Jump to content

DJ's think banners are tacky?


jeff42

Recommended Posts

  • Members

This popped up in my facebook feed from a guy who owns a DJ company: 

DJ Banners = tacky! If you see a DJ you are interviewing using a banner, keep looking! Same goes with a band. If you are good you don't need a banner at a bar, club or formal event.

How do you feel about this? 

 

(just making conversation)

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I'd say it depends on the event. Formal wedding? Corporate party? Not so much. Bar gigs and small town festival situations? Absolutely! The later are generally trying to financially hose you from the get go, so any advertising towards future work is all part of making the gig worthwhile. The problem (to me at least) is the quality of the banners I do see. My favorite is the duct tape lettering on blue vinyl tarps.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members


jeff42 wrote:

This popped up in my facebook feed from a guy who owns a DJ company: 

DJ Banners = tacky! If you see a DJ you are interviewing using a banner, keep looking! Same goes with a band. If you are good you don't need a banner at a bar, club or formal event.

How do you feel about this? 

 

(just making conversation)

 


My gut instinct is that for the formal event, it'd be classier to have business cards.

But bar or club?  Yeah, the last thing you want is a DJ who has an eye towards advertising and building a fan base that will increase so that the next time you hire them your booze sales go up. :smiley-eatdrink048:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I'm starting to DJ. There's a couple others in town that use a banner. I'm not going to. I'll have a few business cards handy, but that's it. They know where I am. Even providing sound I don't stick a banner up front. Anyone interested will know where to find me.

 

I DO have all my ATA cases marked with my URL along with what's in the box. Monitors FOH, mics etc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Moderators

I say, it all depends. First off, a "banner". It depends on the banner, right? i get the bit about DJs vying for business in other clubs, that is tacky. But banners don't have to look like "banners". They don't have to look like the same thing you see in front of a copier store that reads 10 copies 10 cents! Or whatever.

 

I can't quote on my mobile but Guido said:

 

 

"Tacky at private events for sure. Even in bars it's better to have one that looks as much part of the staging as possible, as opposed to just looking like a big advertisement."

 

I completely agree with this. They should never be advertisements in any way, shape or form. They should complete the staging for the event at hand. The side benefit, of course, is that they do advertise your entity. Fantastic. But that shouldn't be misconstrued as advertising for other events.

 

Hopefully people do want to know who you are. And you're letting them know. But in a tasteful and complementary way to what it is you do. Or in other words, read Guido's quote.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I think we've given up on using our banners. They just look "cheap" - like shiny linoleum - and we really don't have the means to hang them properly in most of the places that we play. We do have a logo on the kick and that pretty much takes care of it.

 

But we're using a fill-in drummer this weekend so we won't have the kick logo, so I guess we'll be using that crappy banner after all.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 

We have a banner, but more than not it's a hassle finding a spot for it, and like said before, it's a vinyl POS. 

 

We also started what I think is a cooler/classier look.  I have the band name stenciled on all the rack case lids.  We prop the lids up on the subs.  It not only shows the band name, but also keeps people from placing drinks on the subs.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I hardly even think about self-promo when we put up our banner.  The primary function is to answer, "Who are these guys?" out in the audience while we're playing.  The secondary function is set-dressing--the banner fits our "vibe", and makes the stage look more like "us".

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

IMHO, the day of using cheap, vynil backdrops has passed and they do look tacky, shiny and obtrusive.

 

You've gotta use a high quality mesh scrim backdrop, like those seen at northcoastbanner.com for sale and used by big boy bands. They're a higher investment but as someone else said, they blend in as part of the staging better.

 

I wanna do two, one with my first name and the other with my last name, to cover my FOH speakers and front lighting trusses in the future. Plus, a nice big design for the backdrop behind the drummer.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

we have one and it hardly gets used because it's so hard to find a good spot for it. it's a 6x4 with nothing but our logo on it.

I don't think I could do the banner in front of my keys, those look even worse to me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 


jeff42 wrote:

 

 

This popped up in my facebook feed from a guy who owns a DJ company: 

DJ Banners = tacky! If you see a DJ you are interviewing using a banner, keep looking! Same goes with a band. If you are good you don't need a banner at a bar, club or formal event.

 

How do you feel about this? 

 

 

 

(just making conversation)

 

 

Tacky? More like cheap advertising. Look at Coca Cola they everwhere and look at the success?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members


jcpatte2 wrote:

True, but you're only investing $1.25 each time you buy a coke. We're trying to mold $1k/night bands here!!!!! And cheap investment equals cheap returns, IMHO.

So your saying if your a kickazz band that you would rather have your semi plain white or with a big banner with your name on the side? I dunno I guess I'm biased, I'm a DJ and I have no banner, no website, no facebook page, no advertising but I get booked all holidays probably about 20 shows a year all by word of mouth and now that I stand back and look at it, I really need to do advertising to grow the business, HOWEVER I work a day job, meaning I wake up at 7 AM go home at 4 PM then I have a show from 9 to 1 on a Thursday night and then go back to work at 7 AM? ugggggg. Been there done that. No sir didn't like it.

 

Re Bands pulling in $1K a night, screw it, do what KISS did, there you go. Make your show the one everyone wants to go to. However a lot of KISS success comes from have a VERY big banner. What do you see in the back of every KISS concert? KISS! (the hottest band in the world) heh

I probably missed the whole discussion cause I didn't read thouroughly enough, but if the banner is *** looking then ya I hear ya if it look's tacky it is tacky. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I like the way that banner is incorporated into your light rig, and I don't think it's necessarily bad form to use a backdrop at all weddings/privates. I just ask first, and they'll tell you if they don't want it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 


jcpatte2 wrote:

 

I like the way that banner is incorporated into your light rig, and I don't think it's necessarily bad form to use a backdrop at all weddings/privates. I just ask first, and they'll tell you if they don't want it.

 

Always good to ask.

We don't use a banner, per se.  We have a projector screen we use for lighting effects that we often display our "banner" upon before we start and/or during breaks.   But many times we find people don't want us to use the screen at all.   Even though it's part of our light show.   They just don't like the look of a screen.   Their idea of a 'clean' look is to have the band set up as unobtrusively as possible.

Everyone has different taste.   Best to check with the client what they want before hand as much as possible.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

 


jcpatte2 wrote:

 

, and I don't think it's necessarily bad form to use a backdrop at all weddings/privates.

 

 

I think a lot of it depends on the type of event and the other decore.  A "beer garden" type atmosphere or an event held in a very casual setting and a banner is probably going to fit in just fine.   Putting up a $75 banner --- which will likely be one of the largest single items in the room -- in a room where the table settings cost many times that?  Not so much.

The band members are usually expected to dress appropriately and commensurate with the event and the setting.   The staging should be the same when at all possible.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Yeah, I should have preface that 'bad form' comment of mine by stating I play almost exclusively Top 40 Country Music, so my wedding experiences are limited to "Redneck" receptions (usually outdoors) on a makeshift stage, patio or porch. But don't let that "Redneck" comment fool you, it doesn't necessarily equate to low pay, low brow. Sometimes the Rednecks just wanna have their version of a good time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...