We’ve got a list of possible celebrities we’re interested in booking for an event, and we’ve narrowed it down to our top choice. We’re not sure if the individual is within our budget, so what’s the best way to negotiate a good deal when booking a celebrity?
The best advice I can give you is to do plenty of research before even starting the negotiation process. With a little digging you should be able to get some ballpark estimates as to how much various venues are paying for celebrity appearances. This will give you a place to start. And, keep in mind that different kinds of events call for different budgets. For instance, corporate or private events will always cost the most. But, if you are doing an event for a college or charity, you may be able to get away with a smaller budget.
Make sure you’re considering celebrity guests who will fit into the budget you have available. That means you need to know your own budget first, before you start worrying about negotiating the booking deal.
The next step is to make sure your event is going to appeal to the artist or entertainer. If it’s not something they typically do or won’t break them into a niche they’ve been trying to target, you won’t have a lot of bargaining power on your side.
When it comes to making an offer, you can get a simple estimate of the cost by looking at ticket prices for recent events the celebrity has appeared at. Multiply the ticket price by the number of seats or attendance spots, and that gives you an idea of how much the event cost to put on. Don’t rely on this number, but definitely consider it when you’re figuring out possible cost.
Alternately, you can ask the celebrity’s rep to give you the booking price. But, beware—they will likely give you the highest fee paid to the celeb, and that makes negotiating a lower price tricky. Make an offer too low, and they may suspect you are low-balling them rather than making a sincere offer.
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