Jump to content

Six years of managing a local sponsor relationship paying off in dividends.


wheresgrant3

Recommended Posts

  • Members

For six years now we've had an 'exclusive' sponsorship with a local radio station, being their unofficial 'events' band for a number of annual events. I say 'unofficial' because for many years we were never told we were 'exclusive'... they just choose not to work with anyone else. The station itself had a history of shunning any local bands, original and cover so even approaching them when we were first starting out was a delicate situation. We had an 'in' with a DJ that enjoyed our act. In the beginning instead of being greedy about what we were going to get out of the situation we decide to be very pragmatic and business like. We approached them (as a band growing in local popularity) with being their events band for 2-3 events a year in exchange for the exposure we would get with on air mentions. The first event we played was for new bar grand opening they were doing a brew bash. Yes we did the event for free (on behalf of the station) with the understanding that we would be mentioned on air and it would give us a foot in the door with a brand new club (our first $1000 show btw... as we leveraged our relationship with the radio station into a VIP status with the club... sneaky bastards!). From then on we were called with offers for other event, all along being the exclusive choice but the station never acknowledging it. We had some major bumps along the way... mostly DJ's who forgot to give us the arranged on air mentions. The Program Director really could have cared less about the arrangement. He really didn't show us a ton of respect in the beginning... and I really didn't blame him. His history working with previous local bands were that they were dickbag musicians. And for the most part they were.

 

Slowly and surely, they warmed up to us. Each event we played became more and more successful. Soon we were the event and the radio station was merely hosting. Halloween ball, Spring Break Beach Party, Booze Cruise. Still it's great having your name on the radio and all, but we still felt that we could always push the relationship further to our advantage. Particularly with the Halloween event. Back in 2005 we did our first Boo Ball with only 100 invited winners in a hotel ballroom. In 5 years it grew to a public event hosted in a civic auditorium. Last year's turnout was 800. This year, over 1100 in attendance. The Program Director who previously didn't give us much attention, devotes much of his time during his morning show joking about us and what it's like to work with us... attention we relish.

 

We've never been pushy for our requirements and we're always agreeable to work with. It keeps us employed with them each year. However this year we approached them about having some ad time, in exchange for all the time we've donated over the years. They said sure... in fact, come up with an ad... 30 seconds and they will put it on regular broadcast. So we called in some favors. Last summer we played a private party for comedian John Brennan, 1/2 of the fame Jerky Boys act. He still does stand up and regular voice over work for 'Family Guy' and other animated programs. He's a big fan and friend of the band and we offered to play a family party at a discounted rate if John would create a commercial for us. He came up with four great 30 second commercials. Here's part of one (we did one for each season). Frank Rizzo commercial.

 

So Saturday night we play Boo Ball... 1100+ in attendance. Monday morning the first of four daily drive time commercials aired. Not expecting anything hugely monumental except for "Congrats... I heard the commercial" from other bands and friends I was a little taken back when I logged onto our Facebook account this morning and found 373 friend requests. :eek: Additionally the radio station posted my video recap to their website.... on a good day I might get 30-40 views. Since noon yesterday it's been played over 320 times. It's only Wednesday and we've never seen a bump like this from any event we've done. The comments, and private emails from those who attended the event have been fantastic.

 

[YOUTUBE]ChWZqYKGR1Q[/YOUTUBE]

 

I don't post this stuff to gloat... I just like to point that if we demanded pay for our services in these situations we would all walk away with a $100 each for our time and be treated like any vendor. Instead, choosing to partner with the station, and being flexible we've created a great, thriving relationship that is dependable and respectful. No contracts are signed, everything is verbal, under the table handshakes. And both parties benefit. That's what a local sponsorship should be all about.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Thank you for sharing, Grant, as always. You guys are awesome. :thu:

 

What your band did was obviously a great business move, unlike many of the exposure gigs offered out there, there was a true benefit where your 'partner' followed through.

 

A band I used to play with did two live public radio spots for free when I was with them, and they've done many more than that before and after my stint with the band. It did a lot to furthur booking and recognition of the band name, and often I'd hear, "yeah, I heard you guys on KDHX and came out." Radio works, and pays off, it seems. That particular station offers free gig announcements to just about anyone, so it's quite a bit different from the station you're talking about, I'm sure. But the live spots themselves really helped us out. We sure weren't playing the same types of venues, or making your paycheck, though. ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I don't post this stuff to gloat... I just like to point that if we demanded pay for our services in these situations we would all walk away with a $100 each for our time and be treated like any vendor. Instead, choosing to partner with the station, and being flexible we've created a great, thriving relationship that is dependable and respectful. No contracts are signed, everything is verbal, under the table handshakes. And both parties benefit. That's what a local sponsorship should be all about.

 

:thu:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Sometimes Exposure gigs do work out. This is a perfect example! you guys get radio time on a popular radio station and in return you do a few events for them that they sponosr. Win win for both I'd say. :thu:

 

BTW the Frank Rizzo spot was aweome! Brings back memories. I was a huge jerky boys fan even before the album was released. - A friend of a friend got his hands on an uncensored bootleg tape... We just thought it was a bunch of really great prank calls. I didn't even know they called themselves the jerky boys until a few years later when I stumbled across the album in a record store and I though... Damn! They are making money off of this? WOW!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Sometimes Exposure gigs do work out. This is a perfect example! you guys get radio time on a popular radio station and in return you do a few events for them that they sponosr. Win win for both I'd say.
:thu:

BTW the Frank Rizzo spot was aweome! Brings back memories. I was a huge jerky boys fan even before the album was released. - A friend of a friend got his hands on an uncensored bootleg tape... We just thought it was a bunch of really great prank calls. I didn't even know they called themselves the jerky boys until a few years later when I stumbled across the album in a record store and I though... Damn! They are making money off of this? WOW!

 

I think the examples of exposure gigs that don't work are the ones where you are providing a service but not partnered in receiving the benefit. We get lots of offers for 'exposure' gigs that we turn down... largely because we are benefiting the party interested yet we have nothing to gain for those efforts. The begining of this sponsorship could have turned out that way, if we didn't set out our expectations of what we hoped to receive. I've seen bands take gigs that become embarrassingly bad... playing in the middle of a mall, playing to groups of children, playing the grand opening of a gas station... that won't gain you much attention with the bar going crowd (21-35). I've also seen bands totally misuse their sponsorship.... one band going as far to promote 'free beer' in an attempt to gain a budweiser sponsorship (hello... they want you to sell beer not give it away for free... :facepalm:). These things take time, and patience, and you have to be firm about what you want and confident what you bring to the table. In the end, the only thing a sponsor recognition should give you is exposure to more people to play for.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 8 months later...
  • Members

Update: This weekend we're playing another annual event for the radio station our 7th year in a row. Their annual Booze Cruise. Our commitment is 8 hours: difficult load in/out, and three sets on a boat under the hot sun for about 100 people. Payment: just renegotiated the next wave of radio spots. The Frank Rizzo commercial. spot will run from 20 times per week, Mon thru Fri 6am-9am, 3pm-6pm. (2x in each slot) Aug 1-Oct 15th. This equals to $8,000 per month in advertising.

 

This is somewhat of a coupe' considering when we first approached the station about playing such events they were not interested in working with any bands. Like I mentioned above, it took years to get to this point and I'm guessing we've done 25 events in the last 7 years for no pay what so ever. Our goal from the beginning was to use the station to get our name everywhere in the local area.

 

We've always had the view that this relationship was somewhat exclusive but a few years ago things got a little tense after we were voted Best Local Band by the listeners from a competing radio station. They invited us to come in on air and perform live... a little awkward but who are we to turn down an opporunity to be on air. We anticpated a little dust up from our primary sponsor but nothing was mentioned. We never confronted them about it and we continued on with our scheduled events.

 

A few weeks ago we were caught off guard when another local band was promoted for a radio event: one that we hadn't been asked for but would have turned down anyway. We were aware this band was trying to 'pry' away our relationship with the station for a long time, using our appearance on the competing station for ammo and promising all sorts of ridiculous things. There had been a small management change at the station so we immediately assumed without notice that we were out and they were in. We brought it up at the meeting and they said that it couldn't be further from the truth. We were still their #1 band and happy to be working with us. But they also understood that we're in high demand and couldn't be available for every opportunity and some would just not be worth our time to participate. The other band however was so desperate for attention that they would commit to just about anything... including rescheduling or canceling a show. :facepalm: The event they played was a station sponsored backyard BBQ for free. Free band for 1 hr in front of 20 people. They assured us they would not get commercial time. Just a few on air mentions for the events. They were also considering having the other band play the annual Halloween event we play every year as an opener (which would be awkward since we have 80% overlap in setlist and we're not really on the friendliest terms)but assured us they would be on a side stage or in the lobby of the venue. Funny... years ago they didn't want to work with any bands. Now that having a 'band' has become the focal point of so many promotional events they want to work with other bands whenever we aren't available or willing.

 

So I guess we'll have to keep peering in our rear view mirror for now. :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Reading your story (and Guido's about playing for google) is like porn for the "struggling musician". Great to see people leaving the rock'n'f'n'roll attitude behind and doing mature business deals and seeing great results.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members


So I guess we'll have to keep peering in our rear view mirror for now.
:D

 

Like a giant game of king of the hill. Once you're there, you have to maintain it. You guys are an inspiration to me so I love to hear all about it. Thanks for sharing! :thu:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Reminds you that no matter how successful you become, someone's always looking to take your place or duplicate your talent for less $$$$$$$. It is and always will be business first. Whenever dollars are involved "friendships" with promoters/venue owners are never for sure.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 years later...
  • Members

Well now we're officially in our 10th year... and man if I thought 10 years ago I would still be doing this I'd say stick a fork in myeye. But what the hell, I'm still having fun. So last year the radio station stood behind us despite the turmoil we went through, losing our singer, losing the name to our band and losing our status within the local entertainment community. When I think about it, it was the Radio Station's Halloween Ball (which we had played consequatively since 2005) that was the focal point on bringing our new singers on board. Originally we were going to bring them on board to just fill in and use the show as our last performance. Three members were going to form a new 90's dance band with the new singers. It was only until we began rehearsals for this show and everything felt like Hot Sex that we decided to continue the band.

Getting on the radio to promote the band and playing this show last Halloween was really a turning point for us... It really gave us the confidence we could make a run doing this with the new band!

 

 

 

 

Of course the hammer came down when our previous singer served us with legal papers forcing us to change the name. So Last month our bandleader met with the station once again and cut us a Sweetheart deal! We will commit to a 4 station events for free in support of regular radio broadcast advertsing. In addition we will help sell advertising packages for the rooms that we play. And tonight is the first of such event. We worked with this room on a $4500 ad package that includes two weeks and over 200 placements in rotation. They cut us the ad and I put the track to video which we have blasting on twitter and FB

 

 

 

And we ran this promo a week ago

 

 

So we are working this commitment hard. This is probably the best thing that could have happened for us. I've already had two people approach me and ask "Nuts is no more? I heard on the radio? What happened? What's going on with the new band?" It's been up hill fight the perception that NUTS is either...

#1 Reforming with a whole new lineup and the old singer...

#2- A boring RnB band that plays only weddings

#3 Still playing shows with no association to the new band. 

 

We knew we would have 6-8 months of winning hearts and minds and the radio is already working in our favor. I just hope it translates to bodies in the club. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

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

×
×
  • Create New...