“Will you give me this item if I promote it on Social Media for you”.
Answering this question can be very awkward, so here is a blog to outline our positions on what we consider PAID ADVOCACY.
Influencers: why we don’t use them
A lot of the time when people ask us for free or discounted materials in return for promoting our gear, they don’t understand why we say no. Sometimes they are even offended. Our position is that if you use our equipment and love it, you’ll understand that recommending it to your peers and students is just something you do. Saying to a friend, “Hey I’ve got this lyra rope and I love it” is one thing. Saying, “Oh I had a great experience with Trix Circus, they got back to me straight away” is one thing. We don’t pay people to say these things but what we do is provide a quality item, excellent customer service, helpful advice and a set of safety protocols that are leading the industry with their impeccable standards.
Lots of trainers, studio owners, professionals and recreational users recommend to their students and friends to buy Trix Circus products. These recommendations are incredibly valuable to us and we cherish them deeply. These recommendations are honest opinions stemming from the experience of using and enjoying equipment that we manufacture. We do not pay people directly (with money or products) to be our advocates as we believe that someone who is paid to speak nicely of our products, may not be speaking their truth. Influencers’ words are not genuine reviews; they are being paid in some way to advertise a product or service to other people.
Studio Affiliates and Sponsorship
So what we do have is a Studio Affiliate Program. We work with over 50 studios across Australia to provide them with their equipment, advice and ongoing support. These studios have a minimum “buy in” amount, plus an annual minimum spend that they must meet to stay in the program. See details here: https://trixcircus.com/studio-affiliate-program/
We do have a few individual teachers in this program that meet the above requirements and we extend the same courtesy to them as we do to the studios and we have the same expectations of their purchasing behaviour.
So how does this differ to paid advocacy? Well, other than the minimum buy in and continued annual spend, we don’t ask anything of these studios. They don’t have to post for us, they don’t have to do anything for us to advertise our products. They just buy our gear in bulk and we offer them a small discount because of the quantities they purchase.
This relationship represents a wholesale agreement, not an advertising scheme in which they have to do any honest, or dishonest, promotion to remain as part of our program.
Sponsorship
With the growing popularity of aerial competitions, Trix Circus is asked on a very regular basis if we will supply prizes for these competitions. From May 2024, the sponsorship support that Trix Circus can supply will focus on only the final or national events in aerial competitions. In order to apply for any support, the company applying must already be part of our Studio Affiliate Program. Trix Circus is rarely able to support heats of any competition. We may still consider smaller in-house competitions or heats for members of our Studio Affiliate Program. This assessment will be garnered from the Studio’s past business with us (both the length of the business relationship and the prior annual purchasing history).
If you are a pre-existing Studio Affiliate, in order to apply for Sponsorship please fill out this Google form: https://forms.gle/MWiJ5vpP4mEXbaSc6
In the 2024-2025 financial year, we have supported:
Flipside Circus – with loaned equipment and rig and rigging and with prizes for their raffle. These donations and loans helped Flipside stay in business and rebuild after their school suffered two major fire events.
Physipole Ignite finals – prizes for all major winners in their national competition.
Aerial Angels, Circa and Circobats – raffle prizes to help them raise funds to grow, develop and continue to provide services to their communities.
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