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Booking school shows
I'm making school assembly programs the main focus of my my marketing efforts. There are seven county school systems within a two hour drive of here. I've tarted the act up with safety messages and our show goes over great with little kids. I've added a page to my web site specific to schools and I've made up a mailing brochure just for school assembly program coordinators. I've called the school district offices and five of the seven told me that there is no central coordination of assembly programs, and I'll have to contact each school's principal. Two of the districts have a review committee that must first approve any program before the individual schools can even consider it. I imagine it must be like the Central Scrutinizer from Joe's Garage. I guess if that committee doesn't like dogs, we're boned. Anyway, I'm looking for advice and suggestions on booking school shows.
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We did numbers of schools in Pinelas County when we lived in Clearwater. We jumped in the vehicle early in the morning with our promo stuff and a demo marionette and just visited as many schools as possible in a day. The principal would book us or not right on the spot. The "Yes" response was about 80 percent. I'm not sure it would be a good idea to take a demo dog around?
Then of course we had to go back later and actually do the shows, so it time consuming. We did 5 minutes short of an hour for the upper grades and 5 minutes short of 30 minutes for the lower grades. The 5 mins. is to allow exits and entrances of each group.
bringing one or two kids up on stage to do some 'volunteer" work is always a hit. Be sure you are always on a stage. Nothing is worse than that the kids can't see what you are doing. Then they get restless and you start to lose control. We have done almost a thousand schools through the years, and this formula works well. -
Check to see if Florida has a Young Audiences program. They handle all the booking and paperwork and finances (for a percentage, of course) and all you do is show up and perform.Comment
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Step 1. Get a mailing list of school principals in your area.
Step 2. When booking the show, ask the school principal if they would write a letter if they are happy with your show. Not a generic letter, but a personalised letter to the school principals on your list.
Step 3. Do show and WOW them.
Step 4. Get letter, correct spelling and grammer errors! Have it INDIVIDUALLY ADDRESSED to the other school principals, on the school letterhead, mailed in the school envelope. Dear Principal John Smith, Dear Principal Mary Jones, etc. You do all the work: set up the printing and mailing.
Step 5. Answer the phone.
Step 6. Repeat with the new schools, using their letterhead and envelope.
Step 7. Repeat again with the new schools.
When a principal gets 3 letters from 3 different school principals about your act, They are going to want to judge your act for themselves. And will call you to find out where they can see you perform, or to book you.
You can do this with festivals, churches, etc. A lot of work but effective.
[ 08-09-2003: Message edited by: Stretch ]</p>Comment
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Yes! The letters! Excellent advice.Comment
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