Darius Rucker Delivers Toys via Eventful

About a month before Darius Rucker’s latest album, True Believers, releases on January 22, his label, Universal Music Group Nashville, tapped digital media company Eventful to push the Hootie-and-the-Blowfish-frontman-turned-country-crooner’s holiday partnership with the U.S. Marine Toys for Tots program.

The campaign used Eventful’s social platform Demand It to ask fans where Rucker should purchase $10,000 worth of toys to donate. Demand It enables users to request that events take place in specific locations.

Participants were also able to encourage voting via Facebook and Twitter to help their chosen city win.

With just over 5,000 votes, Lindenhurst, N.Y. won out, followed by Toms River, N.J.; Lincoln, Neb.; Island Park, N.Y.; and the New York City metro area.

Lindenhurst is a village on the southern shore of Long Island that was impacted by Hurricane Sandy. All toys will be distributed to children in the area.

Voting ran November 15 to December 10. Nearly 31,000 fans in 3,028 U.S. cities participated.

As a result of the campaign, Rucker visited a Toys “R” Us in Carle Place, N.Y. on December 17.

While it is unclear if the $10,000 came from Rucker himself or his label, an Eventful rep says she believes Rucker donated an additional $4,000 to the cause.

On December 17, @dariusrucker tweeted, “Buying toys for Lindenhurst. That’s a lot of toys,” along with an image of his haul.

“By the time he was done, Rucker had rung up a receipt nearly ten feet long,” says an Eventful blog post.

Eventful provides local information with over four million events in 27 categories.

According to Holly Anderson, vice president of marketing at Eventful, the company has 21 million registered users.

“We help people find out what’s happening in local markets,” Anderson says. “Everything from book signings and wine tastings and gallery openings.”

In addition to allowing fans to request performances, Demand It provides tools for the performers themselves. That includes a dashboard to view demand count by city and demographic data, as well as the ability to add events and message fans through a contact management system.