How do I promote sales for this Cage Fight?

[keith204]

Never done a cage fight. I know the guy in charge of this, and that's how I got hooked up with this. I'm not concerned about the quality of pictures. I think it'll be great, and I can get some killer shots.

HOWEVER, how do I promote sales? Since this is a one-time event, it's not something that can build weekly where more and more people find out about it at each event...

I don't know any of the fighters...

What should I do to promote picture sales?

I have business cards with my web address
I will be posting them to my SmugMug Pro.
The promoter will link his "Photo Gallery" link directly to my website for the promotion.


How else can I promote this?

 

[smcaskil]

I am sure there will be concession stands and merchandise tables setup to sell t-shirts, etc. Place business cards there, if you can get plastic holders for them so they stay put so much better. You can print something out that explains that you are taking action photos of the match and will have them available for sale would be great.

 

[Sideburns]

business cards all over the place.

See if you can get on the pamphlet of the fight (I'm assuming they have one..like the "program" or whatever).

Just get as many cards and flyers out as possible.

 

[keith204]

Super, makes sense... thanks! I'll get a couple hundred copies of fliers, and bring a box of business cards.

 

[Iron Flatline]

Put your website or name or whatever in BIG LETTERS on your back.

Cut out an old T-Shirt, write on that, pin it to your back.

Print cheap post cards, hand them out to everyone.

FIGHT PICS

RACE PICS

W3BOLIVAR.COM

 

[smcaskil]

Following flatline's advice, if you are going to be doing this often, get an account at www.cafepress.com and get some t-shirts / sweatshirts / hats made up with your logo on them.

Free advertising and it makes you look more professional.

 

[keith204]

Flatline, I like the way you simply phrased "FIGHT PICS" It sounds aggressive, intimidating, and 'go-get-em'. Seems like that would work very well for this type of event.

smcaskil, thanks for the link to CafePress. Good plan!

 

[smcaskil]

I did that with my website and a friend of mine who wears one of the sweatshirts gets asked about it all the time. Easy way to drive traffic to the site.

 

[JerryPH]

HOWEVER, how do I promote sales? Since this is a one-time event, it's not something that can build weekly where more and more people find out about it at each event...

I don't know any of the fighters...

The best way to do ANYTHING is to follow the method of someone that succeeds at it.

In your case...

Get to know the fighters!
- find out if any train locally, visit them and arrange for some pics of them while training or sparring.

- talk to the promoters of this event, take their pics, find out if this is something tha happened before or may happen again. They are also your greatest source of info about specifics like fighters, location, expectations, etc...

- see if you can set up a shoot between the fighters in a press conference environment. This promotes the event, brings in people and other commercial opportuities for you (hand out cards!)

- the #1 way you are going to succeed at this is to cultivate one skill almost above the photography... and thats how to network. The more people that know about you and that like you as a person and photographer the better your chances at success.

 

[keith204]

WOW so exciting. I can't describe how high my blood pressure was while photographing this cage fight

I'm currently sifting through about 1500 pictures I took tonight.

PUBLICITY:

When I got there, I found out that the promoter did not let ANY other photographers in the event. NO local news groups were allowed to take pictures. He did this so they would go through me. WOW.

In fact, a guy on the balcony was taking pictures with his little P&S. The security guards asked me if the guy was with me, and I said no. The security guards took care of him . THEN, I found that when the guards would see other people pulling out their P&S cameras, they'd tell them they'd be thrown out if they took another pic!

SO the pressure is on! I am PUMPED about the pics I Got. Tons of publicity, unreal. Somebody else wants to book me for another cage fight sometime in January (don't know if I will or not, we'll see how sales go).

I printed off gobs of flyers, and ran out. Gave out gobs of business cards. For the flyers, I used the simple yet effective idea from IronFlatline of FIGHT PICS. Simple and bold and gets the point across to this type of crowd.

EQUIP
My 70-200 2.8 completely blurred out the fence.
My 50 1.8 fit in the fence
My 24 1.8 was a bit wide and AF wasn't quite fast enough, and it didn't blur out the fence as much. Also, there was significant lens flare from all the flashing lights and effect lights everywhere.
My 17-85IS... woohoo, my lens of choice for tonight (well the pics looked ok on my 3" screen...we'll see what happens blown up) Though the aperture is small, it was nice to be able to zoom out wider. the 50 and 70-200 were just too far for such closeness.

FLASH:
on a bracket, 430EX. Worked real nicely, couldn't complain at all.

FUTURE EQUIP: If sales go well, I may get a wider 2.8 ZOOM lens. Whether it's the Sigma 24-70 2.8, or something else (suggestions?) but there are a few other cage fights like this coming up, and I could see myself getting called for those.

People were dying for pictures. I can't wait to get them up. I'll post on here once I do! One of the most fun things I've done ever! I even got to be in the cage during the announcement of winners, and belt awards! Now that was intense! All the time, I was being asked for a card, or to take pictures of a group of people. Super fun!

Thanks everybody for the advice, you guys have always been good to me on this forum!

 

[JerryPH]

MMA and photography... 2 of my own hobbies. Put me in the ring and I would not know if I should shoot a pic or shoot and take the guy down!

Glad that you enjoyed the experience. MMA in a cage or ring is always a blast! Looking forward to seeing a few of your pics.

 

[keith204]

 

[Sideburns]

WOW. I knew you could shoot racing really well...but the angles and shots you got on the fight are awesome. Congrats! I hope you make it huge!

 

[keith204]

Thanks for the compliments! All pictures are here: http://keith204.smugmug.com/Events/430607

This was a real fun event. It would be cool to sometime be able to have weekends booked to drive different places and shoot big events.

 

[keith204]

Well, I just today got a request to be the official photographer at more cage fights. That is pretty neat. Can't wait to see what kind of deal we can work out there. Now I badly want a second body so I can use my 70-200 to get wicked awesome up-close shots, without having to switch lenses to get the wider ones.

I saw some good cage fight pics last night. Some real good ones. Then I read that the guy was using his 10fps camera and just loading up his cards like nobody's business, to get a few keepers. Sounds like cheating, but whatever sells I guess.

But anyway, I was real excited to hear the offer for more cage fights... the guy who is in charge of them said "Yeah the local photographer wants to get in on this, but after seeing how professional you were and your pictures, you were first on my list."

I don't think he knows that was my first cage fight Oh well, I can take even better pictures at the next one...can't wait! Sure hope everything works out.