Simon dTOUR Live, which was coordinated by Simon Brand Ventures, a brand of Simon Property Group, Inc., was a series of teen targeted mall tours that ran from mid-June to August that featured both upcoming and established musical acts. Teens not only enjoyed their favorite musicians but they also could have fun participating in the various interactive events, learn about the latest technology and fashion etc. Free music promotional items were being given out by the concerts’ sponsors including ABC Family, Coca Cola, and Sprint. This concert series was definitely an awesome blend of entertainment, fashion, music, technology, and the teen lifestyle. This is unquestionably a fun promotional event from Simon Property Group.

Does any one remember the band Sabbat? Until I came across this bunch of concert schwag I completely forgot about them. This collection of giveaways includes promotional t-shirts, which are always a popular concert giveaway.

The Today Show (NBC) hosted a Miley Cyrus concert recently, giving out tons of fun free promotional products. At related outdoor concerts, you would normally see the simple t-shirt being handed out. At this particular concert, The Today Show gave out cool promotional items with a high degree of quirk; in addition to the limited edition Miley Cyrus custom t-shirts, the coordinators were giving out foam microphones, inflatable guitars, and the like. Thinking imaginatively creates very memorable experiences.

Check out this cool bunch of Smashing Pumpkins schwag. Posters and promotional buttons fill out the majority of this group of awesome concert giveaways.

Some friends of mine went to the Nine Inch Nails concert last night in East Rutherford, NJ. Of course front man Trent Reznor would not disappoint, and would bring tons of free concert giveaways. As the tour continues across America, I’ll be showing some more schwag from the shows. Till then, here is some fan made schwag. They look to be drawstring backpacks imprinted with a charcoal gray flag to go along with the song Survivalism.

Stay tuned for more concert schwag.

Talk about unique band merch! A popular German punk rock band called The Beatsteaks is selling logo’d lollipops at their concerts and on their website - a sweet merch idea! The Beatsteaks “b” logo appears on the surface of the raspberry lollipop in red sugar, creating truly original merch that fans are guaranteed to love. By introducing these unique products into their merch lineup, The Beaksteaks demonstrate how a little bit of creativity can create massive surges in merchandise sales. These fun, edible, and inexpensive promotions are likely to remain a Beatsteak best-seller into the future.

(photo via Flickr)

Coney Island was once again host to the eighth Siren Fest. Performances included Canadian Broken Social Scene, Stephen Malkmus’ (of Pavement fame) band Stephen Malkmus and the Jinks, and North Carolina’s Annuals. The Annuals were in a giving mood at this already free show, and during their performance released beach balls imprinted with “Annuals” into the crowd. Appropriate given that Coney Island’s beachiness.

Seattle based record label Sub Pop has a long, rich history in the alternative, grunge and indie rock scenes. The label released music by notable musicians such as Nirvana (Bleach is Sub Pop’s only platinum album), Sunny Day Real Estate, The Shins, and The Postal Service. This year marks Sub Pop’s 20th anniversary. While still not legal to drink in the United States, Sub Pop is still seriously celebrating! This past weekend (July 12 and 13) the label hosted an Anniversary show at Redmond, WA’s Marymoor Park where bands such as Iron and Wine, The Helio Sequence and Wolf Parade (to name a few) performed. Tickets came with a nice little surprise: a 20th anniversary Sub-Pop compilation CD!

Friday (July 4), River2River and WFMU brought Sonic Youth (and the Feelies) to Battery Park where they put on a pretty rockin’ show.  Not only was the show free (!), but the concert was full of people handing out promotions and giving away Sonic Youth and WFMU merch!

Perhaps on paper, giving out Palooza Papers was a great idea. Perhaps in a better world, it wouldn’t have pissed off city officials so much the concert was almost canceled. If you have an opinion, comment!

We’re featuring Harry and the Potters again because we wanted to give them props for employing one of the most underrated rock and roll promos of all time, the toothbrush. Sure, most folks are more likely to get a free toothbrush at the dentist than at a rock show, but we can change that if we all work together!

Here’s a great piece of merch that also turned the audience into a really big group of performance artists. The event is documented on her web site. Here’s how she explains it:

“This is because I feel that now in this world there is so little to love, because everybody is frightened, confused and angry and so there is not very much love in the world. (She shows the little flashlight) so I want to promote love and I thought of a morse code. A morse code is S.O.S that kind of thing and I don’t know how I would like to do it, not to say S.O.S, but to say I love you to each other, so I brought this set twisted code and then you think like C.O.D.E, like a message, and so Chord like in music ,so it’s called Onochord, C.H.O.R.D. I think it would be very nice…I think I brought about… (she turns to the head of the press conference and asks him how many of these?… Head of the press conference: four thousand). Four thousand! Yes four thousand! (Smiling openly) I brought about four thousand of these, so I want to give up away these little flashlights and you say I..(she flash one time)… Love…(she flash two times) …You...(she flashes three times while smiling), and the reasons why it is that way like I is one, Love is two, You is three (and flashes again), is because I wanted to make it very simple, so all of us do it”