| If you're organizing an event and worried that | | | | heartbroken if you do move on. |
| booking a celebrity to attend will invariably end up | | | | The way round this is to use an established |
| being a disastrous blunder like Katie Price's | | | | entertainment agency. A consultant working for an |
| appearance in this year's I'm a Celebrity, then fear | | | | entertainment agency will have both the connections |
| not. With some thought, planning and savvy rumor | | | | and leverage to properly negotiate the attendance of |
| seeding, you can create real hype and intrigue around | | | | your desired celebrity. Aside from doing the leg-work |
| your event. | | | | in sourcing and hiring the best celebrity for your |
| First off, you want to think about the connection | | | | event, the other key advantage of using an |
| between the celebrity and the event. Envision the | | | | entertainment agency is that they haves tons of |
| ideal tone of your event and think about personalities | | | | experience with running events. They know what |
| that will reinforce it. If you're hoping for a social yet | | | | makes an event work, and can make suggestion on |
| focused and businesslike environment, the cutting | | | | how to make it memorable and even work with you |
| sound of Lee Evans impersonating a Chicken on stilts | | | | to turn new ideas into reality. |
| will probably sabotage this mood - much better to | | | | Lastly, once you have the celebrity booked, the |
| have a personality like Adrian Chiles, who you could | | | | temptation is to mention it at every opportunity and |
| trust to lighten proceedings without offending or | | | | cover the promotional material with the celebrity's |
| going schizophrenic on your guests! | | | | name. This can work if you're certain the celebrity's |
| Once you've thought through some realistic options, | | | | name alone will generate hype. However, it can be |
| the next step is seeing who you can land. When | | | | more effective to avoid making anything official and |
| booking a celebrity for an event, it is possible to | | | | instead circulating a rumour. If the event you're |
| cold-approach the celebrity's agent. This can work if | | | | planning is not a media/PR event, it's likely that your |
| you've got connections with the relevant agents or | | | | attendees - and guest they're likely to bring - are |
| enough experience with booking acts to know how | | | | part of a social network. Take advantage of this! Ask |
| much the service of a given celebrity is worth. The | | | | a couple of 'connected' people to surreptitiously |
| problem is most people don't and many agents are | | | | mention that they've heard X celebrity is attending. |
| opportunists. If they sense you don't know, they can | | | | Ideally you want one person (or people, depending |
| easily quote you too much, call it the standard price | | | | on the scale) whistle-blowing in person and another |
| and say "take it or leave it". Leaving you in a position | | | | person to make similar noises on Twitter and |
| where you either pay up, or move on. Agents get so | | | | Facebook. This lack of certainly will soon spread, |
| many offers; they probably won't be too | | | | which is good for intrigue and intrigue leads to action! |
