Interview with January Website of the Month Winner TEELC | Heart Internet Blog – Focusing on all aspects of the web

January 2012 saw tribute act company TEELC.com win our Website of the Month contest. We caught up with Derec Thompson to find out more about the Tribute Entertainment Everyone Loves Company.

Tell us a bit about your background, TEELC and how you started the company.

We founded our first tribute act, The Kittycat Dolls (www.thekittycatdolls.com), a little over three years ago. At the time it was nothing more than a hobby but as time progressed we made more contacts and found that there was a real unmet demand for current commercial acts. After we’d put our first few acts together we decided to branch out and become an agent for more than just self-managed acts. We feel what sets us aside from other agencies is our commitment to quality. We only represent one act per original artist and go to great lengths to track down the best in the industry. Due to this attention to quality the agency has flourished recently and we now regularly send acts to many other parts of the world such as China and the Middle East.

Over the last couple of years the agency has grown alongside my web design business and my partner now takes total control of the running of the agency. I still however take care of all of the marketing and design for the agency.I find it provides the perfect pet project to accompany paid client work.

If you were starting your business again, what (if anything) would you do differently?

The biggest lesson for me was that it is okay to turn down work. There are occasions when you realise that the amount of work you will have to put in just doesn’t correlate with the amount of money being offered. It is important to recognise opportunity when it comes along, and equally important to realise when something will just hold you back.

Your website has a striking look to it thanks to the characters and colours. What did you want to achieve with the design and how does it complement your business?

The very nature of our business is impersonation. It is difficult trying to communicate the originality that we bring to the industry on first impression. It is also difficult trying to reconcile the range of styles and uniqueness of each act into one cohesive design. About six months ago I had the idea of using illustration to greater effect throughout all of our marketing materials. After a few failed concepts I settled upon the cutesy over-proportioned vector cartoon characters that grace the site today. We feel they embody the personality of our business perfectly and give us an edge over the competition.

TEELC.com makes great use of video to promote your services. What advice would you give to someone looking to create and present videos on their website?

Catering to an attention span of around one and a half minutes seems to work wonders. People don’t want to see clips of every performance you’ve ever done. Include only relevant footage and where possible sync together similar footage from various locations. Because our videos are all so very different from each other we created a ten second ident that plays at the beginning of each. This helps with overall cohesion and adds the user experience on the site as a whole.

How do you go about finding tribute acts and what do you look for?

Some of our acts are created in-house due to client demand. Others acts are usually head-hunted by us. We spend a lot of time trawling through very mediocre acts to find the quality that we are looking for. Passion is the single most important quality in any potential new recruit, both for performing and for the act they impersonate. We also look for people who aren’t afraid of a bit of hard work. We’ve encountered many individuals in the past who think that talent alone will get them through in life. Talent is useless if you are not prepared to work hard to achieve your goals.

How did you go about asking people to vote for your site in the contest?

We make great use of social media with our own managed acts. Our boyband, The Coverboys (www.thecoverboys.com), have several thousand Twitter followers and Facebook fans. Alongside our other acts profiles, we have a social reach of around 6,000 people.It was a no-brainer for us really on how to direct people to Heart’s voting page.

What are the advantages of having a website for your business?

Our website is an essential marketing tool and where most of our new business comes from. We have made some excellent connections worldwide and would have missed out on some excellent opportunities had we done without it. There genuinely is no better way to communicate your marketing message than through your own website.

What’s been your biggest highlight of TEELC so far?

Our longest-running act, The Kittycat Dolls, recently performed a small tour in China. They had an amazing time and fell in love with Shanghai. Knowing that someone on the other side of the world is prepared to go to great expense to fly our performers out is incredible.

Why did you choose to host your website with Heart Internet?

As a designer I use Heart for all things internet related, from domain registration to hosting. I’ve heard some real horror stories from my clients about other service providers and count myself lucky to have found a reliable company. Although I’ve not had much occasion to contact them over the last five years, the Heart technical support team are very helpful and quick to resolve any issues. Heart are a very customer-focused business and I think it is the reason for their continued success.

What’s the future for TEELC (both the business in general and the website)?

The sky’s the limit! We’re hoping to continue growing both in the number of acts on our books and the number of high-calibre clients we supply. We have a dynamic booking system planned for development on the site in the near-future and some more cute little cartoon characters might just make their way out of my head and onto the screen soon.

 

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