A Look Inside Impact Entertainment

I have been in the entertainment business for over a decade. Impact Entertainment was started out of frustration about the lack of hospitality and customer service in the hospitality industry, which is ironic to say the least. We treat our clients the way that we would want to be treated and believe me, we want to be treated pretty well. Our clients take us all over the country working with them to book local talent as well as the biggest celebrities in Hollywood. Once you have had an Impact experience you will never look at customer service the same way again. My work schedule is pretty standard, 24/7, but seriously, I love it and would not change it for a minute.

Personally, I enjoy reading biographies, business books, learning about new technology, going to live events, listening to older pop music, and performing magic tricks. In fact, I did magic for a number of years and I am actually quite good at it, but you will just have to take my word for it.

What Type of Event is It??

When determining the type of event, look at your targeted audience. Busy professionals may not take time out from their schedules to attend a symposium that will cut into their designated family time, but may attend if the event is designed to include their family members, such as a private showing in a theatre or an exclusive booking of an entertainment center. The symposium could be held in the morning while their families are at play. They could then meet for a catered luncheon, with the balance of the day for them to enjoy the facility with their family members, or, in the case of a private showing in a theatre or prime seating for an in demand live show, the symposium could again be held earlier and a private pre and post meal function could anchor the entertainment element of the event.

A company that was able to secure a private showing at the theatre or seats at the hot, instant sell-out Hannah Montanta live performance show would have no problem reaching maximum attendance at their symposium built around that family event, just as they would with a limited Cirque du Soleil performance.

A public event looking to create an event that will generate pre show media exposure that will serve to bring clients to their doorstep may look to partner with a company or companies that will help them to achieve that goal. For example, a bridal show hoping to draw couples, their families and their wedding parties to their event featured a million dollar wedding cake display. A jewelry company and the wedding cake designer all benefit from the publicity and as a result, everybody wins.

AudioLife.com

I recently spoke to Brandon Hance, CEO of www.audiolife.com . If you have never heard of them, I have a feeling you will be very soon and more often. They are really revolutionizing the way musicians sell, well….everything. Here is a synopsis of what they do.

Audiolife is a website that allows musicians to create their very own store and sell virtually anything from ringtones to digital albums to custom designed t-shirts. The key to their success is allowing musicians to sell the merchandise and music directly to their fans and avoid all the middlemen. A musician can go to their website, setup a storefront, and start marketing the store directly to their fans and earn pretty good revenue doing it. The typical model for musicians to sell their music or merchandise required them to make a fairly large capital investment into the inventory, whether it be a box full of albums or posters. What Audiolife provides is a solution to investing large sums of money into something that may or may not sell. If your fan orders just one cd, then that is all Audiolife will ship. There are no minumums. You create custom merchandise in their stores, and when a fan goes there and makes a purchase, Audiolife handles everything from the shipping to the manufacturing. They do charge a base price for handling all of these details, however it is minimal and there are no upfront costs at all. After all, the more fans you have, the more money you will make. I know I am going to signing up one of my singers with them very soon, how about you??

Check them out here for more information.

www.audiolife.com

Publicity Events and Stunts

Special events, grand openings, stunts, and more can be supremely effective strategies to attract publicity for your cause or business. Here are a couple of ideas for creating special events that can draw big crowds and also land publicity.

- Tie the special event to current events or news.

- Tie the special event to a holiday, anniversary, or other observance.

- Involve local celebrities.

- Feature a creative or unusual hook such as setting a Guiness Book World Record and invite the media to come and cover the attempt as part of your event.

- Use technology tools as a part of your event and make sure to publicize this fact in all your marketing materials. Can you be one of the first people to use Twitter to get publicity for a grand opening or to announce a festival?

- Use a very large or unique inflatable to attract attention.

Joshua Gair - Impact Entertainment Services

www.impactentertains.com

Secrets of the World’s Greatest Promoter

Many people think that P.T Barnum is one of the greatest promoters of all time if not THE greatest. The real question is, what made him such a great promoter and how can you apply his principles. Whatever he was promoting, whether it was a circus attraction to a museum exhibit, he always went for it with creativity, big ideas, and exciting entertainment. Here are some of the tactics he used. Use your imagination and think how you can apply the same ideas to your business.

1. He was one of the first people to paint his wagons that promoted his circus so that wherever it traveled it was constantly promoting his circus.

2. When one of his attractions would come to town, he would create a novel publicity stunt to make sure he ended up on the front page of the newspapers, such as parading an elephant in the middle of a city. He would often invite reporters to come and cover it.

3. He would also put up massive posters on the side of buildings to attract attention.

4. He often had a bizarre or unique animal, human like a midget or another rare thing for the public to go visit. The lesson is to display something so remarkable that people can’t help but want to go see it.

5. Barnum was an amateur magician who often used this skill to get the attention of potential investors, prospects and audiences.

6. He always had some type of entertainment at his events, from a clown, young singer, dancers and more. People are more responsive and open to ideas when they are being entertained.

Festival Entertainment

No doubt that festivals are going to have to utilize more marketing tools in order to engage the public to attend. There is always some form of entertainment at festivals. These can range from strolling acts all the way to a big name celebrity entertainer. If a festival’s budget is being strained, one way to get more people is to use the majority of the entertainment budget for a big name celebrity. This may sound a bit ridiculous, but hear me out. Instead of using your entertainment dollars for a lot of small time acts which may not have much pulling power in terms of audience attendance, you find out your target market and book the appropriate celebrity. One big name star has much more power than a bunch of smaller acts. You may even have some funds left over after booking the celebrity in order to book some local talent. Booking a celebrity can be tough if you have a lot of stage time to fill and need lots of acts. One creative way to fill the slots is to hold a talent show and select the best acts to come and perform at the festival. This works for everyone, as the acts gets needed exposure and the festival gets great local acts to fill a time slot.

How to Use Entertainment at Events to Increase Employee Morale and Productivity

Corporations are often faced with a bout of low employee morale which can often translate into lowered productivity in the company. There are a number of ways to battle this problem including holding events using live entertainment that gets all the employees together in a fun and energetic atmosphere where they can forget about business for a bit and deepen their relationships within the company.

Most corporations hold a couple of events a year, however these are too often the standard holiday party or annual board meeting which can be tedious and because they become routine, employees do not anticipate the event like they should. Corporations should not look at events as an expense but rather as an investment in their employee’s future growth and dedication to the company.

When holding an event, live entertainment is a wonderful and creative way to visibly boost employee morale and productivity. For example, let’s say that the company is gearing up for a standard board meeting, and the agenda calls for a nice dinner and then the meeting to take place. If you were to inject a strategic entertainment performance such as a comedian or interactive magician into the board meeting, you would break the employee’s sense of monotony, and also allow them to experience a fun environment so that in the future they would actually look forward to board meetings and the unexpected surprises that come with them. You also clearly demonstrate to the employees that you care about their feelings toward the company and this helps them to feel appreciated. You should ask yourself, what are happy, productive, and enthusiastic employees worth to the company?

There are many types of entertainment available for corporate events. Choosing the right entertainment really depends on the overall goal of the event, the theme, and of course the budget. If you want to combat bad news in a company or the economy, then booking a comedian or impressionist makes sense, however perhaps you are looking to convey a more serious message, then you could look at a hypnotist who can incorporate the company message into their performance. Some corporations really looking to impress their employees will choose to go with a celebrity performance. These are among the higher priced acts available to the corporate market, with prices ranging from $50,000 to over $1 million. The price really depends on how popular the celebrity is. An act such as rock duo Hall and Oates will run about $150,000, because although they are an older act, the name is instantly recognizable and they have many hit songs.

Corporations will book celebrity entertainment for their annual holiday parties as a surprise to their employees. While the price may seem steep, the buzz going around the office will be flowing for months after the performance. This kind of buzz visibly translates into happier employees and higher productivity, which is what every company strives for. Live entertainment is simply a creative tool for allowing employees to feel their best and reach their full potential.