GUARDLING Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 Then please explain the "Honda" Battle of the Bands! it almost doesnt have anything to do with bands per say BUT schools..theres much more behind a band than there is a drum corps Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 it almost doesnt have anything to do with bands per say BUT schools..theres much more behind a band than there is a drum corps It is about education? Really? Education? Come on; it is about packing the house, whether at a rock concert or the Atlanta Stadium, with flat entertainment which is reaching thousands if not millions of screaming people who are potential Honda buyers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mello Dude Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 And at one point there was not much interest in "show band"; but now look at the movies, rock concerts, and the "Honda" Battle of the Bands. It is all in creative marketing. It's also having something to "market" again going back to really having NOTHING to say other than, "Hey, we are a drum corps not a band!" Good luck with that. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GUARDLING Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 It is about education? Really? Education? Come on; it is about packing the house, whether at a rock concert or the Atlanta Stadium, with flat entertainment which is reaching thousands if not millions of screaming people who are potential Honda buyers. education contracts just like religous contracts are worth BILLIONS in this country.... reaching schools produce more CAR BUYERS than drum corps could ever do I never said it had anything to do with education.....but who it reasches Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ssorrell Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 Then please explain the "Honda" Battle of the Bands! Okay. That is a one time event. Honda sponsors the event, not the bands. It is seen by tens of thousands of people live at the event...an event that by most anyone's account is entertaining for anyone. The entertainment value of drum corps is argued even within our very own ranks. The BOTB packs the house. DCI, at best, fills half a stadium. That alone makes selling sponsorships to our events most difficult. DCI Southeast Regional at the Dome will draw 13-15K on a good year. BOTB will draw over 50k. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeN Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 It is about education? Really? Education? Come on; it is about packing the house, whether at a rock concert or the Atlanta Stadium, with flat entertainment which is reaching thousands if not millions of screaming people who are potential Honda buyers. -What's Honda Battle of the Bands? --HBCU's, like Grambling, Southern, etc. -What's Drum Corps International? -- ________________ Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ssorrell Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 Let's impose a salary cap. Seriously. Everyone runs on the same amount of money. I'd like to see BD or even Vanguard rack in the top staff, when any other corps could afford them too. Why go to Vanguard, when you can go anywhere you want, for the same amount of money. Somewhere maybe you used to march? Somewhere close to your home/family/children? Students would all start to receive the utmost knowledgeable education, thus making them better performers. Not only staff, but in terms of equipment, trucks, buses, housing sites, food etc. Maybe finally we could see the top 7 in the bottom 7, and the bottom 7 in the top 7. Evening the expenditures of all corps would be the only way to truly level the playing field. A "salary cap" would do nothing. Corps staffers and designers are not retiring rich from their take from drum corps. In fact, they aren't paid much at all, and the pay to staff is pretty close from corps to corps within the same classification. A few years ago, I was on the BOD for Spirit...a time when we were in the 11th-16th range competitively. Conversely, the Cavies were in the middle of their domination of the field. I was privy to compare expenditures between the two corps... Staff pay was nearly identical. But the reason the top corps' staffs and designers stay with a top 6 corps is because of the jobs that come their way as a result of their association with those top corps. A top 3 corps designer will have numerous requests for compositions for top high schools and college programs in the country. From their one corps gig, they might get a dozen other jobs. If each designing gig brings them a couple thousand each, then that's a pretty decent chuck of extra change for someone that more than likely has a real job too. The expenditure that surprised me the most, the one where there was the most discrepancy between the two corps was food expense. We're talking a $10K difference. But then, one must look at the difference in income between the corps also. At that time, the Cavies were bringing in 20 times what Spirit saw in souvie sales. That is expected...they were winning and we were not But, it is also easy to understand why their members would have veal parmesian while Spirit relied heavily on canned food donations from supporters. I'm not saying that Spirit was underfed or wasn't given the necessary nutrition...just that one corps' food could be considered "gourmet" compared to another's. A salary cap is great in concept, but it wouldn't work for corps for the reason stated above. Capping expenditures would even things out, but is hardly fair. Why shouldn't the Cavies eat veal parmesian...just because Spirit can't afford to? Not fair. There are no easy answers as to how this activity can be repaired. However, I do believe that limiting the tour for the first half of the season to corps' home regions is a start. It would help build a more local base for the corps, in terms of fans, supporters and future members. That certainly couldn't hurt. But then again, it was like this when I started marching, and it was changed for whatever reason, so maybe it wouldn't be the magic cure. DCI and corps both simply have to start living within their means, and that is a hard thing to accomplish apparently. Always has been... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadowtron Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 It's been years since I've posted or responded to posts on DCP...today marks the end of my hiatus apparently...LOL Drum corps are a hard sell to companies and corporations and their ad departments. As has been said many times before, there's not much ROI. If a corps approaches a local company that wants to branch out into the region, then most corps are screwed from the get go. Take Spirit for example...they left for tour 3 weeks ago and have yet to set foot on southern soil. When they do come home to the south, they'll be here for all of a week to ten days at most. That's not much exposure within the region for a company, if that is what they are looking for. If a corps approaches a regional company that wants to go national, there are a million other better means of getting their name out there than on the sides of buses and support vehicles, listings in show programs as a sponsor, or any other creative ways to promote said sponsor. And, btw...most of the day, the corps is parked at a housing site and is only on the road in the wee hours of the night (except for the trip to the stadium)...hardly exposing any company to a great number of potential new customers or clients. There just isn't any return on their investment. If a corporation is going to give money to a corps, it would likely not be as an investment, but more like a charitable gift. And face it...a group of mostly middle class kids playing music all over the country will not win any large charitable gifts. If a company wants to be noticed for their goodwill by donating money, they will find more popular associations...American Cancer Society, Relay for Life, March of Dimes, etc... Back in the mid 80s, Spirit worked HARD, and I mean HARD, to win over locally based Coca Cola, Delta Airlines, GA Power Company, Ted Turner, and a few other big local corporations. And this is when we did indeed have a southern tour and played at "home" often. We played concerts, held special dinners, and promised to do anything it took to get a sponsorship. After wining and dining top execs for a year, we got nothing. Nada. The reason...no ROI. And, we weren't talking millions and millions...maybe a half million to keep the corps on the road each summer. And a half million is equivalent to what...a 15 second TV spot? Yeah...we couldn't even get that. Trying to sell our corps and our activity outside of the marching music industry is something that just doesn't work, and has been proven many times over the last 30 years. Great post. I wouldn't mind selling out like soccer, putting brands on uniforms. Or as Cadets went whole summers "Presented by YEA" "Battle of the Bands" people know what that means. DCI Eastern Classic - no idea, and what's drum corps anyway? To all but those who have marched a corps, these are highly competitive bands, and they should be marketed that way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadowtron Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 Where are the DCI Apple, Android and Roku apps for news and Fan Network? Why haven't ALL high school musicians heard of DCI? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ssorrell Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 Why haven't ALL high school musicians heard of DCI? High school band members are exposed to whatever their director exposes them to. If the director cares nothing for drum corps, they won't bother sharing the activity with their students. Many band directors are woodwind players, and they simply don't have drum corps in their blood...which is understandable. And other directors aren't that competitive...they simply teach the bare minimum, do their job, and go home. Unfortunately, I think there are more of those kinds of directors in the nation than there are those that are willing to expose their students to a variety of activities which would in turn help their band. My son's HS band director comes from a corps that won Class A Championships and was in the winning brass ensemble at I&E in the early 90s. Yet, every chance he gets, he pushes his former college band program to the kids, not drum corps. And this is from someone that marched and was successful with their corps. That is not a criticism mind you...just an observation. He is not obligated to support anything outside of his bandroom walls. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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