If you’re in events, you’re in the business of creating memorable experiences, and inspiring both leaders and future leaders across your relative industries.

Celebrities have always played a role in helping create memorable events — as speakers, performers, motivational acts — but they’re now playing an even greater role than ever as consumption patterns evolve and modern culture wrestles with massive communication changes, serving as arbiters of taste, style, and public opinion all over the world.

And with so much competition, what’s most essential for corporations and brands is authenticity: if the pairing of an event with a celebrity is perceived to be an authentic one, that celebrity can lend credibility to an event and influence the emotional bond between the event and its audience.

In order to help you find and successfully book the perfect celebrity for your events, we caught up with leading celebrity music talent agent Rhys Paynting – Senior Bookings & Talent Agent at Lucky Agency, to get some tips on how to make an enquiry and lock away the talent you need!

We’ve also thrown in some additional golden nuggets …

What piece(s) of information is the most helpful when receiving a booking enquiry for talent on your roster?

Rhys -Apart from the obvious key information such as timing, budget, role and the reason or theme of the event, it is always helpful to know who the audience or guests will be at the event (the number and demographic) so that our talent can get a sense of who they would be performing to.

If I’m running an event and would like a celebrity DJ, how should I know what to budget? Is there a starting point?

Rhys -If the budget isn’t set, then the starting point is to ask for ball park fees and make it clear that the event is at budget planning not booking stage.

We often talk to event organisers in the early stages of planning and provide rough estimates based on their initial project plan or give them a range of price options.

The next step is go back to agents/managers and provide as much detail as possible for a firmer quote. Rates vary depending on many factors including the demand for the talent, role, if there is travel and rehearsal time involved, if promotional usage of any content featuring the talent is desired, if the talent is required to provide any special content for the appearance.

Establish If You’ll Want Promo With Your Appearance

We often encounter event organizers who expect promotional materials from the talent for their event, such as promo videos, some social posts, etc. assuming it is included in the fee. It’s important to note not to expect anything that wasn’t stated during the booking process. If promo is going to be necessary, let the agent know so that they may adjust the fee accordingly.

At what stage should I discuss additional requirements, such as promotional material (social media or other)?

Rhys -Everything involved in the booking should be listed in the initial booking request. Any desire for promotional materials, social media posts or activities other than the event appearance itself, should be part of the initial brief. One important reason for this is that some talent have restrictions on their promotional/social activities if other brands or sponsors are involved.

Also, if these activities are added to the brief after the talent accepts the engagement, then these activities may be subject to a further fee negotiation or the talent withdrawing. It’s best to be clear up front so all expectations and any conflicts are understood.

Make Sure You’re Dealing With the Right Person

When googling a celebrity, various websites and names will pop up claiming to represent them. Doing your due diligence and making sure that you’re contacting the right person for your request will save you time, effort, and mostly, budget. acta does just that. Which is why it is proving to be an absolutely essential tool for a talent booker.

Will enquiring via multiple websites help to negotiate a lower fee?

Rhys -If we received the same booking request from a few websites or avenues, our fees would remain consistent. Our clients have fee expectations for levels of work that we stick to and quote.

If there are fee variations it won’t be discounts but rather some may be adding on middle step fees that make them appear more expensive to others.

Make Sure Your Celebrity suits your Brand/Event

It’s not uncommon for clients to book celebrity talent for their event just based on availability or popularity, without too much consideration for the audience / attendees.

Having a good understanding of your audience will go a long way to completing a successful booking. i.e what is the average age of the attendees, where are they all from, and the industry they work in.

Booking an MC, performer, or speaker around the same age, and potentially even from the same city, will mean that you’ll be able to make that appearance or performance more relevant and meaningful.

Can you give us a couple final pointers on how talent bookers could improve when dealing with talent agents?

Rhys -To provide the best service for the client, having all of the information finalised in advance is crucial as it can be hard to manage last-minute amendments such as setlist change requests or call sheets at the 11th hour when the talent has no time to review and prepare.

Also having talent booked well in advance but no communication on event status or if it cancelled– it’s always good to check in from time to time in the lead-up with any event updates, or just to touch base. Trust me, we have had talent on hold and deposits paid but the events have sometimes been cancelled or postponed and we are none the wiser to release the date from the diary.

Finally… Don’t Be Shy and Give it A Go!

This may all seem like a lot to take in, but being organised and having all the above decided on prior to enquiring, your booking process will be seamless! It may seem intimidating at first, but don’t be shy and reach out to introduce yourself and the event as concisely as possible. With acta simplifying the process and offering complete privacy and security for all parties, they’ll be in touch shortly!

If you’re using acta, the above process will be even more simplified. All of acta signed talent and agents have been vetted by our team and you can feel confident that you are speaking to the talent’s true and exclusive representative, and that all of the information your receive is legitimate. You can browse a variety of talent from various genres including Jimmy Barnes, Hamish & Andy, Natalie Bassingthwaighte and Havana Brown, and you’ll have the ability to see what appearances they’re accustomed to doing, and to chat and negotiate with their agents.

Finally, for talent bookers, the platform has been made mobile responsive, which is crucial to their organiser which operates within a real time environment on event day. The App mirrors the web platform so, it hosts all of your booking details as well as all of your event and talent logistical, production and performance documentation with a notification system which alerts all parties to a booking and ensures that everyone is kept on the same page, at all times.

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