A vague entertainment brief gets you vague responses. A precise brief gets you accurate quotes, relevant pitches and significantly less back and forth before you can confirm a booking. This guide covers exactly what to include in a corporate entertainment brief — and what most event planners leave out.
Why the brief matters more than most planners realise
The quality of the applications you receive is directly proportional to the quality of your brief. Performers who receive a detailed brief with a clear audience, environment and objective can pitch a relevant, costed concept. Performers who receive "we need entertainment for a corporate event in London" can only respond with generic availability and a price list.
A good brief filters out unsuitable acts before you've spent any time reviewing them.
What to include in a corporate entertainment brief
A complete corporate entertainment brief should cover:
- Event type and objective — awards night, product launch, brand activation, client entertainment. What is the entertainment meant to achieve?
- Audience — size, demographic, corporate culture. A financial services firm has different entertainment expectations to a creative agency.
- Venue and environment — indoor or outdoor, stage or no stage, space dimensions, noise restrictions
- Date, time and duration — including load-in and sound check requirements
- Budget — a range is fine. Performers pitch differently at £500 vs £2,000. Give them a range to work within.
- Brand guidelines — if the entertainment needs to be brand-aligned, share your guidelines
- Previous entertainment — what has worked before? What hasn't?
What most planners leave out
The two things most corporate entertainment briefs are missing:
The objective. "We need entertainment" is not a brief. "We need entertainment that creates a memorable moment during the awards presentation and gets shared on social media" is a brief. The objective shapes everything — act type, duration, format.
The audience culture. A room of 200 sales professionals at an end-of-year conference responds completely differently to a room of 50 brand managers at a product launch. Tell the performer who they're performing for.
Posting your brief on AnyGig
AnyGig for Corporate lets you post your entertainment brief privately to the Pro performer feed. Performers pitch back with concepts tailored to your brief — not generic availability responses. Every booking includes automatic contracts and escrow-protected payment.
Conclusion
The 20 minutes you spend writing a thorough brief saves you hours of back and forth with unsuitable acts. The best performers respond to the best briefs. Give them what they need to pitch you something great.
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