Chris Stacey didn’t have the luxury of blissful ignorance in 2005 as he sat in
front of the manager for country duo Brooks & Dunn.
With years as a record executive and artist manager, he knew how difficult selling a new
and foreign marketing idea would be.
“I remember giving (the manager) my first sales pitch,” said Stacey, a Paducah native and
graduate of Murray State University.
From his office in Nashville, Tenn., Stacey said, “I told him we can allow fans to send their
text messages to the band, get texts and build databases. I remember sitting there going,
‘What’s this guy going to say?’”
The manager wanted Stacey to start as quick as you can send a cell phone text and the 37-
year-old has worked to connect mobile technology with the music industry ever since.
Stacey founded Hurricane Interactive Promotions,which in his words, “was a music-based
mobile marketing company” that allowed the industry to reach fans on their mobile phones.
In other words, when fans of Brooks & Dunn went to their concert and read on a large stage
screen to text a message to a given number for a chance to meet the guys back stage, Stacey’s company made that technology work.
He said he created a mobile community where after fans agreed to receive
messages from Hurricane they received text alerts about concert information and promotional deals.
Fans even received recorded messages from the artists and could link all the information to
their Facebook and MySpace pages.
Last year Hurricane powered more than 200 live concerts with artists such as Rascal Flatts,
Garth Brooks and Alan Jackson.
Business has been booming as the number of text messages his company sent out over the
last 18 months went from 2 billion to 18 billion.
Earlier this month, Mozes Inc., based in Palo Alto, Calif., bought Hurricane and hired Stacey
as their vice president of music industry sales.
“I’ll be running the Nashville division of Mozes,” Stacey said after explaining that Mozes
as a whole provides the same mobile marketing features as Hurricane but on a national level
and to industries outside of music.
“Mozes has established itself as the clear choice for artists to engage their fans on the
mobile phone using voice, text and the Web,” he said. “By combining the Mozes platform with our own live concert capabilities, we will provide a trusted and reliable way for our music
clients to delight their fans, create lasting relationships and open new doors for commerce.
“We basically want to tie the Web, the cell phone and events together in a way that connects music fans to what they love,” he said.
Stacey keeps strong ties to Paducah making it home on holidays and trips to visit friends.
Paducah law firm Denton & Keuler represented Hurricane in its acquisition by Mozes. And as
the new doors of commerce open for Stacey and his new job at Mozes, he sees more possibilities.
“People in Japan can buy a Coke with a cell phone at a vending machine right now. That’s
what’s really exciting about mobile; thinking about the future.
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