Do It Yourself. Or even better: turn Do It Yourself into Do It Together.

Not the shoestring punk version of 1977, but a professional, successful and profitable way of working. This is the scarlet thread running through Niels Aalberts’ weblog “Eerste Hulp bij Plaatopnamen“, the third chapter in his bestseller “Doorbraak! – Zero Budget Marketing op internet” (Breakthrough! – Zero Budget Marketing on the Internet), and was his prime strategy as manager of Kyteman and marketeer of his sensational Hiphop Orchestra.

The music and book publishing industry have been plunged into a roller-coaster through internet and digitalization. Who needs a record label when you can sell 70.000 CD’s on your own, and – with the scant marketing budget of €53,10 – can headline festivals like Pinkpop, North Sea Jazz, and Lowlands, sell out the Heineken Music Hall, and reach 5 million TV viewers? What are publishers to do and what’s in wait for bookstores, when authors start publishing their own books and manage to market their book to its third printing within 6 months.

Niels did it with Kyteman and his book Doorbraak!, and shows how to reach these results and return-on-investment, with vision and unqualified commitment, through the internet. This reaches much further than the music and book publishing industries. Niels is convinced that you can make use of the power of social media when selling less sexy products such as insurances, desserts, or even train tickets. A point he has been able to make to marketeers of Philips, Marktplaats, Deli XL, various cultural organizations, employees of internetstore Bol.com, Dutch public broadcasters, bankers of the SNS Bank, professional athletes of the Ministry of Defense, and editors and magazine publishers of various large publishing houses.

How-to’s, tricks, colorful examples and advise are shared by Niels daily on his blog, which won a Dutch Bloggie award. His vision and experience are put to the test in organizations within and without the entertainment industry, and as a teacher Music Management on the Academy of the Arts in Utrecht. Also, Niels is manager from Bertolf, Case Mayfield en Only Seven Left at management- and booking office Friendly Fire.

Alltogether, they form the basis of Doorbraak!, that was released early 2011. In the first part of his book, Niels colorfully describes the preparations, strategy, planning, rise and breakthrough of Kyteman’s Hiphop Orchestra. A real-life success story that reads as an exciting young boy’s dream. In the second part of his book, he identifies four critical factors for success for Kyteman’s breakthrough, and explains how it is possible to reach a large audience with a very low budget. He shows that Kyteman’s success is not a lone incident, and that other products, services and sectors can profit from the unlimited possibilities of the internet and social media. His story is illustrated with countless real-life experiences, both in the book and on stage.

Facebook: Facebook/nielsaalberts
Slideshare: Slideshare.net/EHPO/presentations