Welcome to the new corporate forum!

[Guest]

Hi Everyone,

I will be the first to admit I do not know much about corporate gigs.
If anyone does please feel free to chime in.

I do however market corporate every year for holiday company parties. Since it is that time of year to start I thought this would make a good thread.

I have been pretty fortunate with holiday parties. Many of them rebook every year. I normally start out with calling the ones that I had before and ask them if they will be booking this year. Alot of my parties also come from bar and club patrons that refer me. I also send out emails.

This year I am upping it a notch and sending out 100 postcards to corporations in my area to advertise.

Please share how do you market Holiday parties?

 

[Balanced Line]

Well, it was good while it lasted

Find the person.

Mostly you have to find the person responsible for the soiree purse strings. Find that person and you are half way to your objective.

I worked as an A/V tech for a multi-national (W.R. Grace & Co.) They are a mere shadow of the former company. They had a headquarters with 400,000 sq ft of office space on 6th Ave. The same avenue you find CBS, Exxon, McGraw Hill and Radio City to name a few. That is Avenue of the Americas to non or recently born NY’rs. During Christmas there would be multiple parties. Some in-house some were out of house.

Why am I telling you this? Large or very large companies are not monolithic. They have different operating groups that may party separately. They could all party together. Grace had the big party at the Plaza Hotel (alas it is no more) in the Grand Ball Room. Sorry, no DJ’s need apply. They used a fourteen piece orchestra typically. But you never know, there may be economy moves. Operating groups may party in or out of house alone as well as a big company-wide party. For this information you need moles. Receptionists can be dumb as posts but fifty percent of the time they are smart cookies looking for the right place to be. Schmooze ‘em! If they don't know they know who knows.

Smaller companies are similar to selling to mom and pop. Find the person with the check book and get a yes or a no. There’s one party and one decision maker. Another thing to consider is that the larger companies may have technical people in-house that can provide DJ services. They may not have extensive play lists. They may not have super equipment. They may only put together pre planned “canned” programs. They may have a couple of Eon’s but not any subs. The in-house may tech hate doing parties. It may be worth your while to feel him out tactfully and discreetly. Maybe he loves to party and you get the gig over his cold, dead body. One never knows, does one? Be careful of the sensibilities of in-house people. Unless you have no alternative, why make enemies? The point is that operating groups typically have some discretion about using the in-house people. Get to that decision maker.

In a nut shell, no may mean no only at that end of the company. It may take time to get in. Once in, you could have regular gigs for many years. “No surprises” should be the by words. Companies like “dependable”.