Bob Chiappardi is the founder and CEO of Concrete Marketing, the largest independent music/lifestyle marketing company in the music industry.
In 1984, Bob ditched his job in the mailroom of Arista Records to start a management firm for heavy metal bands with his former partner Walter O'Brien. With $2,000 in his pocket borrowed from his grandfather and a handful of bands, such as Grim Reaper, Winger and Pantera (who were virtually unknown at the time), he struck out to create what is known today as Concrete Marketing.
Twenty years later, what was seen as a risky venture at best, is now a multi-million dollar company which has been instrumental in the development and marketing some of the most legendary and respected talents in music, including Guns N' Roses, Pearl Jam, Aerosmith, Van Halen, Metallica, Jimmy Buffett and Linkin Park.
Standing alone in its field, Concrete excels not only at handling the promotional needs of rock giants, such as Limp Bizkit, Ozzy Osbourne and Korn, but also of unsigned bands that are just getting off the ground. In recent years, Concrete has helped break bands such as Linkin Park, Velvet Revolver and Story Of The Year.
By having its fingers in a host of media enterprises, Concrete is able to move well beyond the traditional capabilities of a marketing firm. More than anyone else in the business, Concrete's network directly taps into the lucrative and often evasive 12-to-35-year-old demographic by impacting retail awareness, tour and research marketing campaigns. These unique capabilities are why the company has been sought out by non-music related entities, such as HBO, Showtime, Rolling Rock and Microsoft.
Bob is constantly creating new ventures. He served as executive producer on two Grammy-nominated albums: Nativity In Black: A Tribute to Black Sabbath and ECW: Extreme Music Vol. 1, as well as a host of soundtracks, including WWF: Forceable Entry and AcceleRacersfor Mattel Inc. He consults a number of companies including Billboard, WWE, Evolution, Impulse, and sits on the Board of Directors of the TJ Martell Foundation for leukemia, cancer and AIDS research. |
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Music industry leader Kevin Lyman began his career booking bands for his university, and working as a roadie for then-unknown acts, such as The Untouchables, The Bangles and Bad Religion. After college, Kevin began working with up-and-coming independent promoter Goldenvoice, serving as production manager for seminal punk rock and metal bands, such as The Germs, Metallica, Circle Jerks, Anthrax and Jane's Addiction.
Kevin is best known as the producer and creator of the hugely successful Vans Warped Tour--the longest-running music and extreme sports festival tour in the world today. Now in its 10th year, the tour reaches more than 500,000 kids each summer, and has spawned a host of imitators. With Warped Tour, Kevin has pioneered the successful integration of corporate sponsors with the "extreme" lifestyle, creating a blueprint for sponsorship integration that is widely duplicated in the marketplace today.
Kevin Lyman and his company, 4Fini, Inc., have created numerous other successful tour productions, including The Watcha Tour, Down From the Mountain Tour, Sprite Liquid Mix Tour and The Great High Mountain Tour, and have produced custom events for SEGA Dreamcast, Vans, USSA, Jose Cuervo and New York's Z-100 radio station.
Kevin is also known as a music industry authority on multiple corporate branding projects, acting as a consultant, production supervisor and branding guru to help companies maintain valuable street-level credibility that endears their products to the younger market. In addition to running his production company, Kevin is part-owner of Side One Dummy Records, an independent record label which has an impressive and diverse roster including the Irish band Flogging Molly, punk icons Suicidal Tendencies, current alternative radio darlings Go Betty Go and swing favorites Royal Crown Review.
This past year, Kevin introduced his latest creation to the world: the Taste Of Chaos tour, featuring some of the biggest names in the metal and post-hardcore genre today. |
