Make It A Happy Halloween For Your Event

If you have to market a family event that lands on Halloween or any other holiday, then you know there are many challenges.  On Halloween it is hard to compete against kids and their candy.  Over the years I have had this challenge twice.  The decision that you have to make is to lay down and forfeit or embrace the holiday and make it work for you.

My first experience with promoting a show on Halloween was with Disney On Ice in St. Louis.  Opening day of the show fell on Halloween.  At that time Halloween was a BIG deal in St. Louis.  This presented an issue.  The general feeling was that opening night was going to be a big flop.  Even our opening night sponsor said they did not want to sponsor the show on Halloween. The show was going to be set up and the cast in town.  We could have taken the night off but we didn’t.  Being the huge Halloween fan that I am, we created the “World’s Largest Halloween Party” for less fortunate kids.  All St. Louis area children’s charities were invited to bring kids to the show.  I went to all our media partners including the newspaper and TV and asked them to partner with us as a public service which they all did.  We gave away 10,000 tickets for that night to kids that would normally never be able to see Disney On Ice.  We had trick or treat bags full of candy for each kid, costume contests, and even bobbing for apples on the concourse.  The publicity was great.  We were the top Halloween story for the day.  The end result was that even with giving away an entire performance to charity, we had a very successful engagement.  Once less performance from the year before and we were still up!

The next clash I had with Halloween was with Goosebumps Live in Detroit.  Now you might think that promoting a Goosebumps show on Halloween would be a good thing, but not in Detroit.  As you may know Detroit has a bad reputation for setting fires on Halloween.  The year we did the show in Detroit they were still pretty much banning Halloween and all Halloween events.  They told residents to keep their children home.  Not good for us.  Detroit marketing guru Bill Lee from Olympia Entertainment and myself brainstormed.  We agreed that we needed the City on our side.  We went to them and offered to an inner city charity event.  We also offered to supply the city with free Goosebumps books that they could distribute.  We were the only Halloween event and we were indorsed by the city.  We even had city officials open the show.  The end result was, we had one of the most successful engagements of the whole tour.

I hope everyone has a very fun Halloween!

 

The Campaign, The Ultimate Marketing Event

Some might think that writing about the Presidential campaign does not fit with event & entertainment marketing.  Of course it does. 

This race has been the biggest event to hit the USA in a very long time.  The marketing behind this campaign is what has been driving it and created hyper-hype.  I don’t know about you but I have been taking marketing notes on what works, what doesn’t work, and what “cool” new marketing has come out of the campaign.  As I mentioned a few posts back, the marketing (especially the Obama campaign) has changed how we market for the future. 

In the branding side of this campaign (which I believe has been the most important part) the Obama campaign wins by a landslide.  The energy, the money, the excitement, what can you say even if you are not voting for him. 

There has been some good marketing by the McCain campaign.  For example, the “Joe the Plumber” campaign. That was a very good marketing strategy by the McCain camp.  Look at all the media they have received.  Look at the branding of “Joe the Plumber”.  Will there be a “Joe the Plumber” toy out in time for Christmas?  Their problem is they don’t know when to let it go.  Marketing in the political world has a very short shelf life. 

The marketing of Sarah Palin was good & bad at the same time.  The concept was brilliant.  I remember when I got the CNN breaking news text message that he had picked her.  I said “wow” that was very clever marketing.  The problem was they didn’t have the brand ready for market. Once she was out there, they didn’t market her correctly. I am not sure how long she was on the short list but more behind the scenes prep and working with her could have gone a long ways.  The short term effect was great, but it didn’t take long for the shine to wear off.

Last night the Obama campaign spent a lot of money to “get in your face” one more time.  I wish I had a marketing budget to do something like that, don’t you?  My personal opinion was that the hype didn’t fit the result.  In their world, they did the right thing.  They played it safe.  They showed you the Barack Obama that we all need.  The kinder, softer, but firm President.  I would have liked to see some real excitement.  He had millions of people in front of him.  Get them on their feet at home like the 20,000 in the arena with him.  I would have liked to see less recorded fluff and more of the live portion.  That is where he shows his best stuff. 

No matter what happens on Tuesday, this has been one exciting marketing event.  I cannot wait to see how we use what we have learned over these past few years to market our brands.

Do You Still Have The Old “Playbook”?

All of us in marketing are all the buzz about the new marketing, the non-traditional marketing.  But before the internet and mobile marketing, we still did look to non-traditional marketing to promote our product or brand. With management’s direction to re-evaluate our marketing budgets why not look into the old “playbook”.

I have mentioned over the past few days that we need to market where the people are.  Depending on who you are trying to reach is where you should market. 

If you are promoting a family show, where should you market?  In the old “playbook” you might cut a deal with a grocery store chain.  You might get them to promote the event on grocery bags.  Now in 2008 the question is paper, plastic or canvas?  What if you could put a 21st century spin on the bag marketing and said if you bring “event” paper or plastic bags to the event (for recycling) you will receive something.  A bounce back bag!  If you have a product or brand that has a long shelf life in the market such as Blue Man Group here in Boston, you might consider printing your message on a canvas bag.  Think about the amount of eyes that see this?

Do you remember the days when we could infiltrate the schools?  We used to promote our events on the school lunch milk cartons.  Why not try this again? 

If you are sports team you need to go where the fans are.  Most sports towns have multiple sports themed bars and restaurants.  Why count on the beer companies alone to promote your brand?  Why not do it yourself?  Ticket sales departments should have someone full time cutting group sales deals with these places.  Create your own table tents and posters to promote the team and ticket sales. 

All sports towns have youth leagues for that sport.  If you are not marketing your brand in a big way to the youth leagues, then you are making a huge mistake.  These kids are your present and future business.  If you are in hockey, you need to have a BIG presence in the rinks.  Not just a flyer promoting youth night at the game.  You need a program that works with the kids directly.  I know for a fact that youth leagues are always struggling for money, equipment, and other resources.  Why not help with this?  You have in the past.

The above examples are not even the tip of the iceberg.  This type of looking at the old “playbook” should not be discounted and should compliment the new “cool” stuff we use today.

 

Don’t Let the Recession Get You Down

I remember the last big recession very well. I was working for Feld Entertainment at the time. I remember my company at its winter meeting discussing it and most of the meeting agenda was about how to handle it.  They started the discussion with this known entertainment fact:  The entertainment business is the first to feel a recession but entertainment is the first to get out.  Why are we the first?  People will use entertainment as an escape.  Hollywood in the 30′s was a perfect example.  The depression really took the movie industry to the next level.

The best advice I can give you in handling the recession is plan, think, and try.  When you are writing your marketing plan for an event, really think it through.  Use the recession as part of your plan.  Think about what you need to do for the customer or fan to come to your event.  Try new things.  I am always preaching to “think outside the box”.  This is a perfect time to do this.  During that last big recession I wrote a promotional plan for a St. Louis circus engagement that had as many as 25 possible promotions.  Now I knew that I was not going to do 25 promotions, but I had a nice stable of options to draw from.  Yes, we did have a very successful engagement that year.

One type of plan that I developed for my company during the last recession was called the “fire drill”.  Once you have a marketing plan written and approved then write a “fire drill” for it.  This is a plan used if the marketing plan is not working.  When I write a marketing plan and budget, I usually hold back some money from the budget for a “fire drill” plan.  If the marketing plan works, you are under budget.  If the plan is not working, you have money to use.

Send me your comments, thoughts and ideas and I will post them on the blog.

 

Newspapers Need New Thinking

It was released this past weekend that newspaper circulation is down (again).  No one should be surprised. 

I am a big fan of print myself.  I get three newspapers at my house every morning.  Of course the internet and cable TV news are the main reason for print decline.  But is that the only reasons?  Newspapers have not done a lot to help themselves.   For example they keep raising ad rates and the daily price of the newspaper.  Usually in our world economy, prices are dependent on supply & demand.  When the “want” is up, prices go up.  So when print circulation and advertising goes down what do they do?  They raise the ad rates and the price of the paper.  That’s a great way to attract more readers and advertisers. 

All of us in the event and entertainment business seem to use print these days to “only” inform.  I look at the ads in the entertainment section each week and nothing has changed in the last 25 years.  A show goes on sale, we run an ad.  If it is Sunday, then we need to run an ad.  Newspaper ads for events are just information pieces.  Just like the movies, we run an ad to tell the customer when the show is coming, the times, and the place.  Boring!  It’s not just our fault.  Newspapers have done nothing to show us the way.  All they seem to care about is when are we running the ad and how much are we going to spend.  Why don’t they work with us?  We know our shows & events.  You know your newspaper.  Let’s work as a team and make it fun.  Think outside the box

Newspapers have embraced the new technology by going to the web.  This was a good idea but they need to make some decisions.  Are they going to be only print, only web, or both?  I believe there is a place for them to do both.  The key is to create a nitch that readers will use both print and the web.  When it comes to promoting our shows, I think they can do better then just placing a link to our website or a win free tickets button.

Here is a novel idea.  Why not make reading the paper ”in” again.  Go back to the research.  Find out what readers or potential readers want.  Find ”something” that will make them want to pick up the paper each morning.  Stop thinking old school and think 21st century.   Go to your loyal advertisers.  Ask them for some help.  They are marketers too.

 

Costco is Selling Tickets

I went to Costco the other day and I picked up a flyer that caught my eye.  It said Event Tickets. 

Costco is now offering its members tickets to events at a discount throughout the country via its website.  The flyer promoted that you could save on reserved seating to select events.  They also promised reduced service charges and no shipping fee options.

When I got home I went to the Costco website to check it out.  You can tell that this is a very new venture for them.  There was not much there.  The flyer and the website does say to keep checking because things change on a regular basis.  But I got the feeling they are still getting this program up and running.  They had a menu of current items and future items including future NBA tickets and Broadway shows.  They did have some New York City shows up for sale including the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, Cirque du Soleil, and Phantom.  They had Wicked in LA for sale and Los Angeles Clippers ticket packages. 

With the current state of our economy, I believe that the Costco’s, BJ’s, and Sam’s Club’s of the world are going to continue to do well.  In my last post I wrote that despite the economy people still have to shop.  They are just going to cut back and go where the deals are.  We marketers need to market where the people are. These warehouse stores are an example.  Musical artists are selling exclusive record deals with Wal-Mart.  AAA has been offering entertainment deals at a discount for years.  So, why not warehouse stores? 

We need to remember that events and entertainment is discretionary dollars. Entertainment traditionally has been the first to feel a recession. With the price of events, customers are going to think twice before buying.  We can sit on our ass and let it happen or we can be proactive and show our fans and customers that we do care about them. 

If you want to check out the Costco event tickets for yourself go to: www.costco.com then click on Services, then Event Tickets.

The Empire Strikes Back!

Last month I wrote about Live Nation starting its own ticketing company and competing with Ticketmaster.  I told you to buckle your seat belt and stay tuned.  Well….ding, ding, round 2.

Ticketmaster is announcing that they have acquired Front Line Management according to today’s Wall Street Journal.  This is owned by the Irving Azoff.  He is the management for some of the biggest live artists in the business including Jimmy Buffet, the Eagles, and Neil Diamond.  All of these acts are huge revenue makers for venues.

Of course this was a very strategic move to counter Live Nation and put pressure on venues to think twice before signing the ticket rights to Live Nation. 

Ticketmaster is really pulling out the big guns with this move.  Not only are they buying Front Line, but Irving Azoff is being named CEO of the new company Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc.  This is huge.  Not only do they have a stable of major powerhouse acts but they have a very powerful man in the entertainment industry running the show.

I still am not sure how this is going to play out for the ticket buyer.  Remember, it was Irving Azoff and the Eagles that were the first to charge $100 for a concert ticket back in the 90’s.  If the new Ticketmaster Entertainment was smart, they would play off the current economic crisis and come out of the box with a customer friendly ticket program and look like the good guys.  Keep your seat belt buckled, this is not over yet.

 

Now Is The Time To “Think Outside The Box”

So here we are in a recession and your company is cutting back.  You are told that you have to cut back on marketing budgets.  You can sit and cry about it or you can get creative.  This is why you are in marketing.  It is your job to make the best of anything.  You can even make liver & onions taste good. 

As I commented on in a previous post there will be “good” deals coming with traditional marketing.  I keep reading how the TV networks are bracing for the hit.  They are already cutting millions of dollars from their budgets. Take advantage of this.  What about promoting the event without running spots?  Be included in local programming? 

If there is anytime to start thinking outside the box it is now.  You don’t have to think alone.  Get your staff together and have a “brain storm party”.  You will be surprised how many ideas will come from the meeting. 

Now might be the time to embrace web marketing.  Maybe not the way you have looked or used the web in the past but put your creative hat on.  For example, I bet with unemployment on the rise, the e-based job sites are going to very popular.  The holiday shopping season is upon us.  Yes, there will be less spending this year on holiday gifts but people will still be spending something.  People still need gifts.  Where will they be?  Go where the people are. 

This could be a time in your work where you could really have some fun.  It can be boring doing the “same old stuff”.  Use this time to make your brain do some work and remember have fun with it.

We Need More PR Events!

Good old fashion PR events still work.  You just need the right event to do.  This past week Ringling Bros. had their high wire walker Nik Wallenda break the world record on the high wire. 

I worked for Feld Entertainment (owners of Ringling) several years ago.  This PR event was just like the old days.  It was the Ringling of old.  They created so much buzz from this event.  They had live coverage during the Today Show.  They had CNN, ABC… they had it all.  I compare this PR hype to that of a space shuttle launch in the 1980′s.

With all the bad news and political news that fill the airwaves we need more of these type of PR events.  This event proves that the media and the public are hungry for it.

Obama Marketing Update

Ad Age gave the Obama team Marketer of the year.  This came one day after I wrote in my blog  (see Obama Marketing Sets the Course 10/15/08).  They said the same thing I said in giving him the award.  He did it all right.  If he loses the election it won’t be the marketing campaign.

Obama Campaign Is Setting The Marketing Course

If you plan to vote for Barack Obama or not, you have to agree that he and his team have been great event marketers.  I have been in awe of what they have done and accomplished.  They have taken a Junior Senator from Illinois and made him into a “Superstar” brand.  As it has been used over and over he is a “rock star”. 

I love the complete marketing mix they use to get the message out.  Sure they use traditional marketing as part of the campaign such as TV and radio. But it’s the use of the non-traditional marketing that I am pumped about.  The website is getting millions of hits and has been a fabulous tool to raise millions of dollars.  Not with big donors but with millions of little donors giving as little as $15 each.  This is grass roots marketing for the 21^st century.

They have effectively used mobile marketing.  When the campaign was getting ready to announce the VP pick, they did a promotion with mobile phones.  They asked supporters to text them and they would send the mobile supporters the name of the VP pick first.  Of course you understand that all the media sent in their text too so it really was a media/general public release.  However, look at the data that the campaign collected.  Look at the new marketing tool they now have to get out “the word”.

But the coolest thing they are doing and what prompted me to write today’s blog is video game advertising.  The Obama campaign is buying ad space inside a few “online” popular video games with gamers using Xbox 360.  These users of Madden NFL 09 and Burnout Paradise might see ads showing up in the game.  On the Madden game, signage in the stadium could have Obama ads that remind voters that their state may have early voting.  What is even cooler is these ads are only showing up in 10 key battleground states.  So for example here in MA where he WILL win, those gamers will never see it.  But in PA, or NC they could see the ads.

No matter what happens in this election the Obama people have really brought non-traditional marketing to the main stream and this is a good thing for us event marketers.