"Wedding Faire" experience

[Vito Corleone]

Awhile back we decided to try out doing a 'wedding faire' just to see what might happen. After looking at few different ones in the area, we decided to try the cheapest one and went into it with fairly low expectations--I figured if we booked even one or two gigs from it, then it would be a 'success'.

 

While we put out a serious effort: set up our booth nicely, had some nice handouts and promo material to give to people, had our video playing a screen on a loop, etc. it ended up being what I feared it might:

 

and that is that most of the weddings we play are destination weddings: people who are flying to Tahoe or Napa Valley from elsewhere and therefore are putting on high-dollar weddings and can afford a pricier band. I was worried that local girls looking to put on a local wedding would mostly be more "budgeted" affairs--the local people with a lot of money for a wedding are probably flying to Hawaii or Cabo to get married....

 

While it's often a mistake to just people based on how they look, it was pretty clear early on that "these don't really look like most of the clients we end up playing for."

 

Nevertheless, we made good contact with a couple-of-dozen potential clients and 4 or 5 of them seemed really interested: if we book even one wedding from this, I'll be happy.

 

And we got the learning experience I wanted from it. Next time we either try paying more money to be involved in a more expensive faire in the San Francisco area (where we HAVE played for some 'local' clients with more to spend) or, more likely, we look for other ways to better spend our advertising dollars.

[FitchFY]

Cool that you did this - it's very interesting to see the exploits of your band since it's in much more of a legit business sense than probably 75% of us here. I often wondered about the effectiveness of a wedding fair for a GB/wedding band -- I think your reaction and expectations are spot on for what I'd think would happen, too.

 

Great to say you've had the experience, though, right? I hope?

[Vito Corleone]

Cool that you did this - it's very interesting to see the exploits of your band since it's in much more of a legit business sense than probably 75% of us here. I often wondered about the effectiveness of a wedding fair for a GB/wedding band -- I think your reaction and expectations are spot on for what I'd think would happen, too. Great to say you've had the experience, though, right? I hope?

 

Yeah, it was a good experience. One of my overriding philosophies in life (including business and music) is "try everything once." Otherwise, I'd be spending the next several years thinking "are wedding faires something we should do?" and that would drive me crazy.

 

And actually we had a pretty fun time. A lot of other vendors were nice to hang out with. And while we were the only band there, there were a couple of DJs and a couple of solo/duo acts--some of whom were performing--, a lady who played the harp, etc. It was cool to exchange stories and tips with those people. You so rarely come across other performers in this business since we're all doing different gigs. One guy had an interesting deal where his act was a combination of DJing and him playing a variety of horn instruments to tracks--seemed like a nice package of soft, semi-live background music for a cocktail/dinner set and then he'd DJ the rest of evening.

 

And there were a lot of pretty girls to look at, too.

[FitchFY]

And there were a lot of pretty girls to look at, too.

 

Theeeeeere we go.

[wheresgrant3]

That's awesome man! I hope it nets you a few bookings. I would think in your area (destination weddings) you would have a more receptive audience to market to. Here bridal showcases are sort of a 'family affair'. The bride, her mother, maid of honor and cousins all head to a hotel with local vendors there.

 

 

We've done two in the past, and niether net any results. It was a $1000 experiment but they just didn't seem to be the audience we were looking to connect with. Both was sponsored by 'The Knot', and a ton of local vendors. On both occasions we encountered only a few DJ's but no bands. And now we know why. In my market hiring entertainment is the last thing on the brides mind.The few brides that did make it to our poorly located booth were confused that we were a band and what exactly we were offering. Most had been sampling food and wedding cake all day. We were hoping to score just one wedding to help pay for each booth but we didn't get any call backs on the cards we handed out (we made up 4 x 6 color contact cards). There were a few brides who recognized us from the nightclubs but they weren't thinking about a band or DJ at that time. We get so many referrals from our nightclub shows that for us that is still our best band for buck promotion. I imagine in a few years we'll try harder at marketing beyond our name when the club gigs slow down.

[Vito Corleone]

 

That's awesome man! I hope it nets you a few bookings. I would think in your area (destination weddings) you would have a more receptive audience to market to. Here bridal showcases are sort of a 'family affair'. The bride, her mother, maid of honor and cousins all head to a hotel with local vendors there.

 

 

Yeah, destination weddings are our bread-and-butter and those clients obviously weren't at this fair. (This was in Sacramento). We get those through Gigmasters and Wedding Wire. We're looking at hooking up with The Knot. At 100 bucks a month though....

 

 

 

We've done two in the past, and niether net any results. It was a $1000 experiment but they just didn't seem to be the audience we were looking to connect with. Both was sponsored by 'The Knot', and a ton of local vendors. On both occasions we encountered only a few DJ's but no bands. And now we know why. In my market hiring entertainment is the last thing on the brides mind.The few brides that did make it to our poorly located booth were confused that we were a band and what exactly we were offering. Most had been sampling food and wedding cake all day. We were hoping to score just one wedding to help pay for each booth but we didn't get any call backs on the cards we handed out (we made up 4 x 6 color contact cards).

 

 

That was pretty much our experience. We handed out nice cards, but we also had interested girls sign up to be contacted by us. So we'll see. We didn't discuss price with anyone, so we'll see if they get sticker-shock when we contact them.

 

But yes, we also had a lot of confusion that we were even a band. Even though we hung our banner, had our video playing, had pictures of the band up, and set up a light-tree. Most thought we were some sort of DJing thing and were surprised when we told them "we're a live band". But that was cool. We were the only band out of probably 50-60 vendors, so it was nice to have that niche to ourselves.

[Vito Corleone]

 

I imagine in a few years we'll try harder at marketing beyond our name when the club gigs slow down.

 

 

The advantage you guys will have (if you keep the band together beyond your club years) is the name-recognition from all your years together. There are a few bands like that this area--they don't need to do the promotion we do for private events because their names are legendary in the region because they've been around forever. There are bands doing the corporate/wedding scene now that basically extensions of the top club bands from the 80s. Some might only have one original member---one I know doesn't even have that any longer---but they've kept that brand going for 30 years. Tough to compete with that.

 

We just fired up this act a couple of years ago so promotion of the band and what we do is EVERYTHING for us at this point.

[Old Fart Rocker]

I did one of the a couple of weeks ago for our dance band. It was held a a very nice winery locally. We've done a few events for this winery including the last 2 NYE events. We have a great working relationship with them. They gave us a deal on a booth and we were the only band there. We put together some good marketing materials and had a comparison sheet showing why have a live band vs. a DJ. Our drummer, who is also the band leader, had a DJ business for 15 years and was able to make a very compelling argument. Similar experience as Guido. Although, we got a call from an attendee and our band leader has sent her a quote. Haven't heard the outcome, but I'll keep you posted. We also had a good conversation with a caterer who saw us at the last NYE event. It's all talk until something comes of it, but it was a good contact to make, none the less.

 

I agree with Guido that we need to try different marketing ideas to see what works. We are a newer band as well. Just coming up on our 2nd anniversary. We've done real well in a short period of time and are building a solid reputation. But, we have a long way to go. We have 2 weddings booked this summer and already have 2 company Holiday parties and NYE booked. And, the phone is ringing more often. I believe it is the result of trying and following through on different marketing strategies and delivering what we promise.

[Vito Corleone]

I agree with Guido that we need to try different marketing ideas to see what works. We are a newer band as well. Just coming up on our 2nd anniversary. We've done real well in a short period of time and are building a solid reputation. But, we have a long way to go. We have 2 weddings booked this summer and already have 2 company Holiday parties and NYE booked. And, the phone is ringing more often. I believe it is the result of trying and following through on different marketing strategies and delivering what we promise.

 

Yes, you really have to hit it from all angles. I'm sure I don't have to tell you, but the corporate/wedding/pvt event competition is pretty fierce in Nor Cal and the talent agencies aren't a lot of help for new bands. There's a dozen other bands they are going to toss the gig to first before they make their way down the list to bands like yours and mine. So we've got to just keep working it from every angle possible. You guys seem to have a regular venue you play and that can work out pretty nicely if the right clientele comes through there. We don't do that and rely almost strictly on what we can scrounge up by selling ourselves via our promo and trying to reach people directly through the internet.

 

But yes---delivering on what you promise is a big part of it. We seem to be constantly going through this cycle where we are leap-frogging over our promo. A year or so ago I was worried that the band might not be as good as the promo made us appear. Now I'm worried the promo doesn't represent us well enough, so this year one of my goals is to upgrade it all again---at which point I'll probably be worried we aren't good enough again and the cycle will continue...