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Promo giveaways for a cover band

#23
Chango Malo said:
OK, fine. First best promo I ever did:

I had a buddy who worked for a long haul LTL trucking company. His job was to deal with busted/ruined freight; figure out who was at fault, settle with insurance companies, dispose of wrecked merchandise. One day he sends me a message that he had a box of 'adult toys' of various sizes that had been written off and would I like them as a joke give-away promo. He's the guy that hooked us up with a few cases of shotglasses as well. He was busting my chops but to get back at him I said "yeah, how much?" Turned out they were a total write-off and if I picked them up that afternoon it was free. Seems the only other way to get them off the property was by dumpster. So I drove over there to pick up what I thought was a box of vibrators.

Wrong. Oh so wrong.

it was a PALLET of vibrators.

550 to be exact. From the size of a bic lighter up to a small banana. So I called the guy who had printed up the shot glasses and asked if he could print the band logo on hard plastic tubes of various sizes. He said he could, discount if it was all the same logo. So I dropped off 50 boxes of various sized implements and he just about died laughing. Two weeks later they were ready to go. We gave them out as freebies with the nightly drink special (cosmopolitans. don't judge us, it was 2002) for the next few weeks. Anyone who bought the drink special could come up to the front of the stage, reach in the box and grab a present. We thought that we would find them all over the club at the end of the night and promised Katy the bar manager that we would pick up any implements to be found. Lo and behold we never found anything. Nada. Not a thing. They lasted for three weekends and we were out. Funny thing is we were asked for the next couple years if we had any vibrators to give away nearly every gig.
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Solid gold. :thumbsup:
 
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#24
electracoyote said:
Getting stuck with sizes that don't sell is an issue.

The more reputable print shops will tell you what % or quantity of each size to order to ensure they move as quickly as possible.
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We deal only with disreputable vendors. We’re cheap. In many respects, now that I think about it. :D
 
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#26
REV said:
Aimed at women? One word. Panties. With your bands name on them. Here's what you do. Every once in awhile during your set, you throw out a pair of panties. Wrap them up so they are easier to throw. Mixed in with all the little ones put in one pair of gigantic ones. Ask the ladies to show them off when they catch them.
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So why did the bedroom scene from Shallow Hal pop into my mind when I read this?
 
#29
Did giveaways with T-shirts and bumper stickers in a cover band several years ago. The recipients were almost exclusively women. We became very visable. Went from doing 40 shows a year to about 120 in a relatively short time. Most all were top notch venues with packed houses. Lot of private events, corporate and otherwise, and outdoor festival type events as well.

Shirts were black with our logo back and front. We autographed them with silver Sharpies whenever possible. Body parts were autographed in black.

We had two size bumper stickers....one regular bumper sticker size and the other about half that size. I saw them on everything from cars to laptops to Harleys and anything in between.

If the band is producing quality music, people eat the promo stuff up and the promotion they do with your stuff is far more valuable than trying to make a profit on a few shirts.

I was in a music store about 4 months ago and saw one of our bumper stickers on a filing cabinet. The band broke up in 2012.

I think it worked for us.
 
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#30
Chango Malo said:
OK, fine. First best promo I ever did:

I had a buddy who worked for a long haul LTL trucking company. His job was to deal with busted/ruined freight; figure out who was at fault, settle with insurance companies, dispose of wrecked merchandise. One day he sends me a message that he had a box of 'adult toys' of various sizes that had been written off and would I like them as a joke give-away promo. He's the guy that hooked us up with a few cases of shotglasses as well. He was busting my chops but to get back at him I said "yeah, how much?" Turned out they were a total write-off and if I picked them up that afternoon it was free. Seems the only other way to get them off the property was by dumpster. So I drove over there to pick up what I thought was a box of vibrators.

Wrong. Oh so wrong.

it was a PALLET of vibrators.

550 to be exact. From the size of a bic lighter up to a small banana. So I called the guy who had printed up the shot glasses and asked if he could print the band logo on hard plastic tubes of various sizes. He said he could, discount if it was all the same logo. So I dropped off 50 boxes of various sized implements and he just about died laughing. Two weeks later they were ready to go. We gave them out as freebies with the nightly drink special (cosmopolitans. don't judge us, it was 2002) for the next few weeks. Anyone who bought the drink special could come up to the front of the stage, reach in the box and grab a present. We thought that we would find them all over the club at the end of the night and promised Katy the bar manager that we would pick up any implements to be found. Lo and behold we never found anything. Nada. Not a thing. They lasted for three weekends and we were out. Funny thing is we were asked for the next couple years if we had any vibrators to give away nearly every gig.
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:roflmao::roflmao::roflmao::roflmao:
Oh man, you’re killing me! Stretching out after work reading this and suddenly I’m doubled up in the fetal position from laughter. My wife wonders what’s going on so of course, I have to share. It took me five minutes to read through the post from laughing so much! Thank you for that anecdote.
ROTFFLMGDAO:roflmao:
 
#31
Hey, it could only happen to a guitar player. Somewhere on a thumbdrive I have picks of the band standing around an entire pallet of vibrators with the band logo on each one.
Glad you're entertained! You'd die if you knew the name of the band...
 
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#35
SoCal80s said:
...What do you think? Any other low-cost ideas?
Drink coasters
Silicone bracelets
Mardi Gras-style beads
Temporary tattoos
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These seem pretty good esp considering your target. To me the giveaways break down into two categories, fun factor, and keep factor, an item may or may not fill both. I always think the keep factor will keep your name in front of them longer, but if the fun factor is a big hit, that impression may last longer. Out of your list, I'd rate the Temp tattoos the lowest. Those inexpensive glow bracelets mentioned in another post would go over big I bet.

If you can pull it off, I'd get one giveaway and then also the drink coasters. Ask if you can leave some stacks of the coasters around the bar or on the tables when you set up for your gig.

zjanderson said:
What about custom printed sunglasses? I've seen other bands do this with pretty good success.
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Same here, they go over well. Seems like water/drink bottles are popular too, but any of these are getting up there in price. You might have these for sale, even it's just priced to recoup your cost. And then for any of the sale stuff like t-shirts, water bottles, etc, you could give one away at the end of each set to whoever danced the most, danced the "best", or whatever you can get away with! ;)
 
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#37
Remoman said:
To me the giveaways break down into two categories, fun factor, and keep factor, an item may or may not fill both. I always think the keep factor will keep your name in front of them longer, but if the fun factor is a big hit, that impression may last longer.
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Bingo. We try to hit both, so far I think the glow bracelets have been the best combo of fun/keep/not-too-expensive.

Re: sunglasses, we tried these too and in my experience they were really hit and miss. We'd find them laying about after shows and on several occasions were flat out rejected when we offered them to people. We finally got down to our last few pairs and decided to wear them to one of our most recent shows. Surprise, girls came and plucked them directly off our faces because they wanted them so much. Maybe we should've been doing that all along.
 
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#40
yeah been all through those links. you pretty much have to order 10000 pcs or you're paying 40-50 cents per. That's way too steep for a drink coaster that's going to get thrown out every time a table turns over.
 

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