Posts tagged sponsorship

An area which many Musician’s attempt to conquer but fail miserably, the main reason for this is the way they go about trying to secure an endorsement. For a company to offer you money or equipment takes a lot of risk and belief in the artist. They need to feel that their investment is safe, secure, worthwhile and brings a good image to the company. The Music, your Style or your Talent unfortunately wont be enough to get you an endorsement. I wont lie and tell you that Endorsement’s are easy to get or that their is any magic trick that makes one appear. However even the newest of Band’s can receive very small endorsements from local companies, which can put you on the road to bigger things.

If your a fairly new Band that has no recordings, and a very small gig portfolio then you will get a straight no from any potential endorsement. If you look at an Endorsement like buying a car you will be able to see the deal from the other side of the table. If you saw a Lamborghini for sale for £500 with no receipts, no service history, no mot records or tax would you buy it? I’m assuming you said no to that answer, but it’s exactly the same situation for the endorsement. Who is going to invest money or offer free equipment to a Musician who has no records, no portfolio, no upcoming gigs and no future? A company wants to see proof that an investment of whatever nature, including time, is a safe bet. Don’t get ahead of yourselves establish your Music before the approach. Prove you have the talent, prove you can do what you say you can.

So what about established Musicians? Well if you have a few CD’s produced, a list of Gig’s as long as your arm, rave reviews and a fan list to be proud off then you may well be in with a chance. Now let’s have a reality check, you and me both know that you wouldn’t be reading this article if you have had a few chart smashers, a successful tour and merchandise flying off the shelves. No, you would have been snapped up with a record deal. So approaching Fender and Marshall for some sponsorship is going to be a waste of time. But what about the local companies in your area? Music Shop’s, CD Shop’s, Cafe’s, Bar’s, Restaurant’s, Club’s, they may not sound glamorous but even if Trotters Independent Traders offered you a deal it would still be a company risking their name on the back of you, which is of course a good thing. I would like to take this moment to tell you a little story.

I was asked by a local Night Club owner to run a monthly Live Band Night at the club. The club was unfortunately not very reputable, but the owner was working hard to change the image of the club. I started the nights with very little success, word had not as spread as much as i had liked and things were going very slowly. After a few months sticking at it, i had taken the nights from an audience of around 25 people to a massive 280. The nights were going well and the word was starting to spread. The only areas i could improve on was the pre-organization, the booking of the bands, managing time slots and trying to borrow equipment to use from each band. The major hurdle was trying to get a band to lend a drum kit for the night. In the end i got fed up and decided to go and buy one. I approached a local Drum shop and inquired about a medium quality drum kit. We discussed the kit, i knocked them down in price and then made them a slightly different offer. I explained what the kit was to be used for and what i was doing down at the local night club. I asked them if we could come to an arrangement that they knocked the price down even further in return for me placing a Banner for the shop at the back of the stage. We shook hands and i walked out with a drum kit nearly £280 cheaper then it was marked at. I had a sponsorship deal for my night.

It just goes to show, that these deals do exist. It might not be Marshall, but it’s still a known brand that believes in what im doing and is willing to risk their reputation on my night. It can be exactly the same for your Music and if you think on to the future it looks very impressive on your Band Press Pack. Deal’s like this can also attract the attention of other companies, they can have a knock on affect.

The point being is deals do exist, but don’t expect to make hundred’s off pounds out of them. Do it for the fact that a known brand believes in what your doing and believes you have the potential to go further, those two things alone are priceless. You get a name attached to your Music, they get advertising and some great PR, everyone wins!

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