Mobile Marketing Test Results

Today I received the results from the mobile marketing promo test I wrote about in my last post.    I sent in a text to a local TV station for a promotion to win circus tickets.   This morning I received a text from the TV station informing me that I had not won.  The text read like a rejection email from an online job application.  Anyways, it said that even though I had not won I could still save $5 by using the code provided at ticketmaster.com.  The discount was only good for Wednesday through Friday performances. 

Just as the last text that I had received from them, they were still missing key information.  It is very important to make sure that you always use the name, dates, and place of the show.  In today’s text it gave the name but not the dates or the place.  There was no dates for the show in Friday’s text either.  This means that two communications have gone out to the customer and the customer may not know when the circus is coming to town.  All the cool new marketing tools are only as useful as the information they communicate.

I decided to try buying tickets using my special discount code they sent me.  I logged into ticketmaster.com and ordered tickets for the Thursday night performance.  I plugged in the promo code.  No discount was given.  “Houston we have a problem”.  The code does not work.

Fix Wall Street Soon

I don’t know if bailing out Wall Street is a good or bad thing but I do know this.  If something is not done soon, we in the entertainment business are going to feel it.  With the price of tickets today, customers are going to take a 2nd look.  Some may say that Hollywood bloomed during the depression but the cost of a movie in the 1930′s was 25 cents.

I Tried A Mobile Marketing Promotion

I woke up yesterday morning to a TV promo spot for the circus coming to my town.  The spot said something about using my mobile phone and texting to a number and typing in the word CIRCUS.  This was 5:30 AM in the morning so I could not get the whole spot focused in my brain. 

When I got to work I decided to research the promotion.  First I googled with no luck.  Then I went to the circus’s website with no luck.  Then I tried the TV station’s website.  There on the home page was the circus.  I clicked on it and up came the promotion.  It stated that if I text to #88709 and type in the word “circus” I could win tickets.  So I picked up my blackberry and gave it a try. 

The rest of the day I waited for some reply but nothing happened.  When I got home I decided I would try it again.  I went to the website again and looked to see if I had typed in the right number.  I did type the right number but nothing had happened.  I tried it again except I left off the “#” in front of the number.  Within 30 seconds I received a reply text.  It was from the TV station.  It thanked me for entering the contest and that I could win a family 4-pack to the circus. 

While the return text did say the name of the show and where it was playing, it did not say when it was playing.  Also, I would think the show would want to promote how to buy tickets for the thousands of customers who will not win tickets.

Now that I had sent the text via my mobile phone and received the return text, now what?  Is that it?  I assume that both the TV station and the show have captured my mobile phone info.  What are they going to do with it?  Will I receive any more texts from them? 

I wonder how many promo spots for this promotion are running and at what times?   Do you think that potential customers went through the same effort that I did?

 

What About Social Network Events?

Between my son, all the hype, and the Arena Marketing Conference, I have been really learning a lot about the social networking sites.  I now belong to three: LinkedIn, Facebook, and My Space.  I might join at least one more.  For someone that is in business (grown-ups) LinkedIn seems to make the most sense.  I am finding tons of people that I have worked with over the years.  Because of being linked in to their networks I should meet even more.

On Facebook I am finding a lot of people that I went to high school and college with.  That’s pretty cool.  It is like a reunion of sorts.

So as I was searching around the sites when I thought “what about social networking events?”  There are so many groups and clubs and organizations on these sites that you could have social network tours traveling around the country catering to them.  People could actually meet (person to person) at these events.  This could be a sponsors dream come true.  Think about how targeted you could be with these events.  I think I am going to really look into promoting these events.  What do you think?  Send me your comments and ideas.

Earthquake In The Ticket World

The ground was shaking at the Ticketmaster headquarters this week when Live Nation & SMG announced that they had a deal.  Live Nation is creating its own ticketing system and SMG and their 200+ venues are going to jump into it. 

I am not sure how I feel about this. 

Ticketmaster has been the King of the evil ticket world for so long.  But how about the biggest live event promoter and the biggest venue management company coming together to sell tickets?  Who is the lesser of two evils?

So I am reading about all this and then I read that the CEO of Ticketmaster said that maybe, just maybe Ticketmaster might try to fight back by getting into the venue management business.  WHAT???

I am sure this deal is at least a few years away from happening. I am sure that Ticketmaster has a multi-year deal with SMG that needs to run its course.  I am sure there will be court battles.  I am sure that venues across the nation are already lining up with RFP’s for Ticketmaster to run their buildings.  WHAT???

Stay tuned.  Pull up a chair.  Get a bag of popcorn.  This is going to be fun!

Like A Row Of Domino’s

Every decision you make will always affect someone else.  Think about it. 

When you put together an event you have a lot of decisions to make.  This is why you plan.  As you plan and make your decisions you need to consider all the possible results from it. 

If you book an event and then cancel it what are the issues that go along with the decision to cancel (I am not talking about canceling because of conditions that are out of the event’s control, I am speaking of cutting a deal, booking an event and then deciding to cancel). One easy decision is that you most likely have to refund the money.  But have you ever thought about the issues that your customer has? Just as you have planning, they have planning too.  You need to think about long term issues like the reputation of your product or “ill will” you will create.  I understand that “business is business” and company executives need to look out for the bottom line.  But, isn’t the long term results important also? 

Sometimes in life we all make  bad decisions.  The question is how do we deal with them?

McDonald’s Gave Me An Idea!

I read in yesterday’s paper that McDonald’s made a decent profit last quarter because they promoted their value menu items (the cheap $1 stuff).  Maybe we could do the same in our industry.  What if we put together lots of little events that are lower budget and with a low ticket price to fill in around the higher end events that are already booked?  This will take up inventory,  sell some tickets, keep the staff working, and move more concessions.

Random Vents

Do I Need Glasses?

Why do marketers think that because it looks good on a piece of paper sitting in front of them, that it will look good as a billboard or transit ad?  I was driving to work today and I saw an ad for an upcoming show.  I am not going to say the name (I work in the industry).  This ad was on the back of a city bus.  The bus was right in front of me.  Yet, the dates and place of the show and “whatever” other printed info was so small I could not read it.  The actual show artwork was big and bright.  My point is, why put small print on something that no one is going to be able read while driving in their car or walking down the street?  Doesn’t anybody think about this stuff?

Hello, is anybody out there?

With all the technology we have today, you would think that marketing people would have a much easier time communicating.  In fact you would think that marketing people would always be good communicators since that is their business.  In this day & age we have telephones, cell phones, blackberry’s, iphones, fax, email, and text messaging yet people find it hard to “get back to you”.

Viral Marketing Can Suck You In

I was checking out the Gary Vaynerchuk’s Wine Library video blog yesterday http://tv.winelibrary.com (check it out).   Gary has made a big name for himself and his family’s wine store business through this video blog.  He  has a cult like following with thousands of views each week.  He is getting lots of national attention including gigs on Conan O’Brien.  I first heard about him through my brother who is doing some business with him.  Anyway, his Friday post was a viral spoof.  He was promoting a “new” blood drink from Japan called True Blood.  Watching Gary supposedly sniff and drink the blood like a glass of wine was making me sick.  Then I thought this is a viral campaign for the new HBO show True Blood.  HBO’s new show is about vampires living in a small Louisiana town.  Last night I found myself looking it up on the channel guide and tuned it in.  I watched the entire hour show and now I am hooked after just the first episode.  So as you can see, viral marketing does work.  The fact that I am writing about this today shows that I am continuing to spread the viral word.  As I have mentioned before, this is part of the “new world order” of marketing.  It works and it is here to stay.  Embrace it!