eau claire, Wisconsin, USA
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Author: dkarma on October 11 2008 Viewed 898 times. 8 people liked this blog. You can rate it below if you haven't already.
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A local bar is willing to give a few friends and I a venue to play dj / em shows twice monthly. The problem is they are hesitant to do so because in the past the head count has been relatively low (around 80 ppl). This is one of the only bars in town that charges cover and their drinks are relatively pricey (3.50 / rails...i know i know but this is wisconsin).
Given that on most nights this college town has available free music and lower drink prices how do I promote this particular venue over some of the others?
My friend who has been handling the promo side of it has been slacking.
My suggestions were:
really cheap flyers done at home on copy paper...paste them everywhere.
maybe buy a radio spot.
lower the cover to 3$ or less.
Word of mouth (obviously)
The problem is that we're not on the main college bar strip, and we only get paid from the cover. So if we drop that we get nothing for the night.
What would you do to promote a local show on a budget of less than 50$?
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10/11/08
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yghartsyrt
80 ppl for 3 dollars sounds like a good deal for a bear that's in your hometown.
if those 80 people show up regularly
10/11/08
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kenrestivo
Play another club with free cover and cheaper drinks, and do your regular night there instead. Only play the expensive club once in a while, for "special occasions", like record release parties, etc, and promote the hell out of those.
You can build an audience and a scene much more easily at a lower-rent club. Getting people up over the cover-expensive-drinks hurdle is a lot easier once they know who you are.
10/11/08
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Fant00m
Well all i can say is: if you have a niche (i.e special music that issnt played in other vennues), a supportive comunity (people who love this special type of music) there should be no problem.
The biggest thing i discovered was that the internet is the best tool to get people to show up on gigs. Really, flyers are easy dicarted if looked at at all, mout to mouth to is good but still less viral as internet, email to email is way faster. I dont mean myspace, hence 90% of the ppl on myspace are broke ass musicians.
In Holland theres this network site called hyves.nl, i think 70% of all people under 40 are on this site. Maybe in the states this would be facebook i dont know....
10/11/08
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tylth
light yourself on fire
10/11/08
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dkarma
bahahahahahaha...no
10/11/08
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utofbu
budget of 50 dollars? hmm. Panhandling in a high traffic area? Write the date and location on napkins with permanant marker
10/11/08
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dkarma
well i figure a ream of 500 sheets of copy paper can yield 1000 half sheet flyers at around 3$/ream. I can get a black ink cart for my printer for 20$
I think I can get a local radio spot for around a couple hundred bucks.
Anyone have experience with getting the venue to put up some $ considering we're not really promoting the show as much as the venue in general.
I am also considering guerilla marketing. I can do electronics and was thinking of making something along the lines of the ATHF led boards that just say the venue name or our 'don't dance' theme name.
I don't want to do graffiti or anything really illegal or permanent.
10/12/08
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Roshi
Go to other nights with similar music.
Talk to people, hand out fliers, talk your night up.
Get good at submitting info about your events to the weeklies.
These are all low-cost strategies that worked for me in the past.
10/12/08
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race4prize
print one a4 black and white poster, photocopy it and blow it up to a3, thats what i do, costs me about 12p a poster and just put them everywhere. if its a good poster you'll be packed.
10/12/08
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hecanjog
Is that 80 people over the course of the entire night? Otherwise, 80 people at any given time throughout the evening seems like a pretty great turnout to me.
All of the things you suggested sound like a great idea - instead of buying radio time though, drop an announcement off at the local college radio station - DJs usually read community news like that, and you'll be talking to your audience if you have the RPM big up you. After the first gig, if the turnout isn't enough for the bar, it's worth telling them that by far the best way to get the word out is to have folks who went one night, tell their friends, or bring more people back if they had a good time. It's hard to get people unfamiliar with you or what you do to care about coming out, but all it takes is for their friend to say "dj night at such-and-such place was cool last night" to get a better chance of them deciding to go the next time it rolls around.
Good luck!
10/12/08
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hecanjog
Another thing - I know maybe it sounds fake, but it doesn't have to be - talk with people you don't know, strike up a conversation if someone says "nice job" or something after the show, little stuff like that can make the difference between folks leaving without thinking much about the evening and leaving excited to tell their friends to come next time. I know it should be the music bringing people back, and it sure can be, but little stuff like that really helps! Just be a nice dude 
10/12/08
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infradead
also see if they can give you a drink special to throw on the flyer.. cheap booze will bring heads on are on the fence..
10/12/08
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dkarma
i was totally thinking of the drink special thing. Like buy a couple half barrels from the bar and do 5$ cups all you can drink just like a house party. That way we could make some $ off the booze in addition to the cover. I was thinking of asking the bar if they could do 1$ off rails and an all you can drink cup if we gave them 25% of the cover.
10/12/08
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Tripnik
Where in wisconsin is this?
I'm getting fairly apathetic when it comes to promoting events and that sort of thing. You can advertise the hell out of events, promise cheap drinks, even have no cover charge at all, and people still won't come out to see shows. Here, even people you know personally won't really show up unless they're somehow personally involved in the show.
If you can, perhaps try to get a guest dj or performer or band or something to play your event each time...someone who has a fairly good following. That will help a bit at least with getting the name of the event out there and making people aware that it DOES happen. Invite bloggers and photographers to your show and try to get them to write about it. If people can hear about a recurring party or show and get tons of hits when they google it, they're more likely to show up to see what all the buzz is about. Roshi mentioned starting to alliance yourself with other organizations or events that do something similar...this is an excellent way to bump up the head count. Try to see if they'll drop a plug for your show sometime during the evening.
I'm not convinced that fliers work. When people hand them to me unsolicited I almost always first, try to refuse, and if they are persistent, I'll take it then drop it in the nearest garbage can. Just follow your heart...that's what I would do ;) If you find something that works, please let us know.
10/13/08
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dkarma
Great ideas guys...it seems like social networking will pull more heads than any paper or radio promo in your opinions. I'll run w/ that.
In terms of flyers, I wasn't thinking so much of handing them out as pasting them on bathroom walls (there are tons of bars here) phone booths, and the plethora of cork boards around town.
As for playing w/ a "name" to bring crowd #'s in...a guy called heatbox out of the cities plays this venue a couple times a year and pulls good head counts at 5$ a head. I was thinking of asking him if he was interested in doing a shorter more collaborative show w/ some of the dj's throughout the night in exchange for 50% of the door $$. I have a buddy in the college radio station. Maybe he could drop a promo for our spot.
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