*clap hands like maniac*

Couldn't have said it better myself

Stam

If its money your after making, wrestling aint the business to be in, unless you have a shed load of cash as an initial investment. Hiring everything in can cost around the 2K mark for something very basic.

Also some actual knowledge in promoting. Anyone can walk around the streets and stick a few posters up, we normally spend a full day and evening postering. (I never thought of actually dropping bundles of flyers in places - thanks for that (even I am still learning)). The thing is when postering you have to look smart and be very polite. There are other tricks that can be used to get posters up in shops. One other thing though, this is something a concert promoter told me, poster factories, and office blocks. Most of them will put a poster up in the canteen.

Adverting is the key to a sucessful show, this is where the expense comes into it. You need at least 1 good sized advert (Not an article) per local paper. If people don't know your show is on, they can not see it. If you can get plugs on radio, tv and papers thats just a bonus.

Finally, we have invested thousands of pounds in wZw and we are not expecting to make a profit for at least 18 months. The first show we hired everything in drew nearly 250 people and lost a lot of money. This is the reality of promoting. Don't expect to fill a 800 seater venue on your first show. It aint gonna happen. Also joe public who buy tickets don't know one British wrestler from an other. (Well very few do, as the market research i did proves).

Anyone can be a promoter, but to make a sucess of it, you need to get £££ signs out of your eyes, be prepared to loose a lot of money. I do it because I enjoy it and its a long term business plan. I went into it green and thought I could sell out, hell 200 posters, 4,000 flyers, radio interview, 9 newspaper adverts, 2 newspaper interviews how could I go wrong, I did and luckilly I had the cash to see me through. If I hads relied on the gate, i would have been in big trouble!!


Just my thoughts and opinions

Gary

This thread is fast turning into a keeper.. the bit about postering in works canteens is another great idea.

How about local gyms? The gym I train at for example has huge numbers of people coming though the doors (including a lot of wrestling fans.. the local gym was the place me and my mates always used to watch WWF television and PPVs after workouts when I was growing up) and a perfectly good members' noticeboard, that'd be a good place. You'd definitely have to emphasise the legitimate athletic side of the product, though.. something like the old Oric Williams tribute posters would get pissed on within seconds of going up (they were so bad they were hilarious.. "The Rock" looked like a middle aged, overweight Delboy in a Black Lace-_style_ Hawian shirt and "Kane" was a beanpole in a frightwig; I guess anyone who went to the show thinking they were getting the McCoy after seeing that poster deserves all they get).

all great ideas.... But do you know what the best form of advertising is??? I know flyers were mentioned.... However, I feel that they have been overlooked just a tad. You can have one big mother of a poster gracing the most looked at part of your town.... Then, people have a choice when they see the word WRESTLING (promoters, remember to use this word on all of your work, I have seen many posters from many promotions with WRESTLING in [/size] small print)[size=2] Anyway, they can look at it and take the information in or just plain ignore it. Flyers are a different breed. From my experience, put in a little leg work and you'll be fine. Hand them to all (you need about 10'000 flyers to do the job). Kids will give you the "mommy, daddy, can we go"? factor, Teens and adults will air their veiws and make a choice should we go? or shouldn't we? either way, they have part of your organisation as a keeper.

true, they could just throw it away. But, flyers are the most direct and purest form (aside from word of mouth) of advertising you can get. Flyers come at a price though. You can pick up around 10'000 flyers for £200 - £300. A high price, but worth it.


Stam

It's also worth thinking about the old 'flyers under windshield wipers' technique, which saves time handing them out. You also tend to get an average of two or three people in a car, so you increase your exposure per leaflet.

Ideally you'd do it at a WWE event, but anywhere your target audience is likely to be parked is worth a try, e.g. outside a bowling alley for kids and teenagers, outside a boxing event for serious sports fans. I wouldn't recommend doing it outside another promoter's show though!

Yeah, other promoter's shows sounds like the most fun :wink: . But windscreens sound good too.

This has fast turned in to the promoter's forum!!!

Stam