I went to a business conference in Brighton yesterday. There were people of all ages, some with blue hair, some with purple, one with blonde hair that faded from pale blue to purple. Gorgeous! A bearded man stood up after a lecture in the Dome Corn Exchange, and when his trousers slipped down to reveal his entire be-panted bottom, he paused for a moment, considered, and left the trousers down. We were under strict instructions from the organisers to celebrate the geek, both within and without, so I managed to restrain myself from reaching over and pulling them up for him. I’m a geek and a mother; that was hard!
Yes, it was Brighton, but what could this wonderful business world be that attracted such luminous butterflies and their pants?
SEO. Heard of it? Many of the people outside of the digital bubble haven’t. As I was lunching in the Chilli Pickle (fabulous, thank you – I recommend the ribs with a vegetable curry, roti and chapatti on the side and a beautifully crisp glass of house white. You’re welcome!) a lady next to me asked what my lanyard was. She’d seen a lot of them about. I said SEO – the internet, web content, Google. She looked blank. “Search Engine Origami!” I said. She grinned. “Well I’ve heard of the origami.”
Search Engine Optimization is basically making the text, pictures and layout of your website work so that you come up in Google searches. Here’s the Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_optimization
If it sounds complicated, that’s because it kind of is. It talks about VISIBILITY. In comedy terms, that’s your public profile:
- Have people heard about you?
- Can they find out about you? Easily?
- Is what they hear good?
- Can they see a picture of you?
- Perhaps a video?
- Do they know where you’re playing next, and how to get there?
- Why would they WANT to come and see you?
And if that sounds obvious, that’s also because it kind of is. And that’s where I come in: complicated and obvious – ta daaa!
Having helped with the London Sketch Festival, I’m now working on shows in the Brighton Fringe and the Edinburgh Festival. It’s advertising and poster time at the moment. Here’s an ad I’m doing for a Charity Chuckle show with Just the Tonic.
YOU are your business. Business professionals employ experts: if you want comedy to be your business, it makes sense to employ Stand-Up Marketing to do the tedious and the time-consuming. That way, you can spend more of your time making the show as brilliant as brilliant can be.
What can Stand-Up Marketing do for you?
As a client, the plan is to create a 360˚marketing strategy that will get results, with agreed targets and a budget. From the mundane to the mad, we’ve done it all: filled in endless online listings forms, revised websites to get them up the rankings, made feedback notes on shows, arranged publicity stunts and flashmobs, got comedians into Film Festivals, pulled in radio interviews and bloggers, turned ticket sales around with online ads, designed great flyers that people DIDN’T stick straight in the bin, created press releases with results, garnering great quotes that could be used again and again, such as with Charmian Hughes: “She could be Josie Long’s mum” – Chortle.
Stand-Up Marketing can also manage and produce professional Comedy Events.
And if a comedian drops out, Kerry’s got a mean 5 minutes.
Check the Testimonials in WHY STAND-UP MARKETING?
Stand-Up Marketing 