WARCON, A New Lifestyle Entertainment Company, Formed to Cater to Young Music and Sports Lifestyle Enthusiasts

WARCON, A New Lifestyle Entertainment Company, Formed to Cater to Young Music and Sports Lifestyle Enthusiasts

Core Audience Is 12-to-24-Year-Old Consumer, Both Male and Female

NEW YORK, March 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Two highly successful and respected music industry veterans, Bob Chiappardi of Concrete Marketing Inc. and Kevin Lyman of Vans Warped Tour, have announced the creation of a new entertainment company, WARCON Enterprises, LLC. The company is designed to appeal to young music and action sports lifestyle consumers, both male and female, between the ages of 12 and 24.

The 20 million young people in the United States in this demographic have more disposable income than ever before -- more than $50 billion annually earned through jobs and allowances -- but appealing to their interests in a credible way is difficult.

WARCON is conceived as an all-encompassing brand name with record label, touring, publishing, design, media management and clothing divisions. The intention is that targeted consumers will come to recognize the WARCON name will represent everything in the punk/metal/post-hardcore lifestyle.

Imaging WARCON on a grassroots level through its music and web site is important, and the music and web site are what will appeal to the young consumers first.

WARCON has two main goals: (1) Nurturing the careers of talent on the roster from the earliest stages to long-term stardom, and treating talent fairly from a business-partner standpoint in terms of marketing, promotion and accounting; and (2) Directly serving the needs of the core audience, especially through a "community" sensibility of inclusion.

"The music industry today is going through amazing changes. It's in a major state of flux. The traditional labels are committed to the business model structure they've created for themselves through the years," Chiappardi says. "Starting a traditional label today would not be the most effective move one could make."

"We are all about developing bands that can sustain long careers as touring acts. Labels often focus on that next radio hit to constantly feed the bottom line," says Lyman. "We are straightforward and honest on our intentions with our artists. It's a simpler approach that benefits everyone."

WARCON recognizes the fact that unlike years ago when records had few competitors (like video games, Internet, sneaker companies) to attract the attention of young consumers, today just being a record company is not enough. Therefore, providing a variety of music and products that appeals to their overall lifestyle interests is the best plan.

"Just selling music only is a problem. Therefore, we started a lifestyle entertainment company. But music is the center and most important part of WARCON. It's the heart and soul," says Chiappardi.

Every CD released by WARCON (through Fontana, the new indie distribution company of Universal Music Group) will include a free DVD magazine with music videos, movie trailers, songs and limited, demographic-specific advertising. WARCON is determined to maintain its credibility with its core audience by declining advertising from companies whose products and services do not fit the lifestyle.

Chiappardi is the founder and CEO of Concrete Marketing Inc., the largest independent music and lifestyle marketing company in the music industry. In its 20-year history, Concrete has been hired by virtually every record company, major and independent, in existence and worked with almost every gold, platinum and multiplatinum hard music artist. Concrete's expertise in getting to the elusive 12-to-24-year-old crowd has also been enlisted through the years by non-music companies like Apple, Mountain Dew, Barq's Root Beer, Mattel, Pioneer, Warner Bros. Pictures, Airwalk, and numerous youth magazines and TV shows. Concrete is forecasting 20 percent growth in 2005.

Lyman is the co-founder of the Vans Warped Tour, the longest-running music and extreme sports festival tour in the world. 2004 was the tour's 10th anniversary. Each year, the tour reaches more than 600,000 young fans. Lyman pioneered the integration of corporate sponsorship with extreme lifestyle events. Lyman and his company, 4Fini Inc., have created other successful tour productions. He is also an expert on corporate branding projects (Sprint, Samsung, Slim Jim, Kraft Mac'n'Cheese, PlayStation, Hot Topic, Monster Power Drinks, etc.) so that companies can maintain street-level credibility while appealing to young consumers.

http://www.warconent.com/

Source: WARCON Enterprises, LLC

CONTACT: Denise Kovalevich of Chipster Entertainment,
+1-610-409-6050 ext. 201, Denise@Chipsterpr.com, for WARCON

Web site: http://www.warconent.com/

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Profile: intent