Can't speak for other places, but where I'm from, those events for those type of brands are mostly done by PR agencies who themselves have contact with entertainment / DJ agencies, if not, those PR agencies might have direct contact with a DJ

Or the venue themselves would use their own DJ

I recently played a christmas party for a big fashion brand and it was done through my agency

I see. Thanks.
Your agency as in your management agency? Or have you hired a publicist?

Management agency. They do mostly work for clubs but a lot of PR agencies know to outsource to them when throwing one of those events

And I forgot to mention those big brands like adidas might not need an agency, they could do it internally. But it is very common to hire a PR / events team to do the work for them. So there could be no middle men at all, or there could be 2 middle men. I guess there’s no hard and fast rule

I would imagine this would be the case in SoCal

I've gotten those types of gigs through marketing agencies.

Sorry this is so late. How do you connect to the marketing agencies? Do you know someone internally who works at the agencies, or do they find you through social media, etc?

Thanks so much everyone for the responses.

The first gig for Pepsi came as a referral from somebody at the DMC. It came in the form of an email blast to a bunch of DJs. I replied and was hired by the marketing firm that was running the campaign. From there I signed up with other companies that specialized in Urban and sports marketing. Not all of the promotions I worked on were DJ related but it was fun work and whenever there came a need for a DJ I was first in line.

I also used to get booked for retail gigs through Scratch Events. Look them up. They are affiliated with Scratch Academy.

work your way into scratch events, do all their crappy gigs for not much money(they dont seem to pay noobs too much and give them the bad gigs).

they seem to control that market, unless you are a producer dj or have been djing for a while and have connections.

at some point playing at Dillards in BFE or victorias secret in a suburb mall, you might have the contacts and the experience to contact bigger companies or agencies.

I’d assume at these gigs you’d have to bring your own equipment right?

yes, all the people i know have had to bring theirs.

so many people just do these gigs for the price of a dj fee and not the equipment and dj fee that they are generally insultingly low pay for the gig. But Scratch has to make their scratch

I haven't done any gigs for Scratch in quite a while but when I did the pay was ok. $350 for four hours in Ann Taylor stores was easy money for a Saturday afternoon. Back then they also required turntables. Now I see pictures of some of their gigs with DJs using controllers as well.

350 for 4 hours is ok for beginners as a fee, but with equipment its kinda low. Nowadays its kinda standard(since people will play for nothing), but for anyone with experience, personally feel its kinda low.

Agreed, however that's because the bigger cut goes to the middle man, in this case Scratch for example. I cut the middle man out a lot, no disrespect to Scratch or any agencies, but been fortunate enough to have direct contact with some bigger clients. It all started with recommendations and/or someone from the inside. If you're professional, good and reliable they'll continue to work with you. I doubt they care whether the money goes straight to you or some DJ agency. As long as the job is done proper.

Keep in mind though, it's a lot of work doing it alone if djing is your bread and butter. If I didn't have a full-time job I imagine I'd have to lock it down with an agency for job security.