How should I market this?

[gabe]

Hey, so i'm going to send out a proposal to many attractions around my area offering laser animations and possibly beam shows as a seasonal thing (like baseball stadiums and amusement parks) It would be a REALLY new idea for the area, But i'm not really sure how the best way to "convince" them that Paying me to come in and do laser projections and possibly images for their whole seasons.

This could be a basic question, but hey, I wanted your guys ideas!

Thanks!

[dnar]

Personally, I would not flood the market with your proposal.

Rather, I would try and target just a few places, try to get a foot in and do your magic. Stage 2 is automatic then, you create a buzz and need for your services.

[gabe]

Yeah, I mean i'm not going to send it to a million places, but there are a few that I would like to propose to.

I just want to make sure I don't mess up and loose a potential client.

The thing is I DON'T have the equipment to do this size events and would have to convince the places to invest in the equipment to actually do it all.
Though i have the smaller equipment to give a demonstration.

[gottaluvlasers]

Gabe-

You will do yourself and the industry a HUGE disservice if you market for business that you can not perform. There is no need to try and market yourself as a huge laser company that can do stadiums and big sprting events. Do not offer services that you can not provide.

It took me and most other companies YEARS to do small shows to save up and begin doing big shows with bigger equipment. Not to mention, the fist shows you do SHOULD NOT be large capacity shows for important events where a mistake can ruin you before you even get going.

There i sno shame in starting small. Earn a reputation as a good Laser artist that performs good and safe shows. You will be surprised how the rest falls into place.

-Marc

[dsli_jon]

Earn a reputation as a good Laser artist that performs good and safe shows. You will be surprised how the rest falls into place.

..Boy, does *that* sound familiar! ..Listen to this Man, Gabe - he's done a great-job of growing from only rocking his living-room, to rocking 20K-seat stadium gigs... Just waiting to hear about that 'CT-Lasers Ibiza' gig...

.But seriously - HOMEWORK, HOMEWORK, HOMEWORK!!! See if you can do some interning / 'shadowing' with a larger-Co. and 'see how they do it'.... Join ILDA, as an 'indi-member' / ask questions of other Sho Co's. / study thier work / marketing, etc... And, when you're ready to 'strike your own match', you'll already have gained quite a bit-more 'street-wisdom'...

..Oh, and - to answer your question ... PICTURES!!! Nothing-sells laser shows, like great pictures... but of your OWN WERK... ..and, if ya don't have any shows racked-up, yet, well - clean out yer garage / etc, fog it up, and take some beam / aerials-shots / set-up a scrim, fer graphics... heck - go to SELEM, bring your rig, and take shots of *your shows* - that's a performance! (...just don't go saying 'it was for 10K peeps', and you'll be fine...) - awesome pictures - even if from in yer garage - will be your best-salesman... but again, to back Marc-comments - sell ONLY to-your capability, do your homework, first, and... then go have some fun..

Not to mention, the fist shows you do SHOULD NOT be large capacity shows for important events

...Indeed, 'fisting-shows' for a large crowd can be quite a 'game changer'...but usually not 'for the 'better'... jk...

peas..
j

[astatic]

I agree with gottaluvlasers, be aware that you don't take to much risks in selling a big show which went wrong because of less experience and not the wright equipment.
let me clear that i'm entering this business and as a starting business it's hard to find your customers.
You have to be creative, don't search to far away from your surrounding, go back to the roots and try to get some small customers.
Try to make some small introducing shows in your garage and go to a potential customer to show them.
During the economical crisis you have to work on your selling skills, when the customers have "enough" money to spend it's a lot easier to sell a show.
I can imagine that the today's budget during the economical crisis isn't that good at the moment but you have to be creative now to get your customers!
What i do is (don't tell to anyone else!!!) give some free shows, do a show for a wedding or a school, the show will cost you money but if you do a nice show people will talk about it and they will remember you when the economy is getting better!

Bart

[gabe]

Maybe I said this the wrong way. What I want to do is more on the "install" kind of idea.

You don't purpose a lighting set up for a club after you buy the gear, and that's the idea.

I'm not talking about doing like 10 watt beam shows, just projections of logos or things like that.

Where I am, all the other "smaller" (what I would say smaller as in 3b) shows are just not there, there is ONE big club and not a lot of others. Not a lot of shows come through that I could possibly work on, and I think this might be one of the only options left.

If anyone has any more ideas for me i'd like to hear them!

[Bradfo69]

So, if I'm understanding this correctly, you want to go into a venue (baseball park, area attraction, whatever) demonstrate your laser to them and then sell them on the concept of your doing an installation there and having them pay for the equipment you're proposing to install. Are you planning on running the shows? Or, are you planning on trying to train someone to run them for you? Where are you on the scale of having any idea what an installation really involves? Electrical, legal, insurance, trussing, sound reinforcement, book keeping, trucking and shipping, atmosphere systems (haze/fog) and providing them with an ongoing supply, your own sources for what it is you're trying to sell, desktop publishing and marketing, taxes, etc. How about the artistic part and, the software familiarity of creating custom frames/logos? What happens when Sally bumps it with the broomstick handle cleaning up one night and they turn it on the next day and it's pointed right towards the audience?

I'm in no way knocking the ambition or idea, nor do I know anything about you or your background. I'm in the process of having a large system installed at my venue and, dealing with electrical requirements, water requirements, code restrictions, CDRH paperwork, how I'm going to market it etc. And... when I think about everything that would be involved in what it sounds like your contemplating, it's an enormous task.

Maybe a little more background on your ideas? And your experience?

Again not knocking you but, you want to be very good at grammar and spelling if you're dealing with businesses and lots of money. "purposal" versus "proposal" in your last reply is what I'm talking about. I make typos as much as the next person but, make sure you proof read EVERYTHING before it goes to a potential client.

[gabe]

You have my idea just about perfectly.
I would be the operator either until they want to have someone else do it, (and I train them sufficiently) or whatever. I feel as though I have the knowledge to do what is needed to be done. The baseball stadium for an example. They have a big wall across from most of the seating and there is no seating above or below the wall. Across from the wall though is most of the seating and all the press boxes and all of that. My idea for the stadium is to set up the laser in one of the press boxes or one of those rooms across from the wall. I would prepare special frames and animations for the games and go and operate it. No Haze or anything is in order and the size of the stadium doesn't require lasers so powerful that I need water cooling or anything like that. Along with no special power needed.

And yeah with spelling, places like this its like if I were to put my hand on the keyboard and just drag it back and forth, but when dealing with professional business its always a big concern.

[Bradfo69]

I see a problem with a baseball stadium. A couple actually. Whether minor league or whatever, there is STILL going to be anywhere from 350-450 feet I would think from where your projector is to where you're projecting to. While it is true you don't need haze for graphics, at that distance, you're still going to need a lot of power. I have taken a 3 watt rgb outside and played it against the side of the building where I work at night and was very surprised at how dim the image was at a couple hundred feet as compared to being inside the ballroom. In addition, to shine that far, divergence IS going to happen with solid state stuff. Eventually your graphics will become mush. Even in my 100 foot long ballroom, the image begins to degrade a little as compared at 50 feet.

In addition, light is necessary for baseball. Whether daylight or night games under lights, you still have LOTS of ambient light to contend with. The cost of a solid state projector with enough power to make it the wow factor you want (and your client will expect) is more prohibitive than anything in Maine can contend with. (NO offense... you're talking about MLB New York, Atlanta, Los Angeles money. Which leads you to a gas laser. Gas will give you the beam quality you need and the power the client can potentially afford BUT... that brings big electric, water cooling, and a whole lot of things into the equation. Plus... you need a source of equipment. Could you find a reasonably priced used ION that will work for their needs? Probably. But, can you guarantee it? We as hobbiests pick them up for $1000 here, $2000 there, after they're along in life but remember, someone picked up the $50,000+ bill on that sucker when it was new and, it wasn't us! That means you have to find the client the laser... hope it's got low mileage... have some way to guarantee or fix it if something goes wrong.

Unless I'm not quite understanding your layout of the stadium, I think it's a bit ambitious to consider. Just my .02.
dsli_jon can add more about that than I can and I suspect he will here.

You mentioned amusement parks.... describe what your vision might be there, as it might afford better opportunities than a baseball stadium.

[Bradfo69]

Try an experiment... take whatever you're using for a projector and set it up somewhere (safely) where you can display a graphic on a big wall outside from even 150 feet out and look at it both in day light and at night as see what I mean. That might help you determine what's possible to do. I think it will surprise you. It did me!

Also try to estimate what might be needed in a baseball stadium to give the "wow" factor and what the client would have to pay to get it. That 10 watts you referred to might be more realistic than you imagined.

edit... and 10 watts of Viasho 532 from CT lasers for example is $13,000 for just the head. Probably closer to $20-$25,000 once built into a legal varianced projector. (Hummm....actually...that's not so bad. Maybe I need one. KIDDING!)

[gabe]

Its all just an idea since there isn't much work for the "usual" laser light show around here. The amusement parks would be a better idea, because its darker all over the place there (at night of course) the amusement park use to have a running laser light show a LONG time ago until the company that did it went under, maybe I can convince them to bring it back , but that is just another idea.

[gabe]

and i will go out and try some distance tests with my half watt!

[Bradfo69]

Exploring options that might work at the amusement park might be a better thought. It's been said before but don't bite off more than you can chew. I've thought about halloween shows at a place near me called Frightland that's open on the weekends in October. A friend of mine is the house DJ there and since it's all open air at night, he is there playing music and running videos for people who may be standing in line for an hour for a fantastic haunted hayride. It all benefits lukemia and the set up there would lend itself extremely well to some halloween laser graphic shows that could be done with reasonable projector power, 110volt, and very safely. And, a show variance should be in my future. NO one is allowed near the DJ stage, screen area and there is already a mounted weatherproof box about 10 feet high for holding a regular LCD projector. I'm just not into standing around out in the cold every weekend night in October!

[Bradfo69]

Another thought... and one I need to think about too. Backups. You get a client to invest in your system and a galvo takes a dump or the green suddenly isn't working one night and then you've got to scramble to make good on their investment. Not only do you need the system you sold but, you'd better have another readily available to put into service at a moments notice. Ka-ching!

[planters]

After reading thru this back and forth I have the strong impression that your goals, gabe, do not AT THE PRESENT match your capabilities. I'm not suggesting that you change your goals. They sound exciting. But, you minimize, even trivialize significant issues that with some hands on experience you would understand better. Earlier, bradfo raised a long list of must do tasks that gives me the shivers and that's for a venue he is already familiar with. Chances are that an organization that ultimately does instal lasers will shop for an installer/support co. that has a good reputation and this requires more than just access to equipment. At the scale your suggesting they will do extensive market research and are much more likely to contract with co. such as DAYSTAR or C.T. LASERS who have a presence in the N.E. Before you go any further, you need to get more experience. Who knows, you may not even like it and would be happier just continuing to operate as an amateur.

[dsli_jon]

..Again, still a bit 'cart before the horse'... ..Yes, good that you are asking, here, before, ie: just going-out and *selling* a show / install, then coming back here, and streaming OMGHELPMEEEEE!!!!.. like anyone would even owe you a kleenex..
..
So, kudos on your doing first-layer of 'homework', here, but - still - why not go out, and research, what potential-venues might possibly be #1, able to have an install, there, both from the 'safety' standpoint, - ie: is that 'stadium' near flight-approach-paths / w/in 2 miles of an airport? Sometimes, even-if 'terminated' the FAA will say 'sorry, but no..' cause, they will evaluate based-on 'worst-case scenario' (ie: galvo-fail, etc...) and from a 'practicality' standpoint (..yes, as-was astutely pointed-out, ambient-light levels, viewing-angles, etc, etc) - evaluate *these* factors, and, if still 'looking-good' then...

#2, evaluate the value to the Client - what is the benefit, to-them / their market? Can you, at least somewhat, prove it? (provide other similar-examples / case-studies of their 'type' of install, benefits / gains, etc..), etc, etc - THEN - THEN, you can begin to evaluate 'what gear is needed', and power-levels, etc, and, then which projector / system, would 'fit the bill' / meet the targeted-goals of the install / Clients' needs, etc - these types of ventures are about *so* much more than just 'what box do I use / how much lazor-power'...

Anyhoo, I think you 'get it', ya? '..HOMEWORK, mahboy, Homework!'...

peas..
j