"Control Room, producer of Live Earth and Live 8, said it found that the on-demand streams in the days after the Live 8 had the most impact, especially after clips were passed around by e-mail. Live 8 was streamed by users more than 100 million times in the six weeks following the shows. Live Earth is predicted to be three times bigger with organizers expecting more than 80 percent of the viewership will be on-demand in the days after the event."

Since I am a man of the e-people, here are a few email marketing thoughts I would have outlined before the event happened. To me, there are three distinct senders in the organizers, the artists and the sponsors and three distinct timeframes in which it's relevant to send.

The Opening Act (pre-event):

The Organizers: Upon the show announcement, push only two ways to get information: the website and via email. Promise to deliver exclusive band announcements, ticket information, video blogs and explanations of the cause itself. Make it worth the time to get on the list and then, keep them engaged. Create a constant awareness of the event, but be cautious of inbox overload. In all, your goal is to get as many eyes watching the tv and as many tickets sold as possible. When done right, email can make it happen.

The Artists: Let your fans know that you're playing the event and when to look for you. Talk about why you're joining the cause and why it's a big deal to the group and offer some sort of insider look they might not get from the telecast. For a band, it's another way to keep in the public eye without seeming like you're reaching.

The Sponsors: Signed on as an exclusive email partner of the event (or as an extension of a larger, all-inclusive deal), the sponsors can be involved in several ways. They can deploy to their own email lists and push the fact they are parterning on such an important cause. Upon signing up for the initial Live Earth email list, people can be offered the opportunity to recieve related emails from the sponsors. Finally, I'd ask the sponsors to ask their own email lists if they want to sign up for the Live Earth email list, potentially growing the main list by a large amount. And of course, provide metrics to help gauge the return on investment.

The Headliner (during the show):

The Organizers: You have a massive stage and massive audience you're broadcasting to. You have breaks between sets. You have a captive audience. Now what? You ask them to sign up for the list, to stay involved, to get exclusive footage, to be aware. With text messaging and the people at home, there's no reason that getting 50% of your audience email addresses isn't attainable. Make it worth the effort and the reward will be there. They obviously care; let's kick them to a higher level.

The Artists: Not a whole lot you can do that won't seem like over-the-top marketing. It's a concert, not a telethon.

The Sponsors: I would brand with the organizers and let the pre-event marketing plan take over. Hope that people sign up for the list and then, sign on for your own list in the meantime. You don't want fans signing up in several different places, so make it simple for them.

The Encore (post-event):

So, it's Monday. Over the weekend, you attracted a few million people via the tube, brought in close to a million folks in live attendance and have the residual buzz surrounding the event and your cause.

The Organizers: Do the token 'thank you' for attending and watching the performances. Remind them of the cause and most importantly, how they can implement the message of Live Earth into their everyday lives. There's nothing more important than carrying on a dialogue with your captive audience until the next show, so you continue to build upon your list instead of starting from scratch. The biggest draw, however, is letting your audience know about website content. With all of those locations, even the most-hardened fan would miss something.

The Artists: Another no-brainer. Let your fans know that if they missed the performance or want to see it again, check out the main site to view it. Have band members post their thoughts on being involved with some behind-the-scenes pictures thrown in. Considering that this was basically a holiday weekend, I would expect a lot of click-throughs on watching the performances from those that didn't see it.

The Sponsors: Essentially, they can mimic the organizer information above with a lil' touch of corporate branding and some back-patting for being involved. Still relevant, but at this point, their involvement is done unless a further-reaching initative has been established.

There you go: a simple plan for getting the most email marketing bang for the buck at a major concert event. Thankfully, the metrics involved can tell all of the respective senders exactly what they want to know and what to improve on for the next gig. There are bound to be other major cause-driven shows in our lifetime, so let's see if they're up to the challenge of doing great email marketing to help their success.

Josh Nason is in his first year of new business development and marketing for SendLabs.com, the leader in hosted email marketing solutions and creative thought. He is still waiting his backstage pass for BeetAid, a festival hosted by The Office's Dwight Schrute.