In early 2025, a film production company approached us with a unique challenge - they were planning a high-energy music video shoot and needed to source trained dancers across Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru. The timeline was tight, and manually finding, contacting, and following up with dozens of dance studios wasn’t feasible.
We built them a fully automated outreach system using tools like Clay, Dropcontact, OpenAI, and Smartlead, allowing them to go from news article to personalized email - in minutes, not hours.
Here’s how we did it:
Step 1: Tracking Real-Time Dance-Related News
We began by identifying potential signals of active dance talent. Using keywords like: Dance competition winners, Cultural fest performers, New dance academy launch, Top dance studios in (city), etc.,
We scraped news articles and blog posts using Google Alerts and Instant Data Scraper. These sources gave us visibility into which academies were actively performing, getting recognized, or expanding - a strong signal of capability and availability.
Step 2: Extracting and Qualifying Leads Using Clay
All collected URLs were imported into Clay.
Clay parsed the article content using NLP and extracted:
- Names of dance academies, choreographers, and performance groups
- The city, type of performance, and context (e.g., award, event)
- Intent signals, such as expansion, hiring, or collaboration readiness
This gave us a filtered list of highly relevant studios - not just random leads.
Step 3: Identifying the Right People to Contact
Next, we used Clay’s enrichment capabilities to identify:
- Founders, directors, or lead choreographers
- Their emails, LinkedIn URLs, and geolocation
- Their studio websites or social handles (where available)
We verified these emails in real time using Dropcontact, ensuring high deliverability and zero spam risk.
Step 4: Generating and Sending Personalized Emails Automatically
Each contact received a personalized email referencing the article or performance they were featured in.
Using OpenAI inside Clay, we fed the extracted article data to craft highly specific and warm outreach messages.
Subject: Your academy’s performance stood out – quick collaboration?
Hi Anjali,
I came across your studio's award-winning performance at the Hyderabad Cultural Fest — congratulations!
We're currently casting dancers for an upcoming music video and your team looks like a perfect fit. Would love to explore a quick collaboration.
Let me know if you’re open to a quick chat this week.
Warm regards,
[Production Team Name]
We connected Clay to Smartlead.ai to:
- Send emails in a drip format
- Track opens and replies
- Automate follow-ups if no response was received
Tools We Used -
- Instant Data Scraper - Pull real-time news articles
- Clay - Parse articles, enrich leads, draft messages
- Dropcontact - Verify email addresses
- OpenAI (via Clay) - Personalize outreach copy
- Smartlead - Scale and automate email outreach
What we achieved?
- 40+ highly relevant dance academies contacted
- 15+ replied within 72 hours
- 3 were shortlisted for collaboration
- Nearly 25 hours saved compared to manual research & outreach
The film production team was able to finalize casting in record time - without cold calling or scrolling endlessly through Instagram.
Why This Matters
This case proves that AI-powered outreach isn’t just for SaaS or B2B tech — it can be applied to industries like film, casting, performing arts, and even recruitment.
By combining real-time data with contextual messaging, automation tools can completely reshape how outreach and partnerships are done.
Want a similar system built for your business or project? Whether you're casting, hiring, or looking to scale B2B outreach connect with me on LinkedIn
