I speak occasionally of my 15 year old son, Ben and our communication challenges because they relate so perfectly with my business experience.

Today, however, I'd like to share an overview of his first marketing plan. What has he done well and what could he do differently?

His rock band, Born Ready, has made it into the semi-finals of the Rock Off, a contest of high school bands that will perform at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland Ohio. The first three weekends in January a portion of the 70 semi-final bands will perform leading up to the finals January 27th.

Imagine the "high" of performing on the same stage as the musical icons we've all enjoyed ever since elvis began shaking his hips!

Each band received 90 tickets that retail for $10 (price includes Rock Hall admission which is a $20 value) and they receive $1 back for every ticket they sell. The more tickets they sell - the better performance placement they'll receive during the 5 hour event.

Ben has had two weeks to market the event and this has been his plan:

• Buzz marketing campaign via MySpace.com/HudsonIsBornReady
• Develop a logo
• Design flyers and strategically place around town where teens congregate. (His mom would only spring for the cost of a limited number of color copies so he was very specific with his placement)
• Hang additional color posters around school, in each of his classes, in the bathrooms and the cafeteria having first received school permission
• Write a script for the school's morning announcements
• Hand out black and white versions of the color poster to students during lunch and after school
• Request that his Mom email the poster to her email list (I sold three tickets to my old fogie friends!)
• Request that his church youth leader email to her email list
• Speak in front of his boy scout troop and handing out flyers
• Use the logo to create iron-on t-shirts to wear and sell (wholesale cost $2.50 and a lot of Mom's time - retailing for $5.00)
• Email his teachers from the last three years of school and attaching a poster

These were all his ideas. His grandmother suggested he make and wear a sandwich board sign through the halls of school. He politely pretended he didn't hear her.

His 10 year old sister, Emily suggested he use the left over b/w flyers and put them in the mailbox of our neighbors - he wasn't up for that.

I suggested he get permission to take his guitar to school and give a mini performance during his lunch period. He rolled his eyes.

But all-in-all for his first small business marketing effort, I was impressed. His inspiration? Gene Simmons of KISS one of the greatest Rock and Roll marketers who has ever lived (in Ben's opinion).

So I told Ben, "I'm impressed with the level of details, the different types of touch points and your focused efforts."

He said, "Well, I learned from two of the best."

"Two?" I asked. "Gene Simmons and who else?"

"You, Mom."

Well, color me proud.

So what do you think? How else would you have marketed this event on less than a shoestring?