Thread: "Promotional" Gigs

We've all gotten request before to dance for free at something that will be "great advertising" or "an awesome promotion opportunity". So what are some good things to ask for if you're being paid in "promotional material"? I know normally these types of gigs don't tend to have much return, but I figure if someone is going to try to get me to dance for free under the guise of "it's great promotion for you!" I want to be able to say something like "well in that case I want credit on the video, a link to your website, and billing on your event listing so that people can actually find me if they are interested in learning more." aka "Closeups of my stomach in your music video/me shimmying on stage in the rain/dancing at your fun raiser isn't promotion for me unless you make it worth it somehow."

Thoughts?

My thoughts are even if they offer and agree to all those terms, they rarely deliver. 100% of the times where I have done a gig as a promo / charity I have never received any of the promised promotional materials. Which is sad, because I have had to tell people who may well be good people, sorry, not doing it again. i know others who have had better results, but those have been mine.

Good luck.

{{{HUGS}}}

Originally Posted by tahiradancer

My thoughts are even if they offer and agree to all those terms, they rarely deliver. 100% of the times where I have done a gig as a promo / charity I have never received any of the promised promotional materials.

This is a good point. If there is a high risk that none of the promised promotional material materializes, how can that be addressed? Maybe as part of the terms for performing. No promo material, no performance?

I know I've found students by doing promotional gigs before. Never gotten a gig that way that I know of, so I wouldn't do it from that standpoint (unless it was a large gathering of people I would expect to hire entertainment like event planners or nursing home activity directors)

For me it comes down to:

1. How many people will be attending? (I limit myself to events with hundreds of potential students)
2. Are they my target market? (women age 20-45, middle income, with an interest in arts or exercise)
3. Can I distribute promotional materials? (either have a place for me to set them out or, better yet, my troupe members can hand them out to the crowd during/after the performance)

Once in a while I'll do a high-profile promo gig just for the joy of it, the opportunity to get a really high-quality video clip, or because listing it on my website as a venue gives me credibility in the eyes of potential gig customers.

This reminded me of a local incident.

It was Fashion Week and the organizers wanted the best local dancers to dance on the runway...for $50, $75 tops!

When the dancer they contacted tried to point out that the price was very low, ESPECIALLY considering the venue, the overall budget and the fact that THE BEST dancers would get paid in a very different pay bracket, the FW organizer replied, "But you'll get exposure!"

The dancer replied, "Ya know, exposure is something you die of!"

Aaanyhoo...the deal was that each dancer could provide advertisements that would go in each gift bag...at the bottom, with a hundred others. Yeah...I don't think it would really pay off for anyone, unless one wants to say that they danced on the catwalk for Fashion Week!

I guess it would depend on the budget and overall organization of the event. And make sure you get everything in writing!

Honestly, I just don't do promotional gigs. If they can pay the dj to be there playing music for all the "promo acts", they can pay the acts.

ETA: But I don't have my own studio, like Lauren. I *have* gotten students from "street fair" type appearances before, so if that was my main objective I would probably be more open to a promotional performance if it exposed me to my target demographic. But i don't get enough revenue from my students (I work out of dance studios and gyms) to make that kind of an appearance worth it for me.

I'd probably do the Fashion Week gig, mostly to say I did it and have video. I figure it probably looks nice to potential clients. But what gets me is the requests that come from unknowns who have very little following and don't tend to be the right demographic for advertising to. Like shimmying to some lounge singer in a biker bar or something like that. Last I knew, not many of those types of customers tend to be interested in bellydance classes. Wait... wasn't that a story in Snake Hips?