DJ TIMES - Mobile of the Month - June 1996
The International Magazine for Professional DJs

For Hartford's Atmosphere, Getting Associated Helps
By Brian O'Connor, DJ Times

W. Hartford, Conn. - Fewer cities were hit harder by the early '90's economic recession than Hartford, the insurance capital of the Northeast. Oddly, one result of such economic misfortune was a marked increase in the number of mobile DJs, according to Sylvester Samuels, owner of Atmosphere Productions in West Hartford.

"We found that with the recession, the quality DJs were still getting a lot of work, but we also found that many of the laid-off people started DJing to make ends meet," says Samuels, who has been operating in the Hartford area since 1981. "We were getting a lot of bottom feeders. I would bid a job and get undercut $200 by someone who had very poor equipment."

In response, a frustrated Samuels allied himself with the upper echelon of Connecticut's mobile DJ operators, hoping the clientele would discover that a hierarchy of professionalism existed in the region. "In effect, the recession prompted me to become a member of the Connecticut Professional Disc Jockey Association," says Samuels, who joined the organization in 1994 and currently edits its newsletter [and is on the Board of Directors]. "Now that the economy is starting to pick up, we're finding a lot of those "bottom-feeder" DJs are gone. I've tracked Yellow Pages advertising for years, and it has gone down about 50 percent from what it was in the early 90's."

Samuels is unsure whether that is a sign of improved economic times or an indication that the disc jockey association helped squeeze out some nonprofessionals. Whatever the case, by joining an association Samuels polished the quality of his marketing efforts and his performances.

"When I first started Atmosphere Productions, I would run a few little advertisements in local papers, I would hand out lots of business cards to friends, and I would leave cards in shopping centers and stores," says Samuels, who started his company on a part-time basis in 1981 and went full-time in 1986.

"Like most DJs" he says, "I had always felt what I was doing was the right thing, but later I joined the DJ association and started going to the International DJ Expo, I realized that there was a lot of stuff that DJs were doing in other markets that I could fine tune for my market."

For his bridal clients - more than 80 percent of Atmosphere Productions gigs are wedding affairs - Samuels gets a mailing list from various bridal shows he attends, and direct mails every bride on the list. "It's a twofold strategy," explains Samuels. "I send every name on that list a "pre-mailer", which comes with a perforated card that the potential client can mail back, requesting further information about my company. From those cards, I'll mail a second package that has a full color brochure, a fact sheet explaining my service, and a couple of reference letters and a business card."

Samuels says he gets more than five percent response from the initial mailing - quite a lot of new non referral business, considering Samuels sends out more than 3,000 pieces in a year. But most of Samuels' business has come via word-of-mouth."

"Word of mouth is so very important," he says. "When I'm at an event, I make sure I talk to people. After the event, I send out a survey form to the client. I usually get about 75 percent of those back, and I make it easy for the client: With the survey I include a pen and a return envelope. On the survey for, among other things I ask the client if they can be used as a referral contact - more than 50 percent of my clients love to be contacted and say a few good words about what I've done. When I get these [surveys] back I put them into a binder and I use that binder to sell myself to the next client."

Seems to work, too. Samuels, along with his partner George Gray, performed at 300 parties [and other events] in 1995. "I don't cold call anyone," says Samuels. "I only use a small Yellow Pages listing - a very small percentage of my bookings are generated through the Yellow Pages. In the old days, it's where people went to find a DJ; now, there are marketing books specifically for brides, such as The Wedding Guide, and The I Do Book, and that's where I find the quality clients."

Samuels, like many savvy DJ companies, also finds quality leads at the various bridal shows he attends throughout the year. But Samuels goes one step further. He organizes a small bridal fair networking group. "I hook up two fellow vendors - a still photographer and a videographer. We each have our own booths, but we have them placed right next to each other so we can cross-pollinate referrals. We each have a raffle giving away a certain aspect of our services. The brides fill out a registration ticket at the fair, and I'll go home, compile those names and send them out to the other two vendors. They, in turn, do the same. Basically, we're all after the same clients, and since 90 percent of the brides will hire a photographer first, I can take advantage of that contact."

The minute a bride books a wedding with Atmosphere Productions, Samuels goes to work. "Once they book with us," he begins, "they get what we call the Atmosphere Productions Bridal Package. With that they get a contract, an introductory form so that they can fill in who's in the bridal party for introductions, when the cake cutting takes place, what the first dance song is, a song list - one page has love songs, and fun dance songs on the flip side. I ask the couple to circle the songs they like, and cross out what they don't want. And they are free to attach a list of additional songs. They also indicate how much involvement they want at the party, and I give them two choices: If you want it to be a fun wedding, make sure you get involved with the event and dance and have fun; if you don't want to get involved that much, then allow me to do it for you, and I will gauge the audience. For that, they have to be convinced of my professionalism and experience."

Samuels says that a basic wedding package costs $625 (1996 price - current prices are higher) for five hours. He also advises to build two amps into your road case"If something happens to one amp, I just hit a switch and the other goes on. In this business, the fewer equipment problems there are, the better you can concentrate on the performance and the customer."

---

Copyright © 2007 Atmosphere Productions™ LLC , All Rights Reserved
Site design by Wayne Nolting - GoldWaveStudio.com