NOTE: the following is a marketing method used to promote a conjurer, but the basic structure of this approach could be used by someone of any profession by converting the components into ones from your Industry!
Manhattan Magician of ManhattanMagician.com is perhaps best known for his performances along with the Magic Neighbors Theater Troupe that tours various branches of the New York Public Library.
A Fun Way to Promote
Since Manhattan Magician might as well be my alter ego or imaginary brother, I wanted a fun way to promote him, possibly tied into the library and books.
A Force of Nature
One strategy is to align yourself with someone who is more famous than you are. Who then is the most famous magician of book-dom? I bet you didn’t even blink before you thought: Harry Potter. And you’d be right. Harry Potter is a force of nature. My 10 year old daughter (who is in the library magic act) recently put herself on the list at the library for one of the books, the one that has the Goblet in it.
Library Waiting List
At the time of requesting the book she was told that she is number 7 in a waiting list of 7. My daughter instantly did the calculations and surmised that it would take her more than 3 months before she would get the book. So she and my wife purchased the book instead.
Off the Shelves Quickly
Another library and Harry Potter story is the time my daughter rather magically discovered exactly the Harry Potter DVD she wanted to watch because she had just read the book and likes to see the Potter movies after taking in the book. The librarian at checkout commented that it was miraculous she got this DVD because practically the second it is on the shelves, it gets taken out again.
Two Magicians, Two Very Different Worlds
Okay, so we’ve established Harry Potter is well known. How then does a practitioner of prestidigitation align herself/himself with likes of Potter? The answer for us was in the fact that both Harry Potter and the Manhattan Magician were magicians, so the joining of the two would have to have something to do with magic tricks.
Fictional Spells into Real Tricks?
We had heard that apparently, Bloomsbury Children’s Books did a world-wide survey of the favorite Harry Potter spells. This generated an idea. What about if Harry Potter’s 10 top spells could be made into magic tricks!?
Inventing Magic Tricks
Since Manhattan Magician was writing a book about how to invent magic tricks, this seemed like a perfect tie-in. So now all that had to be done was to figure out an online publication that could feature the story.
Over 35 Websites
As most of you know I manage over 30 websites, some of which are for clients and the others are for in house projects. One of these sites is, yes you guessed it, HarryPotterFanClubNYC.com which is run by a guy named Spaceman. The connection between a “Spaceman” and “Harry Potter” has never quite been clear to me, but it didn’t matter. It was time to contact the man from the galaxy.
An Ambitious Experiment
Spaceman loved the idea of Manhattan Magician coming up with magic tricks based on the top 10 spells. We decided that Manhattan Magician would look at the list of the 10 and then would come up with ideas on the spot. But we had one hitch to the deal. Magicians are not supposed to reveal the secrets of how they perform magic, especially magicians who are members of the Society of American Magicians. You see, Manhattan Magician had taken a binding oath of not revealing secrets.
A Solution is Found
I came up with a solution. What about if Manhattan Magician did a “Magic Talk” referring to tricks and principles that only magicians could understand? That way no secrets would be revealed to the general public. The Manhattan Magician loved the idea and so did Spaceman, so all that had to happen now was to get Spaceman and Manhattan Magician in the same room.
A Lesson in How to Market a Magician
What can we learn about marketing here? For one thing it helps to be manager of the blog/website that the interview is for. Also, thinking outside of the box (or the top hat) is good. Another thing is communication between all parties involved. And speaking of parties, if you want to check out the plan in action, take a look here at the Harry Potter Fan Club NYC website post. Or if you prefer to go directly, the URL is https://harrypotterfanclubnyc.com/harry-potter-magic-tricks/.