ProxToMe raises $700K for mobile blasts to attendees at live shows

Imagine you’re Bruce Dickinson, the vocally powerful monster showman of heavy metal band Iron Maiden. You’re a legend and a god, but you need new ways to reach your concert-going fans at the show.*

You might consider using something like ProxToMe to send out a flurry of pre-show band pics right before you go onstage to get people really whipped into a total frenzy and totally ruin the opening act’s set. Or you could schedule some content to fire off to fans mid-show. Or you could send them all a mobile post-show love letter as they bask in the afterglow of your majesty and slowly file out of the arena.

Scenarios like that are what have earned proximity marketing/content company ProxToMe a nice $700,000 lump of seed funding. There are a few obstacles in the process — fans have to be using the ProxToMe app, for example. And ProxToMe is intended to broadbast messages and track users just within a 250-foot radius. But the music world is always looking for interesting new ways to use tech, and this app’s Facebook-integrated messaging system fits the bill.

“Since our launch four months ago and a strong presence at SXSW, we have received a tremendous amount of interest and feedback from live performers and, more specifically, from the music community,” said ProxToMe CEO and co-founder Carlo Capello in a statement on the funding.

“Both artists and fans see a clear value in using ProxToMe before, during, and after a show.”

In addition to the funding, ProxToMe is today announcing new iOS and Android apps as well as a web-based dashboard for tracking fan interactions with a performer’s messaging and with each other, which Capello called “a tool to easily build a stronger fans base, the key asset for every artist.”

ProxToMe was founded in the U.S., with its development team based in Italy and the head of business development in San Francisco.

*Just kidding. Bruce Dickinson needs NOTHING from you mortals.