Tag Archive for Agency

CEE Worldwide Entertainment Agency | April 18, 2009
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We Are The Biggest, Best, And No1?

Like many people I often browse the World Wide Web looking for something new. Not only do I do this for pleasure but also in my job when looking for new acts for the entertainment agency of which I am CEO.

Frequently I come across sites claiming to be The Biggest, The Best or No.1 in their particular field and this made me wonder. If you look long enough at the net you will find these claims by numerous companies within the same field, so who is The Biggest, The Best or No.1.

I thought long and hard about this and to be honest I don’t know, but it would seem to be just a marketing tactic in most cases. We all know that market research companies and the like often rate well-known companies independently, but this is not the case in most businesses. High street names are well known as are an international manufacturing company, which however is not quite so true on the web.

Perhaps it would be a good idea for Internet companies who make these claims to back it up with independent clarification or not make them at all. That way everyone would know if the claims made are real. The other question I then find myself asking is if these companies are making dubious claims as a marketing tactic what other dubious practices are they up to. Yes I know lots of questions that just seem to raise more.

A case in point that all this reminded me of was a friend of mine many years ago who stated on his website that his company had been voted No.1 in a particular field. I queried this with him one day and asked about it. He replied that he had asked his family to vote and they had voted him No.1. Hardly surprising! He then used this as a promotional gimmick. Whilst his family may have voted, the vote was an obviously biased one and not in the true spirit of competition. It is also true that because a vote had taken place he was not technically lying, but it was most certainly a very distorted view that he painted. These are tactics that companies I am sure use everyday on the web.

This leads me on to my next point. Just because a company is number one for a particular keyword or set of keywords on the Internet does not necessarily mean they are The Biggest, The Best or No.1. It just means that for a particular keyword their website is better optimized for it than others. If you look around you will probably find that they rank lower on other search engines for the same keywords. Another indication is page rank; check the actual page rank and you will often find lower page rank sites above higher page rank ones, it’s not about good content it is about optimization. How do I know this, well from the experience of my own company? We have a Google page rank of 3 yet we are behind others of lower page rank 1-2 for certain keywords. Not that this matters to us, as we know we have a good product range and solid client base.

The point of this article is to say be aware. Just because a site makes a claim it does not mean it is true. Anything can be manipulated to make one thing seem like something else, we see it in government, and on the news all the time. It’s spin doctoring pure and simple. So next time you are looking for something don’t just go for the company claiming to be The Biggest, The Best or No.1 look further and you might be surprised at what you find. The other thing to remember is if a company has to make the claim of being The Biggest, The Best or No.1 they are probably trying to cover up something, a good company has no need to make those claims, the product or service speaks for itself.

Here are some quotes taken from pages or advertising of five entertainment agencies in the UK within the last 24 hours:

“the country’s fastest growing provider of live entertainment”

“the UK’s premier live music agency and the largest online entertainment booking service in the world”

“The UK’s No1 Entertainment Agency”

“UK’s leading entertainment specialist”

“the leading UK based live entertainment service provider”

I’d like to wish anyone who reads this happy surfing and hope that it has made you think a little.

© Paul Sims 2008
CEE Worldwide Entertainment Agency

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CEE Worldwide Entertainment Agency | December 15, 2008
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Entertainment Agencies – The Best way To Find And Book Entertainment

Most people have had or been to an event or party at which they had entertainment. How did they find it? Was it any good? The answer to the first question is they probably used their local telephone directory, the Internet or had seen the act or service personally. The answer to the second question is sometimes yes and sometimes no.

So why use an entertainment agency to find what you are looking for? Well first it takes the hit and miss out of finding what you are looking for, a good entertainment agency has access to lots of different forms of entertainment and will save you the problem of locating it. Secondly a good entertainment agency lives on its reputation, so it is in their interest to make sure that the entertainment they supply is of good quality. As the saying goes, you are only as good as your last event. Imagine you are looking for a band, you can spend ages searching the net only to find that what you want is already booked, and searching can take hours, and do you have that time to spare? If you use the phone to contact entertainers and lets say contact 10 at an average of 3 minutes a call, that is 30 minutes of calls on your telephone bill, it may not seem much but it adds up especially if the contact number is a mobile one. And if you do manage to find what you are looking for how do you know it will be any good? Contacting a reputable entertainment agency takes away all the headaches, as they will do all the work for you.

There are things to bear in mind, a reputable agency has quality acts and services which will be in high demand, so make sure you start looking at least 3 months in advance of an event, don’t leave it until the last minute. Only contact one agency, many top quality agencies work with each other to source your needs, contacting 3 or 4 of them means they are duplicating work, time which could be spent on another client. If you were that other client ask yourself how you would feel, if the agency you were using had lost time they could have been using to help you. Running an entertainment agency we often used to get enquiries from people and start looking for their requirements only to have another agency contact us looking for the same thing for the same person. Nowadays we ask if any other agency is being used and if they are we polity refuse to waste time looking for the same thing, if we are told no other agency is involved and find out otherwise then we will drop the client. Many quality agencies act likewise, so you could find yourself back at square one or using a less than reputable entertainment agency.

The next question many people ask is how much will it cost, the answer is nothing unless you cancel, then you may have to pay a cancellation fee. An entertainment agency makes its money in the form of commission from the acts it represents, in other words they pay us for finding them the work. If you cancel the agency makes no commission, which pays for its time and effort on your behalf, therefore most agencies will make a cancellation charge, after all they have staff to pay just like any business. Similarly you might also have to pay a cancellation charge to an act or service in addition to the agency charge, if you have booked them then they are unable to take on other work for the date in question.

The other question is how long will it take? This can vary, many acts and services are registered with numerous agencies and don’t always keep them informed of availability, secondly each act will charge a fee depending on the factors of the event such as getting to it, possible overnight accommodation etc, so a reputable agency will make contact with them to find if they are available and at what cost. If an act or service is on holiday or working away it may take a while for them to get back to the agency, so allow for this. If you haven’t heard anything from an agency within 3 days then give them a call and ask for an update. A good agency will always tell you if they cannot find what you are looking for or if they have been unsuccessful. If that is the case then you can try another. Remember that with an agency you will get a contract, which will state all the relevant details, and you will have a legal document to give you peace of mind.

Remember entertainment agencies live to provide clients with a service, make use of it and save your time and a possible headache.

© Paul Sims 2008

CEE Worldwide Entertainment Agency

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CEE Worldwide Entertainment Agency | December 12, 2008
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Information For Acts Seeking Entertainment Agency Representation

Welcome to the first of our guides which we hope will prove useful.

If you are reading this then you are hopefully an act seeking representation with an entertainment agency. This article is designed to offer advice and explain the Do’s and Don’ts of how to get representation.

Do’s
1. Contact the agency with whom you wish to gain representaion either by phone or e-mail.
2. Ask if the agency is interested in the type of act you are offering, some agencies deal with multiple categories of acts, some specialise.
3. Ask if they would mind if you send them your promotional details, which should include depending on the act, your biography, your date sheet with your available dates, any photographs, demo cd and or video. If you have a website make sure you supply its URL.
4. Ask if the agency would like for you to audition or invite them to watch you perform.
5. Make sure the act you are proposing has a pedegree, top agencies will rarely, if ever, take on an inexperienced act.
6. Be curtious at all times.

Don’ts.
1. Do not send an agent unsolicited promotional material, agents recieve this all the time and many will just file it in the rubbish bin. Agents receive a lot of unsolicited mail and some will treat it just like a spam e-mail. All this achieves is to waste your time and the cost of the promotional material is wasted, only send to those who actually want it.
2. Do not send an agent links to your information on facebook or similar sites, send it directly to them so that it is always available and on file.
3. Don’t pester an agent into taking you on, if they want to they will, otherwise look for an alternative.

If an agency is interested ask how you can register with them, an agent cannot promote you legally unless you are registered with them.

When you register with an agent make sure that you ask if the representation is to be exclusive, if it is you cannot go on another agents books, so be careful.

Make sure you read any documents that you fill in, in regard to an agency representing you and check whether you can cancell the representaion agreement and what notice you need to give. The average notice period is 30 days.

Make sure that the registration document gives the agent permission to market you to clients, and that you understand everything before signing it. If you do not understand something ask. If you are completing an online application read everything carefully before you submit it.

You should also make sure that you read any Terms and Conditions an agent may have as well as their Commission Policy, if it is a sperate document, before you submit anything. Again if you do not understand something ask them.

I would like to wish you every success.

© Paul Sims 2008

CEE Worldwide Entertainment Agency

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CEE Worldwide Entertainment Agency | November 28, 2008
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Entertainment Agencies – A License To Print Money? – Definately Not!

I was quite amazed when browsing the web the other day to find someone advertising an entertainment agency for sale and asking for bids on it, curious I decided to take a closer look. I also found some sites also selling entertainment agencies, this time with asking prices, and what the supposed turnover for those companies was.

I have been in the entertainment industry for over 31 years, and acting as CEO of an entertainment agency since the year 2000, and what I read astonished even myself. My aim in this article to deal primarily with the first site I mentioned although I will not reveal its name.

The person advertising the site made it appear that anyone can run a successful agency, and that you really don’t need any skill, and that you can use it to make lots of money. These are the main points of the sales pitch that I wish to comment on.

Firstly not everyone can run a successful entertainment agency, it is more than just finding a few acts to add to your books and then selling their services. To be successful requires building relationships with acts, clients and venues; it requires building trust and that can only happen with time. A successful agency needs a good variety of acts to offer, as each clients needs are different, and each event is bespoke, no two are the same. Experience is the key; knowledge of the industry a must, being able to offer advice that is competent to clients and acts is paramount. You cannot sell something about which you have little or no knowledge.

A good entertainment agent is a skilled individual, the same as an electrician or builder. The main skill is how to tell a good act or service from a bad one, how to get them to want you to represent them. An agent also needs to understand the best way to market a particular act, what events they are suitable for, which clients would be interested in them, you don’t try and market a rock band to the cabaret club on a cruise ship full of pensioners and you wouldn’t suggest a blue comedian to supply family entertainment at a holiday centre. Agents have to be skilled in separating the wheat from the chaff, they have to be good at promotion, and they have to be sales people. Trust me it is harder to sell a service than it is a product.

The third point was that it is easy money, which is a big no. Most people looking for entertainment will try many sources and often more than one agent, so you are competing with others in the industry, others with experience. Lets say that in a week a new agency gets 25 enquiries, which is an over estimate, but makes the figures easier (I am allowing an approximate 10% conversion rate from enquiry to sale). Perhaps 3 of those enquiries translate into bookings at lets say £200 per act per booking that makes a total of £600 the acts will earn, that is not the agencies money the agencies money comes via commission. Now lets say the agency charges a commission of the average 15% that equals a commission made of £90.00. Now subtract from that overheads, telephone, postage, printing, software, advertising and also time spent working on winning those 3 out of 25 enquiries, also take into account the cost spent on the enquiries that did not convert, you will probably find that after everything those 3 acts have made you a total of £50.00 after expenses. Now comes the next bit of bad news, you cannot claim any commission until after the act has done the job and been paid by the client, if one of those bookings is 6 months away then you have to wait. There is also the matter of taxation and in the UK national insurance contributions, which takes a little more from the profits.

An agent also needs to know the law in the country in which they operate, and to comply with it. But that could make god knows how many more articles in it’s own right. The other thing to bear in mind if you operate in the UK is that it is illegal to charge an act a fee for registering with you, I cannot comment on if this is the case in other countries.

To clarify what I have written, entertainment agencies are not a get rich quick scheme, the good ones are managed and run by dedicated individuals who put in long hours, people who have worked hard within the industry to build themselves up to where they are now, it did not happen overnight. There is no such thing as easy money we all work for what we get nothing comes for free. It is drive and determination and a unique skill set that separates the top agencies from the rest and to get the quality acts on your books means knowing your industry.

© Paul Sims 2008

CEE Worldwide Entertainment Agency

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