I've got a question for the active KJ's on this board regarding advertising of Karaoke shows. How much advertising do your clients (club owners or whatever) typically do for your upcoming shows? I ask only because mine seem to run the gammut. I have one regular gig where the bar manager takes out a front page ad in the entertainment section of the local paper (in addition to posters, newsletters and such sent by his business). On the opposite end of the spectrum I've got one owner whose advertising consists of two posters in the bar and an item on his Marquee sign outfront. The others are somewhere in between.
For my part, the level of advertising I do depends largely on the location and type of show. All my shows get listed on my website. For most I post them to MySpace as events too, especially if it's a regular weekly show. For local shows (within a few miles from home) I've setup some advertising arrangements with local business owners. I think most here would agree that to achieve the most successful show, both the KJ and Client need to do their part.
So I'm just curious how much do you expect from your clients, how much do you get, and how much do you do on your own?
How much advertising do your clients do?
What you can expect and what actually happens is totally different.
Nobody does much advertising. No web advertisements, no newspaper ads, no flyers..
My bar posters, calenders and song book ads I made and a free listing in a once a week paper, that's it. Maybe a sign out front that says karaoke every... Am I expecting too much???
Nobody does much advertising. No web advertisements, no newspaper ads, no flyers..
My bar posters, calenders and song book ads I made and a free listing in a once a week paper, that's it. Maybe a sign out front that says karaoke every... Am I expecting too much???
the way i look at is if the bar or whatever wants a crowd they can do whatever they like i will not really help. I will give them a poster i made up and they can fill in the blanks make photo copies. If it is a benifit thing i will advertise a little more myself or with they owner. Other than that i have a calander for the next 2 months in the front of our book with our dates and places and special events listed aka halloween costume party.
When I first started, I advertised and paid for it. After a while I quit because every job was getting visited by ASCAP. If you want to make money, the more people in the bar the better you look. If the bar makes money, you make money. Anything you can do to help yourself by filling the bar, is better for you. Anybody that wants to spread your name around will tell the bar owners if you can fill a place or you can't. A full bar says you are a good KJ. An empty bar says differently. I always felt that I had to help the bar make money first and then I'll make money. I do a lot of promotion myself. Posters, song book ads, calenders and any free publications. You benefit from it too, in the long run.
I guess my thoughts are more in line with Bigdog on this one. If I'm going into a new place I've never played before, it is in my own best interests to get as many people there as possible. Now granted, I do actually have a following of regulars that will show up at different bars I play, but I can't be reliant on that especially if I take a gig that is farther than they'd like to travel.
I've always looked at it as even the best possible KJ isn't going to build a good Karaoke crowd if no one knows there's Karaoke. If the only people in the place hate Karaoke, it's pretty tough to build up word of mouth.
I guess I've just been surprised and the wide range of effort levels put into it by my different clients. Some really want it to be a success and work hard to help in that regard. Others say they want it to be successful but then show little effort. Personally, I advertise my new shows more, both as a service to my regulars as well as a way of developing new clientele. I'm there to make money for the bar and if I'm not bringing in enough additional money to cover the fee they pay me plus some profit, I'm not going to be working there long and it doesn't matter who is advertising.
I've always looked at it as even the best possible KJ isn't going to build a good Karaoke crowd if no one knows there's Karaoke. If the only people in the place hate Karaoke, it's pretty tough to build up word of mouth.
I guess I've just been surprised and the wide range of effort levels put into it by my different clients. Some really want it to be a success and work hard to help in that regard. Others say they want it to be successful but then show little effort. Personally, I advertise my new shows more, both as a service to my regulars as well as a way of developing new clientele. I'm there to make money for the bar and if I'm not bringing in enough additional money to cover the fee they pay me plus some profit, I'm not going to be working there long and it doesn't matter who is advertising.
You would think the bar would want to advertise it, but they never seem to have the money or the will to do it. I actually went to the newspaper once and redid the bars entire ad without them knowing I did it. But I made it more efficient and had more info in it than it had before. It is still being used 5 years later.
If i am going to do any amount of advertising for the bar they will have to pay for it or i will have to raise my rates even more which would not go over very well in these parts we just raised rates due to the price of gas. But all the KJ's around here did it. And None of the other KJ's around here will advertise for the bars unless like i said before it is for a benifit or the bar is going to pay more for the advertising. I have a bar that pays us to put an ad in the local paper because they are only like 15 minutes away from the town we live in in a small one horse, one bar town.
I really don't care whether or not a bar owner does any advertising. If they're smart they will and if not... oh well. I only insist that if they do advertise that they use my company name as opposed to simply "karaoke". I will give them fliers to post or place around the bar and a large waterproof banner to display outside. I always hand out business card sized gig schedules, with the following month's gig locations, to my regular crowd. Most of them will show up wherever I am.
I just had a call from a new client that wants me to do the advertising. I just told them i would but it was going to cost them and we discussed how much and what kind of advertising. They want me to do some radio and some news paper which is fine. I already work with both so i get a better deal with the more advertising i do so it works out for me and them they are paying me for the ads with their name in it
