Pollstar Live! Panel Preview: Marketing To Today’s Live Music Fans

Pollstar Live!, the world’s largest gathering of live entertainment professionals, returns to Los Angeles April 14-16 and will be held at Loews Hollywood Hotel. The three-day conference is a flagship event for Pollstar magazine with compelling keynotes, panels, roundtables and the Pollstar Awards, celebrating the best in the business, along with plenty of opportunities to network and engage in insightful discussions.

Pollstar Live! kicks off with Production Live!, the one-day companion conference that features panels on all topics related to staging live events, including lighting, video, stage management, sound technique, concert production, regulations, security and more.

Click these links for the Production Live! and the Pollstar Live! schedules. Register for Pollstar Live! here.

Moderator
Sarah Madalinski, Sr. Marketing Director, NS2

Speakers
Sam Alpert, SVP, Marketing / THE•TEAM
Brittany Herndon, Regional Marketing Director. Legends Global
Fabi Kulick, Vice President, Latin Tour Marketing, Live Nation
Allison McGregor, Head of Music Tour Marketing, CAA
Sara Williams, Tour Marketing Agent, WME

Marketing shows is a lot more complex than it used to be. Or is it?

Sure, gone are the days where a radio appearance, a few ads between songs, some tour posters and flyering was the go-to strategy for getting fans to lay out their hard-earned cash for a chance to see their favorite acts.

Now, there’s got to be a social media campaign, maybe a viral activation, a pop-up, a splashy rollout that involves a drone show or hundred-foot animation on the outside of Sphere.

But are those two ideas fundamentally different or is it all just the same package with different modes of delivery?

Is the old-school strategy better for some tours and a whizbang new wave approach better for others? What about the audience? Will a linear method attract a certain fan the hypermodernist one will miss?

Even if the end goal is the same as it ever was — butts in seats — there are more ways to get there than ever, more people involved and more dedicated marketing professionals at talent agencies, concert promoters, festival producers and event organizers of all kinds. Rather than just leaving it up to whoever was on the hook for the guarantee that night, event marketing has become a sophisticated and somehow-even-more crucial part of the concert promotion puzzle.

It’s complicated, complex and constantly evolving. It can be hard to keep up.

Who better to learn from than the six nominees for the 2026 Pollstar Award for Marketing Executive of the Year?

Moderator Sara Madalinski, Senior Marketing Director at National Shows 2, will be joined by Sam Alpert, SVP, Marketing for THE•TEAM; Brittany Herndon, Vice President, Marketing at Legends Global and a Pollstar Impact NextGen honoree in 2025; Fabi Kulick, Vice President for Latin Tour Marketing at Live Nation; Allison McGregor, Head of Marketing at CAA and the first winner of the Marketing Exec gong back in 2019; and Sara Williams, a Tour Marketing Agent at WME to lay out the latest strategies and tactics to reach a consumer facing more competition, higher costs and a constant barrage of algorithmically driven advertisement designed to keep people scrolling instead of capturing their attention.

Breaking through the noise to find the audience and then convincing them to open the wallet (or swipe the credit card) is a daunting undertaking but as with any adventure, reaching the goal pays off and the journey is easier with an expert guide.