the group “Tender May” gained touring, fame and profit! As you can see, back in the late 80s, the idea of ​​viral traffic showed its viability in the promotion of the group “Gentle May”.