Exploring Your Personal Brand Erich Burger aka Scars MacNeil and Blue Midnight Highway

1. Multi-Media Artist
and Goosebump Experience Engineer
Project and Portfolio I: Personal Branding
Entertainment Business Bachelors
January 12, 2024
Scars MacNeil
Blue Midnight Highway

2. Artistry
Our lives are stories, found within them are the lessons and inspiration that resonate
as truth. By diving deep within ourselves, when we are most exposed, we uncover
and find the real-life relationships.
Songs that Katie in Springfield Missouri and Scott in Mesa Arizona will connect to.
When you sign someone’s truth and you get them in their feels to the point that they
experience goosebumps, then they will want to own a piece of it.
This carries over into his music and multimedia artistry.
Experience Engineering
By Spending time in the stacks with the smell of aging books and their browning
paper. Additionally, through assisting in the organization and research of music
branding, marketing, and Artist Development with the A & R Club 3300 and rising at
Full Sail University, he is deeply involved with the pursuit of the best practices to raise
the value of music as a stand-alone product.
The approach is to polish the experience like we polish the glass on a mirror, making
it so that others can easily see their story within the art, by helping artists dive
deeper into themselves and face the truth about their own life. Then create an
experience that allows the audience to immerse all their senses.
ENTREPRENEURIAL
Music itself is not just marketing for merchandise & shows.
The New Age of the Independent Artist:
With the landscape of music is shifting away from major labels to smaller more
nimble independent labels. BMH and Scars fit this mold perfectly.
We do not fit into any category that a major label would understand or be
comfortable trying to market.
Our goal is to build a business model that is tailored to us.

3. Multi-Media Artistry
• For Scars, creativity has always manifested in multiple mediums
and multiple dimensions at the moment an idea is conceived.
• While still in high school he was throwing punk rock DIY shows,
recording and producing other artists. Scars has always been
conscious of all the elements that combine to multisensory
performance experience. Paying close attention to what made some
great and what made some unpleasurable or outright painful.
• Later as a pro audio manager at Guitar Center Hollywood, he had
the opportunity to work and interact with top production talents,
artists, and industry professionals on a daily basis. There he was in
the perfect position to learn a great deal about the dos and don’ts of
the music industry while honing his skills and familiarity with the
production gear needed to create.

4. TARGET MARKET
The BMH Audience
Out of the gate, BMH will focus on heavy on YouTube and other social media.
Searching for those those who are seeking connection in this divided world.
I know you’re out there...
I can feel you when I wake up, and I dream about you when I’m asleep.
When your finger presses down on the screen of your Android,
Or when you swipe right on your Apple I,
Who are you searching for? What is it you hope to find?
Those moments from your favorite movies, that you think about inside your mind.
These places that are never real and The people that we never find.
Climb on board the mothership and find the keys that unlock this life.
Similar to Ren’s audience
the YouTube music audience for diverse dynamic non-genre artists is
best described as those who listen to music for love of music.
As the age demographic for artist like Ren and Dax is 15 to 85 and
international.
The key to marketing is understanding who will be listening to each
specific song. Based on the archetypes present in each song.
The initial focus are Gen Xers and Early Adopters - where the appeal
is to be the first.

5. COMPETITION
Given that there are currently 120,000 new songs being uploaded to Spotify per day, it’s fair to
say there is a ton of competitive noise in the marketplace. With artists and bands covering
every possible genre and with the value of music at an all-time low. One could argue that now
is the worst possible time to enter the market.
How to stand out in this over-saturated Market? ERB took the time to research why. This is the
secret sauce to putting the value back into music. Having invested the time to study and
research the psychology behind the craft allows us to front load my creative process. So as my
ideas form, at the moment the idea is conceived it’s preformatted for maximum relatability.
Understanding the landscape and the psychological underpinnings on why a given market
likes what they do is key. For example, here are just a a couple of rules to music market
appeal.
1. Technology and production techniques utilized during the creation of the music will
determine the level of relevance it has within a given culture.
2. Two general categories of music fans:
a) Those who listen to music based on identity, Metal Head, Punk Rock, EDM Wook.
b) Those who listen to music for the sake of the love of the song. These people are
genre-less and simply love music for its listening pleasure, providing it relates to them
that relates to them.
All of them are searching for a connection. If the storytelling is good and the song is good even
some of the most hardcore genre identity-based fans can be motivated to purchase or listen
to things outside their genre. As you’d be hard-pressed to find a metal guitar player over the
age of 25 who hasn’t listened to some Prince for his guitar virtuosity.

6. Origins of Scars MacNeil
Musician, accomplished vocalist, a certified engineer through the Conservatory for
Recording, Credited Music Producer, With 4 out of 5 Star review in Spice magazine,
former personal assistant to Stephen Smith (Lenny Kravitz 1st Manager) former
Pro Audio Manager of Guitar Center Hollywood and have been involved in an
independent study of music MBA curriculum and the art and science of human
connection as it relates to music since 2013. And a BMX Stunt rider since 1985 still
actively riding some form of freestyle BMX.
The east side of Toledo, Ohio is a rough blue-collar neighborhood, surrounded by
3 landfills, 1 of them toxic, 3 oil refineries, a coal processing plant, auto fabrication
factories, and shipping yards. On hot humid summer nights, you can taste the
refineries in the air. It’s a mixed lower income neighborhood with 3 different
projects, Ravine Park Village, the Birmingham Terrace, and the most dangerous of
the 3 the Weiler Holmes.
The most unique feature to the East Side of Toledo is that it’s separated from the
rest of Toledo by the Maumee River (Native for muddy water). As Toledo used to
be the great black swamp. Hence the Toledo Mud Hens. And separated from the
neighboring suburbs by the proverbial other side of the train tracks. As they run
along the boarder of the city.
My parents were hard-working and politically involved activists and community
leaders. My father has been recognized for his environmental and beautification
efforts by 4 presidents. He was the former city commissioner for the city of Toledo
housing and nuisance department. And his philosophy of management and the
efficiency in which he ran this department led to him teaching it and consulting
with other major US cities such as Chicago, and Atlanta. This is mentioned
because I was raised and mentored with these philosophies.
But being raised in the urban jungle of toxic dysfunction of the inner-city and the
world of refined professionals and personal accomplishment, I am comfortable in
both worlds.
Essentially Toledo is a place where you had to have eyes in the back of your head.
Even that wasn’t enough. Sometimes you just turned the corner and you were in a
life and death situation or at the very least found yourself in a confrontation.

7. Innovation
4. What are you capable of doing?
Necessity is the mother of invention; this was true as the
motivating factor behind the mothership gear stand.
During his time at GCH, he learned from a few older
keyboard players the need to perform with a keyboard
stand that inverts the keys, so your hands are in a natural
unbent position. Since no one makes such a stand he knew
he would have to make something custom. Then the
question was simply what to make…?
5. Where are you going?
Engineering and designing productions that are built
around these insights, that will help point the way to the
revitalization and the restoration of the value of music as a
stand-alone product.
Being Familiar with all aspects of event production allows
Scars to create a much fuller experience. Understanding
the uniqueness of this skillset Scars is always collaborating
with other artists and developing other productions that
are platforms for other artists to be a featured part in.

8. Be true to thyself
• The What, How, and Why serve as the foundation and the
motivating force behind all that Scars, MacNeil does is simple.
Scars is simply a Gen Xer whose constructing his best life after
trauma.
• Brand Position - Goosebump Experience Engineering.
The subtext to this narrative is Action. Get busy living your best
life. This can only be done when we take full ownership of where
our lives are.
When you’re empowered, you are free to feel openly and express
fully. If you feel it while recording it, then the audience will feel it
when they listen to it.
• Personal Brand Statement: This universe rewards initiative.
No one is coming to save you. You have to save yourself.
In this new world where information is a click away, All that is
needed is a little refection, a plan, and Action. Google the
description as accurately as possible, read the articles and jump
on eBay or Amazon and buy the books. After you read them, take
baby steps, but every day, put them into action.

9. Networking
Elevator Pitch
The music of Blue Midnight Highway is best described soul touching sonic cinema. It
speaks to the truth of the human experience while immersing the listener in a warm
fuzzy blanket of transportive sound.
TRADE SHOWS & TALENT BUYERS
As BMH grows we will most likely target trade shows and talent buyer
conferences such as South by Southwest and FFEA Florida Festivals & Events
Association annual conference.
Building Bridges
• Today’s world is oversaturated with divide-and-conquer media and
marketing tactics. People are kept in a perpetual state of fear and outrage
because it drives engagement.
• Rather than play along BMH would much rather focus on building bridges.
Challenging oneself to seek common ground. Whenever possible, sit down with
those with whom you disagree and simply focus on what you have in common.
• With this as our core philosophy, we put ourselves out there in the world.
As musicians, our number one goal is to do this through our music. And as
students and researchers of the art and science of human connection, we feel
strongly that this can be done in a manner where when a song touches
someone and sign their truth, they will want to own it and the value they place
on it will be well worth the few dollars it cost them.

10. Digital marketing
During these next two years while at school, I will fully develop my
online presence. Tweaking and perfecting it to maximize my ability
to connect and provide value to my audience.
The current digital marketing campaign is focused on my work and
not on pushing me as a professional. My musical project Blue
Midnight Highway released a video two weeks ago that sits at 3.4k
views and climbing. I will market this until it reaches between 25 to
50k over the next 6 months.
As my music is not my priority while in school, I’m not entirely
certain at what rate I will be able to release new material. But I will
push the following releases over the next two school years to
100k-250k for the next, and to double the exposure if each
following release. One key aspect will be to target YouTube
reactors with future videos.

11. Professional Development
• The areas where I need growth are:
Piano playing & music composition skills. This is already happening and will be
ongoing using resources such as YouTube and Music Creator Master Class.
Search Engine Optimization and a deeper understanding of digital marketing.
Currently, for web growth, I am using YouGrowPromo.com for internet
marketing as our main presence is YouTube.
With our next release BMH’s marketing will expand to Google Ads, Face Book
Ads. As results and following improve we will branch into Instagram and
possibly Tik Tok. So, their will be a heavy focus on researching and developing
our skills to maximize our effectiveness.
However, I do plan on using a top internet marketing company like
Creativedeploy.co.uk to assist in my online marketing development. If I can I
would like to find someone closer to me that I could meet with regularly.
I also need to build upon and perfect my fundraising skills. Over the next two
years while in school I will be using YouTube and streaming sites to engage
and develop my audience and I will use BMH site donations button and
Patrion to raise funding

12. References
Blue Midnight Highway.net (2024)
https://bluemidnighthighway.net/
Martin Lindstrom website (2024)
https://www.martinlindstrom.com/
South By Southwest (2024)
https://www.sxsw.com/
Music Creator (2024)
https://musiccreator.com/masterclass/
Creative Deploy Marketing (2024)
https://www.creativedeploy.co.uk/
Florida Festivals & Events Association (2024)
https://www.ffea.com/p/convention/entertainment-showcase
TSE Entertainment (2024)
https://tseentertainment.com/music-booking-agency-iafe-conference/