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Bill Palmer Eternal Order Only Jonathan Townsend has more than 24314 Posts |
There has been a thread in the Food for Thought section concerning the lack of mentioning of magic shows in the local newspaper. Although I have posted some ideas to that thread, they should be posted here, as well.
To understand why various other kinds of entertainment are mentioned in your local newspaper, you should first read the entertainment section. See who purchases ad space. Then look at who gets mentioned in the rest of the entertainment section. I'll wager that everyone who purchases an ad gets some kind of mention or another. Why? Well, first of all, newspapers are paid for by the advertisers. No ads -- no paper. If you want people to advertise in your paper, you do the same thing that a good performer does -- give them more than they actually pay for. In some areas, a four column inch ad will produce four column inches of additional press. This almost always happens if the advertising is paid for through an ad agency. It never hurts to get tied into an ad agency. They can get you publicity as well as work. Sometimes their clients will want a magician. Guess who they will call. But back to the topic. If you are the promoter of a show, you purchase advertising, and you also send out press releases. There are many books on advertising, so I'm not going to go into great detail about how it is done, but here are a couple of guidelines. 1) The press release should be only 1 page long. 2) It should have the relevant details about the show -- date, time, place, sponsor, your name, etc. 3) It should have a "hook." You want them to think you have a good, exciting show. You also want them to think that it isn't the same old same old. 4) Everything should be spelled correctly, so spellcheck it. You can mail or e-mail the press release. It really makes no difference, unless you want to send out a press pack. Even those can be done on-line now. So, as you read the entertainment section, you notice that there are some other people -- non-advertisers -- who are getting free write-ups. How does that happen? They all send out the press releases. That's it. Charitable organizations, such as schools, churches, fraternal organizations, etc. get preferential treatment. Then other groups are mentioned. Just make your press release catchy, and you will get into the calendars. I used to do publicity for my wife's Scottish dance group. I would send press releases to all the local radio stations as well as the local papers. We ALWAYS got into the calendars, and we usually got a little free airplay. When Braveheart was in the theatres, we got radio interviews as well. You won't get into the newspapers if they don't know about you. There is a fellow here in town who arrived here about 25 years ago with $1500 in his pocket and a strong work ethic. He is now a multimillionaire. He sells furniture. His motto "Late to bed, and early to rise, work like Hell and advertise." He has gone from a person few people knew to a man who has appeared in television commercials with former President George Bush.
"The Swatter"
Founder of CODBAMMC My Chickasaw name is "Throws Money at Cups." www.cupsandballsmuseum.com |
Bill Palmer Eternal Order Only Jonathan Townsend has more than 24314 Posts |
I have been asked to elaborate on the press release. Rather than tell you how to find the "hook" for your show, I'll give you a rough example of how I tied in a press release for my wife's Scottish Country Dance group to the movie Braveheart.
The press release went out on her letterhead. It was dated and had "For immediate release" right before the copy. Then there was a title, which served as a headline of sorts. It said "Like Braveheart? Try this!" Then it went into detail about Scottish Country Dancing, had a little bit about what it was and wasn't, and gave the name of the instructor, the location of the classes, the dates and hours -- basically the "who, what, how, when and where" that is important in any news story. You could do the same thing by tieing your show in with Harry Potter, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or any other popular movie. Be careful that you do not represent yourself as an "official" magician of any of these things, unless you actually are one. Another possible hook would be "Magician to give portion of show proceeds to (name the charity.)" Two years ago, a paraplegic magician toured the country with a similar show. Find something unusual about your show or yourself and use that to promote the show. "Magician to escape from world's largest Twinkie®." "Magician finds card in baked potato." This is where your imagination can go wild. A good press release will get you mentioned. A great press release will get you a story. And always be prepared to take on a big project. The best "ink" I got in the local media happened when the first Harry Potter movie was released. I had retired from the Renaissance Festival the previous year. I got a call from a local reporter who wanted to know what I thought about Harry Potter. I explained that I had not read the books, but that I was reasonably sure that the author would not have done anything to harm any children or disrupt any classes in any schools. And I was reasonably certain that there was no real occult magic involved. I'm not sure exactly what I said that grabbed this reporter's ear. Maybe it was that I could discuss the concepts in an articulate manner. But there was one thing that told me a lot. She had called several other magicians and none of them could discuss the subject at all -- none of them knew anything at all about occult lore. I don't practice occult things, but I read up on them when building the character, so I could discuss these things intelligently. She asked me if I would come up to the Chronical building for photographs and videotape. I said I would. Then she asked if I would do a levitation. I kind of hemmed and hawed about it, but I figured I could do something. Then, on a whim, I decided to read the first Harry Potter novel. And I understood what to do. Several years ago, I came out with a version of the Okito floating ball in miniature. I set that up for the photo shoot and video. I wore the Merlin outfit to the shoot. I got upstairs in the photo studio, was interviewed for about 30 minutes, and then they started the video and photo shoot. The result -- I got almost a full page of coverage on Veteran's Day. A photo of me doing the floating ball, showing my hands, the ball and my face was the upper half of the front page of the entertainment section of the paper. I got a major portion of the text on that page and a lot on the inside as well. I also had the first two videos that were on the Chronicle web site. But that's not all. A local artist saw the photo in the paper and painted a huge portrait of me that now is in the foyer of our house. It hung in a local restaurant/art gallery for two years. So I got lots of publicity, just because I was nice to a reporter. And it was an involuntary tie-in to Harry Potter. There is a new Harry Potter movie coming out later this month. There is a hook. Go for it.
"The Swatter"
Founder of CODBAMMC My Chickasaw name is "Throws Money at Cups." www.cupsandballsmuseum.com |
Bill Palmer Eternal Order Only Jonathan Townsend has more than 24314 Posts |
The "hooks" discussed in the previous section are what would be termed "tie-ins," that is, things that tie your show into something that people are familiar with.
There are other kinds of "hooks" as well. You can have a hook that is a publicity stunt, such as "Magician to attempt to break current world's record for ______." If there is no current world's record for whatever it is, then you can attempt to establish one. Some publicity stunts are so old that they are new. Straitjacket escapes are passé as publicity stunts. But if you are doing a tie-in to a movie about an escaped lunatic, it might be appropriate. In this case, you probably wouldn't want to have a press release. You might want to have a publicist handle this for you. Some publicists overdo it to the point that the newspapers and media won't take their calls or releases. The smart ones have other people phone the information in, instead. Jim Moran was one of the best. He once sold an icebox to an Eskimo. There was a time when he got publicity for the "St. George Hotel," by having their knight slay a dragon. The knight was a fellow who sat outside the restaurant on horseback in a suit of armor. The dragon was a taxicab. In a staged "accident," the horse was reported to have bolted and the knight speared the radiator of the cab with his lance. The truth of the matter was that the radiator was unharmed, but the hot water bottle that produced the steam and water was ruined beyond repair. This was phoned in by several people who claimed to have seen the accident happen. It wound up in the newspapers and on television. But you have to be careful with this kind of stunt. Hoaxes can get you into big trouble. There are seasonal tie-ins that anyone can do. You can produce Santa for a mall. Same with the Easter Bunny. You can get publicity for the anniversary of almost any major group. You can "exorcise" a haunted house. Technically, that's not really an exorcism, but even then, you can use that to your advantage. You can debunk a phoney medium. You might consider getting a copy of one of Jay Conrad Levinson's books in his "Guerilla Marketing" series.
"The Swatter"
Founder of CODBAMMC My Chickasaw name is "Throws Money at Cups." www.cupsandballsmuseum.com |
Bill Palmer Eternal Order Only Jonathan Townsend has more than 24314 Posts |
Last night, I had the pleasure of attending a lecture by Mark Wilson. Mark Wilson is arguably responsible for more interest in magic in the US than any other single person. That may sound like a rather bold statement, but if you consider the big picture, Mark had the first syndicated magic show on the networks, The Magic Land of Alakazam, and through this show, as well as subsequent specials and other shows, he reached millions upon millions of people.
He inspired Doug Henning and David Copperfield. They, in turn, inspired people like David Blaine and Criss Angel. And even though many of us may have seen other magicians before we saw Mark Wilson, he was the one we saw once a week on television for a period of several years. He has supplied illusions to many network television shows, trained hundreds of theme park magicians, furnished advertising theme magicians...the list of his accomplishments are almost too numerous to list on any one forum. In some ways, the lecture was a stroll down memory lane. He did show us a couple of tricks, but that wasn't the part of the lecture that was important to me. He told us how he did it! Mark worked his buns off to get where he is today. When he was at SMU, he majored in Business and Marketing. He used those skills to find a sponsor that would put him on one of the local television stations. Eventually, he expanded the market until it included Dallas, Fort Worth, Waco, Houston and San Antonio. These were all "live" shows -- no videotapes. He was on the road a LOT. But he got the shows in spite of the fact that the television stations had originally turned him down. They said that magic would never work on television. It took him two years of pounding the pavement to find a sponsor, but he did it! He used the same technique to sell the show to the networks. He pounded the pavement until he found a sponsor. And that is how he got the show on the networks. His show was good enough that when he was in Dallas, Fort Worth and Waco, it always got the highest rating of any show in that time slot. He had the same results in the rest of his Texas markets. And his shows pulled good ratings on the networks, as well. But Mark knew when he was in college that no matter how good his act was, he was still going to have to sell it. That's why he majored in business and marketing. And sell it, he did. In his own way, Mark gave us a foundation to build upon. He wasn't content to sell it to the US market only. He was the first "non-classical" Western act to be booked into the People's Republic of China, after we resumed diplomatic relations with them. How did he get the booking? He pounded the pavement and sold it to the US and PRC governments. No telling what his next market will be. But I'm sure he will sell it like a champ!
"The Swatter"
Founder of CODBAMMC My Chickasaw name is "Throws Money at Cups." www.cupsandballsmuseum.com |
The Magic Cafe Forum Index » » From The Wizards Cave - by Bill Palmer » » Publicity -- Getting your shows mentioned in local media. (0 Likes) |
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