Q&A: Debra ‘Fergy’ Ferguson leads company that makes ads for major concert tours

It’s no small feat to work in the music industry and become a favorite of Sharon Osbourne, the brash and unapologetic artist manager known for guiding the career of her late husband, Ozzy Osbourne.

But Sharon is a fan of Debra “Fergy” Ferguson, who’s served as CEO of Carmel-based TourDesign Creative since 2004.

TourDesign Creative produces multimedia advertising for national and international concert tours, and Osbourne praised Ferguson as “one of the few people that I can truthfully say is a pleasure to deal with when tour time comes around every year” in a note congratulating Ferguson for her first 20 years in the business.

Ferguson launched her career in 1984, when she was hired as the assistant of Sunshine Promotions co-owners Dave Lucas and Steve Sybesma. Sunshine built Deer Creek Music Center (now known as Ruoff Music Center) and renovated the Murat Theatre during the company’s run as one of the Midwest’s top concert companies.

TourDesign Creative was founded as a subsidiary of Sunshine Promotions in 1981, when Lucas, Sybesma and marketer John Valant wanted to streamline and standardize radio commercials and “ad-mats,” the term for posters or graphic templates that advertise concert tours.

Live Nation, the world’s largest concert company, now owns TourDesign. Ferguson’s roster of longtime clients includes the Dave Matthews Band, Foo Fighters and Dave Chappelle.

Ferguson—who grew up in Xenia, Ohio, a city of 25,000 residents 15 miles east of Dayton—manages more than 20 employees who work in Carmel as well as in satellite offices in Nashville, Los Angeles and other cities.

Beyond radio commercials and ad-mats, TourDesign produces video content for online platforms and television plus lyric videos for record labels and even album covers, in the case of rock band Toto.

Ferguson, 66, said she enjoys working with a new generation of “youngblood” employees.

“It’s a blending of the old and the new together,” she said. “Luckily, I still have a young spirit. When we travel to L.A. or Nashville or even New York, we have so much fun because we just are in it together. That’s the spirit I love, and it’s how I’ve chosen to run the company.”

Ferguson spoke with the IBJ about the value of the TourDesign name and how her business has evolved. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

I’ve seen you refer to Noblesville’s Deer Creek Music Center—now Ruoff Music Center—as your happy place. Why is that?

Because I helped build it. When you put shovels in the ground, you have memories of working really hard to build that place and to get everything approved. No one even thinks about the roads and everything that went into it, especially with all the stores that are there now. It was legit in the country.

How did the TourDesign name survive, unchanged, from the Sunshine Promotions era to the company’s sale to SFX Entertainment in 1997 to Clear Channel’s purchase in 2000 and finally the arrival of Live Nation in 2005 when Clear Channel spun off its concert business?

When [Robert F.X.] Sillerman bought it, he wanted it to be SFX Design. I said, “Well, no one knows what that is, Mr. Sillerman, with all due respect.” Then when it turned into Clear Channel, they said, ‘’We want it to be Clear Channel Design.” Again, I said, “No one will know that.” My email has always been [email protected]. It still is. I just was true to the brand, because that’s what everybody knew. I thought it was too risky to change it. Thank God we didn’t, because it probably would have gone by the wayside. With Live Nation, [CEO] Michael Rapino is really cool. He’s the dude. He said, “You keep doing TourDesign; you’re doing all right.”

There was a time when TourDesign was summarized as a company that creates TV, radio and print advertising for the concert industry. TourDesign now bills itself as the industry leader in the production of art, audio, video and online design for a wide range of entertainment marketing materials. Is it a different world for you?

If I put it in a nutshell, it’s any creative element to help sell a ticket. What used to be an ad-mat for print design, they use that for Facebook and Instagram. The key elements remain the same. It’s a design that’s a visual. It’s an audio spot for radio, SiriusXM or whatever they want to use it for. For the Eagles, they still run on that old thing called a television. But then we adapt that for any online vehicle. Once we get something approved, we have to send all the different sizes of everything to the agent. We try to be user-friendly for iPads, iPhones and whatever mobile devices anyone has. That’s challenging, but we try to do that because some people don’t even use a laptop. A lot of it is on the phone, and you have to make sure they see the show date crisp, clean and clear.

Was there a tipping point when things changed?

Cell phones changed the whole landscape of everything. Then MySpace, Instagram, Facebook, and now it’s TikTok.

The outdoor concert season is winding down. Does that give your team a chance to take a breath?

We used to have kind of a downtime but not anymore. Arena shows are ramping up now for the creative that we do. Once we get something approved, then our real work starts because we have to customize it for every city on a tour. We can’t see straight in January, February and March because all the summer tours want their stuff almost in the same time frame. Once they hear someone’s going on sale, they want to go on sale a week before the other one to get the traction and the money. That’s when it’s from sunrise to sunset and past sunset, and we’re hustling. It’s not a normal 9 to 5, by any stretch. The thing about L.A. and three hours’ difference, my phone sometimes blows up at 9 or 10 at night. And for international stuff, emails start at 4 in the morning.

Do you have guiding philosophies for how to be a leader of a team?

That’s a good question. A new group came in after the pandemic, but I still have hardcore people who have been with me for 20 and 30 years. I didn’t go to a management-and-how-to-run-a-company school. I treat everybody as an individual. When we have our department head meetings, we talk about their needs and wants. I respect them because they are all so talented. They feel lucky to be in the industry because, let’s face it, it’s a sexy, fun thing. But when you’re stressed and under deadline to get things done and everyone’s breathing down your neck saying, “Where is it? We need it now,” well, that’s a lot. For every department, whether it’s video, graphic design or my sales team, I morph into whatever personality they have and show respect and kindness. I’m the best boss they’ll ever have. But when push comes to shove, they don’t want to see me angry. It’s few and far between when I get upset. But when I do, they know.•

—Dave Lindquist