So here’s something that I’ll never understand. Every year there are celebrity billiards events and these events never get covered by the billiards industry. Last week, NY Giants defensive end Justin Tuck once again held his annual celebrity billiards event and while it did make it on to a number of mainstream entertainment news sites, I haven’t seen mention of this on any of the pool media sites. Check out this highlight reel and count the ballers that showed up to this thing. Mark Sanchez, Bernard Hopkins, Ryan Grant, Ray Rice, Hakeem Nicks and of course Jeanette doing her thing. Seriously, how often are you going to find pictures of celebs and A-listers playing pool on Getty Images? How often are you going to see b-rolls of people playing pool on Access Hollywood and other entertainment news shows?
In the past, PoolDawg has participated in these events, sending reps to Tuck’s event and Dwight Freeney’s event as well as doing the swag bag thing for Shaun Livingston’s event. The value for PoolDawg was getting pics of Frank with celebs (which both Sarah Rousey and Debbie Schjodt kicked ass at), but there’s much more value for these events for the industry. In order for pool to reach the tipping point here in the states it has to be viewed as, for lack of a better term, “in”. The pubs should be all over these events, writing articles, posting pics, using b-roll footage, but they never seem to. How is this not newsworthy? Is it because it isn’t “real pool”? Someone please explain this to me, because I just don’t get it.
Oh, and if you think I’m going to stop saying what I think just because someone outed my anonymous (and no longer existent) blog, you are mistaken.
i know squat about business, but that makes sense to me. i think it’d be smart if more manufacturers & retailers would do the swag bags. a few thousand dollars worth of products is probably still cheaper than paying for actual commercials on E! or the local cbs/nbc/abc. i may be wrong though cuz i don’t really know the cost of airtime at 7 or 8 pm on weekdays. feel free to correct me.
So here’s the thing with swag bags. In almost every case, the celeb is not taking the swag. The swag pretty much always goes to the entourage, who then either uses the products or sells them on ebay. For a standard A list style party (not one of these billiards themed ones), you’re looking at an insertion cost ranging anywhere from $10k to $25k just to get your stuff in the bag. Then you have the cost of the product you’re putting in the bag. For an event like this, you can get away with putting stuff in the bag without paying the absurd insertion fee.
The key to making these swag bags work is the way you promote it after the event. If you make the effort to pimp the fact that your products have been given away and featured at A list events, you can get some value from it. You just can’t expect celebs to get your product from the bag and turn it into an “it” item.
wow. you have to pay an “insertion fee” to do the swag bags? i did not know that. i guess for pool companies doing the a-list events may not be a good idea. but charity pool events like the one you listed in your post seem like good places to do some advertizing.
btw, did you see jeannette lee on fox & friends this morning? she was quite good.
Get me a ticket!
I attended and covered a BET party at Hollywood Billiards a couple of years ago. Sucks, though, because we weren’t supposed to take pictures. 
You should talk to Shane over at the BCA. They’re involved in some of these events and I’m sure he’d be able to kick you a couple of ducks in exchange for PR coverage. Most of these seem to happen in the NYC though, so that’d be a pretty long bus ride.