Sponsorship Is Partnership

With the economy in the toilet, I was happy to see that companies still want to sponsor events.  In today’s Wall Street Journal there is an article about LG sponsoring tomorrows London New Years fireworks show.

The article discusses how LG has looked outside the box this past year when it comes to marketing.  Now you might think that sponsoring a fireworks show might be a waste of money.  How is the brand going to get the right exposure for a 10 minute show?  While the fireworks show is not going to shoot the logo into the sky, they are going to start the show with the LG branded colors.  All event signs leading to the event along with signs at the event will have the LG logo.  There will be people giving out thousands of LG branded New Year’s hats.  LG can also beam the logo on the side of a large building at the event.  The event is going to be broadcasted live on the BBC.  They have strict policies about advertisers on the network and will not mention LG.  The agency for LG is going to tape the fireworks event and post it all over the web on January 1st.  They are also going to send the footage to media outlets all over the world. 

The London fireworks event has never had a sponsor before.  They did not want to make the sponsorship into a “free for all”.  They set rules that would keep the event image and reputation that was expected. LG wanted to sponsor a big event but did not want to look “crude or crass” as the article mentioned.  This is a win-win for both groups.  That is what sponsorship is all about.  This is why I don’t like to call it sponsorship.  I call it partnership.  All of us in the event and entertainment business need to stop looking at sponsorship as “how much money can I get” and make it true business partnership.  With corporate marketing budgets under the knife, we need to put together opportunities that make sense to a potential partner and makes sense for the event.

 

Reward Your Customers

There are lessons we can all learn from this past holiday shopping season.  Some are lessons on what not to do and some are good ideas of what to do.  While all these deep, deep discounts are good for the customer, this is very bad news for most retailers. Wal-Mart has made a great business model around low prices and will continue to rise above the ruins.  Other traditional “higher end” retailers have not.  How are they going to make it in 2009?  You know they have to raise the price of the items back up to their “normal”.

One idea that has worked for retailers is loyalty / reward programs.  Many grocery store, pharmacy, and big box retail chains use these.  Why couldn’t the live event business try it?  If you are an arena think about what you could do with this program.  After you have signed up your customers (great data mining) you allow them to use the card to not only build up points but to reward them every time they use it.  Think about where they could use the card.  They could use it at the ticket booth, at the website, at the concession stands, at the merchandise stands, at your arena sponsors, etc…  If you are a concert promoter, why not offer a program for all “your” shows that you will promote. 

To keep them using the card, give them something every time they use it.  It could be a discount or something exclusive.  Also, every time they use the card they build up points that could be cashed in for something “great”.  How about a trip to Europe to see their favorite band in concert?

My brother Jim Lewi runs the Aspen Live Conference every December. Every year at the conference they come up with at least one idea to work on that might help the concert industry.  This year they discussed the idea of a “season pass”.  Why not offer your customers a chance to see many live events for one price?  Sports teams offer their fans this program, why not a pass for other events at the arena?  I am sure someone is saying “that would be a nightmare dealing with all the different promoters”.  Would it really be a big problem?  First off, you kind of deal with this “problem” now with all the suite seats and other premium seating you offer.  Second, how many different promoters are there?  Third, we have to come up with new ways to keep our customers coming back.  I think it is worth try don’t you?

The point I am trying to make is that we should make 2009 the year of “The Customer”. We should focus all our efforts maintaining the customers or fans that we have and build new ones.

Happy, Happy!

I am not surprised that the number one movie over the past holiday weekend was Marley & Me and Bedtime Stories was number two.  If you look at the other films that were released this past week, they are not what you would call fun “feel good” films.  I am not putting them down.  But they are serious dramas.  As I have mentioned several times, people are looking for entertainment to be an escape.  Between the holiday period and the economy, this is what people want.  People want happy, happy!

 

Mobile Marketing Means “Marketing”

The key to mobile marketing is “marketing”.  This does not mean just asking the customer to send you a text.  This means capturing the data and then marketing back to the customer.  I have been using my cell phone as a test case for all of you who read this blog.  Whenever I have the opportunity to text a message for an arena promotion (either on TV or at the arena) I do it.  I know they are getting my text because I get a quick text back letting me know.  But the fact that they are not using my captured mobile phone data to market back to me is unbelievable.  What a freakin waste! 

Almost a month ago I saw a promotion for a family show coming to Boston.  They had a TV promotion to send a text to enter for free tickets to the show.  I sent in the text.  I received a text back claiming I was entered.  I don’t care if I win or lose.  I hope I lose!  I still don’t know what the result was because I never heard back.  The show is opening the end of this week.  If I did lose, don’t you think they should tell me?  This would be a good time to also let me know they have plenty of “good seats” still available and I should buy them now. Remind me that the show opens this Friday!

This is the second time I have entered a mobile marketing promotion via a TV promo spot.  It was also for a family show playing at the same arena.  Once they captured my mobile data, they should have sent me a text informing me that another family show (same demo) was going on sale.  But they didn’t.

Every time I go to a sporting event, they offer mobile promotions to the fans in the seats.  I make sure I try all of them.  They have not marketed back to me.  Why?  I know that arena marketers read this blog; could you please let me know what the hold up is?  Send me a comment or email.  I will keep you anonymous if you want.

Everyone from the arena’s to the shows want to market using the new technology and non-traditional marketing.  These topics were the most attended sessions at the Event & Arena Marketing Conference.  I have met with “top” arena marketers who think they are up to speed with this.  But are they?   Arena marketing leaders have told me they are looking for people who “get it” to help them with this.  Yet, I still have not seen it.

Just collecting data and not using it to market is like collecting dust.  If you don’t do something it will just sit there and make a mess.

Great Viral Info

Seth Godin, who I think (so does a lot of people) is a true marketing guru had a great blog post yesterday on viral marketing.  Here is the link: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/12/what-is-viral-m.html.  I think you will like it.

I hope you all have a very happy holiday!

 

A Lesson From The Mall

Like many of you I went to the mall over the weekend to try and shop for holiday gifts.  This time of year, a trip to the mall is like going to an event.  Lots of traffic, lots of people, lots of high priced junk food, and hopefully you are entertained.

Our customers in the event and entertainment business expect a good customer experience.  We should have the same good customer experience anywhere we go.  You would think with the economy bad and retail ready to crash & burn, an effort would be made toward making the customer happy.  Let’s compare my recent trip to the mall with your customers experience at a venue or event.

The mall in my town has grown over the past few years.  Along with the size of the mall came more parking.  More parking is only as good as the people directing the cars to it.  The mall had lots of police directing cars to a parking garage that was full.  This in turn created grid lock.  No one could get in or out of the garage.  The mall security whose job it is to watch over the parking just drove round and round doing nothing.  When one parking lot is full, doesn’t it make sense to close it and wait until you open some spaces and clear the gridlock?  How about directing cars to an open parking lot?

Like buying tickets for an event, you go to the mall to spend money. Making a purchase should be treated as an experience that will make the customer want to do it again.  Shouldn’t the people taking your money put on a smile?  You don’t go to a show to have stress, so should you go to the mall to have stress?  Why not have opportunities throughout the mall to de-stress?  Maybe a free “time-out” area?  Last year American Express had one of these for card holders.  I loved it.  A place where you could relax for a few minutes, have a free cup of coffee or hot chocolate.  I think this is a great marketing opportunity.  It made me happy to be an Amex customer. Your sponsors could do something like this at your venue.  Maybe even offer something free for stopping by.

The mall food court is like the arena concession area.  Try to keep your stands open and well staffed during key times.  You know when these times are.  The food court I went to had long lines at most places.  Not because everyone in the mall was eating at once but because they didn’t have not enough staff. 

I write this not to bitch about my day at a mall, but to have you think about what your customer goes through coming to your event.  Please remember that our events are discretionary dollars.  We have to fight for the dollar more then the necessities of life.  When they do come to our events, they are coming for an escape from all the stress of life.  They want a good, stress free experience.  Maybe we can have a New Year’s resolution to give our customers the best experience ever.

 

Things To Think About Over The Weekend

We have discussed in the past how “big ticket” luxury is not in right now.  Besides the financial facts of life affecting us all, no one wants to show off wealth.  I went holiday shopping yesterday to my local mall.  This mall has “regular” mall type stores and has a wing of “high end” stores.  The regular part of the mall was busy with holiday shoppers. The high end was like a ghost town.  I could have run through Neiman Marcus screaming and no one would hear it.  My wife went to Wal-Mart yesterday and it was packed!  I mentioned last week that I went to a Boston Bruins game.  While the seats in the upper balcony were full, the lower level (between the blue lines) seats were not.  This in includes the premium seats.  All of the empty seats were in the high price category.  Remember, the Bruins are the hottest team in the NHL right now. Think about all this when you planning your marketing and pricing for 2009.

Reacting To Negative Twitter Post

Yesterday I wrote about trying social network marketing.  I mentioned Twitter and dealing with possible negative posts.  Here is a link to a great article in today’s Ad Age Online: http://adage.com/digitalnext/article?article_id=133381.

What Are You Having Tonight?

Have you seen the new Arby’s TV spot that is airing nationally?  When it first starts I thought it was a Viagra commercial.  The spot gives a whole new meaning to the Arby’s logo.  Here is a link to the spot: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaHDN3_X4QY.  This is a perfect example of the new ad thinking.  Put a “special” TV spot on the air and then watch in go viral.  It took me only 5 seconds to find it on YouTube. Just mentioning it in this blog is part of their viral goal.

Have a great weekend!

 

Try It You Might Like It

If you are not marketing your brand on the social websites, why not try a few?  As we have discussed for a few months, everyone’s budgets are getting smaller and we still have to market.  So why not do a social experiment?  It doesn’t really cost anything to try it.

The social networks are a perfect place to do a promotion.  They work best when you offer plenty of interaction and you give them something.  Let’s throw some ideas around.

Facebook is now the most popular of the social sites.  It appeals to a wide demographic age group.  From high school kids like my son to old dudes like me.  At the high school level, they do use it to socialize but they also love to see how many “friends” they can have.  I compare it to collecting Pokemon cards.  But having a lot of friends is what it’s all about.  The more friends, the more eyeballs seeing your message or talking about you.  Facebook is a perfect place to promote and offer something.  They have options that include; start a group, start a fan club, or invite friends to your event.   The new Will Smith movie 7 Pounds is promoting on Facebook.  Instead of just placing a boring banner ad they are inviting Facebook friends to go see the movie.  You can RSVP with yes, no, or maybe like an evite.  As of this writing, almost 20,000 people have said they plan to attend.  Why not try it with your brand. As we discussed yesterday, traditional banner ads on Facebook are not working. 

Twitter is a great site to speak directly to your fans and customers.  This is all about having a conversation.  Have a cool new event and want to spread the word.  Let your Twitter followers know about it.  Ask them to tell you what they like.  What kind of events do they want?  This can be your direct pulse.  Be prepared to also take criticism.  While you may think this is not good marketing, this is part of the social network scene.  Your response or lack of response to any criticism can be the make or break. 

If you are a family show, there are social sites for you.  Disney On Ice is promoting its show with MomsLikeMe www.momslikeme.com.  As the name states, it appeals to moms.  Check out the website.  You can log into the nationwide site or go to your own local city site.  On the local Boston site they have an online ticket contest for the upcoming DOI show.  I found out about this because the Disney On Ice TV spots are promoting the social site.  This is a win-win for both.

Pick any event you are trying to promote and offer something that members of the social website can receive.  For example, if you are an arena, why not try making a social network offer? Why not a free popcorn?  Give them a code word they need to say to get the popcorn.  See how many people take advantage of the offer.  Who cares if non-social customers get the code word.  That is the beauty of it.  If done correctly you will create buzz and word of mouth.  That is social networking.

More and more social sites are entering the space everyday.  No matter what you are trying to market, there is an online social group for you.

If you need any help with this or other creative ideas, contact me at: http://www.joelewi.com/contact_joe_lewi.html.

Have You Bought Your Traditional Media Buy Yet?

It is all over my media sources today about TV and radio stations cutting back and laying employees off.  All of this is a direct result of advertisers slashing media budgets for 2009.  Local TV station ad revenues are down 7% for 2008.  What do you think the 2009 number will look like?

Last week I wrote on this (Let’s Get Our Media Deals Back 12/8/08).  Traditional media is going to feel the advertising pinch more then any other advertising tool.  They are big, heavy media conglomerates with lots of overhead and high priced talent. 

As I mentioned last week, you need to be in these stations right now and cutting your deals.  If you already have a deal, you need to adjust it.  This is an opportunity that has not been available to us event marketers in years.  Think of it as “one person’s pain is another person’s pleasure”.  Everyone at these stations is going to be hungry. They are all scared of losing their jobs.  The sales reps are going to try and get every buy they can find.  Remember they are on commission.   Their managers need to make quotas and make sure inventory is filled.  Promotion managers need to justify their positions.  General Manager’s need to show revenue growth to corporate.  This makes for a perfect event marketers storm.  You should be able to “own” the station.  If you don’t come out of your meeting with a good promotion, trade, and great cash buy you might need to look at a different career.

Traditional Social Advertising?

There was an article in last weeks New York Times saying that banner ads on social networks don’t work.  Duh!  As we have discussed a few times, the key to social marketing is not placing an ad banner but getting personal with the members.  These social networks have the technology tools to have a marketer speak directly to a member who interested.  The best social marketing is the ones where the brand gets a member to join something.  Once they join something they get something.  The article implies that the only reason someone would join the “brand group” was to get something.  So, what’s the problem with that?  This is what promotions are for.  Why do people think that just running a boring “flat” ad is going to make someone buy or even think about the product?

Cutting Delivery Is In The Details

Monday, I helped break the story that the Detroit News / Free Press are cutting their home delivery to three days a week.  Today, it all over the newspapers about the details of this.  Home delivery is being cut to Thursday, Friday, and Sunday.  These are traditionally the three biggest advertising days for newspapers.  If I am an advertiser, I would not want to run an ad on the other days.  The newspapers are telling me that no one reads it on the other days.   One Associated Press article I read quoted a media expert that said “the biggest risk is it breaks the daily newspaper habit for readers and marketers”.  Again, another duh.  Do you think?  How do you become a “media expert”?  This is not a “risk”, it is going to happen!  As I discussed the other day, they are closing the door on their best customers.  How many businesses do you know do this?  He went on to say “Newspapers are accelerating their own print demise”.  Really???

 

’09 The Year Of The Low Dough Show

I predict that 2009 will bring about lower production cost events.  Everyone in the industry has no choice.  You will see major produced productions take a year off.  Events, sports, and touring shows will take a second look and decide if they can make it in this current economy. 

The first arena victim was announced today.  The 22 year old Arena Football League has cancelled its 2009 season.  The reason is the economy.  Here is a league that has done some amazing things in the past few years.  They were averaging over 10,000 fans a game, player salaries were in check, and they had a decent TV contract with ESPN. 

So what happened?  I believe a few reasons.  First off they have a big arena production.  It costs a lot to put on an AFL game. Even though they have a good deal with the players, it takes a lot of players and staff to run an AFL team.  The rent at the arena is not cheap either.   The bigger leagues know that you have to own the arena to keep the building costs in line.  The AFL is just a tenet.  They don’t get all the revenue that the arena brings in.  The season ran 17 weeks.  If you average 10,000 (round number) fans per game that’s only 170,000 fans per team per season.  The league promoted family friendly pricing (great for the fan).  While keeping the price of a ticket low (some seats under $10) it does not help the bottom line. All sports leagues live or die with the sponsorship deals.  While I have no first hand information, I am sure that AFL sponsorships took a hit for the upcoming season.

If you run an arena, you may have more open dates then you are used to.  You need to look at what you can do to fill the inventory.  Several years ago I was promoting family shows in Toronto.  I spent a lot of time at SkyDome.  Anyone that has been to the building knows it is huge.  Besides, being a stadium, it has a hotel in the outfield.  The cost to run this place is tremendous.  They knew that keeping the building busy was the way to go.  Besides the sports teams and large concerts that played there, they could turn the stadium into a smaller arena sized venue where the family shows played.  When they could not book all the open dates from the promoters, they created their own events.  For example, they took one week of open dates and created their own indoor carnival.  It had everything that an outdoor carnival would have including a midway, arts & crafts, food, exhibits, etc…  This was their event and they could control all aspects.  They kept the costs low and kept the revenue in house.

I am on the board of a non-profit theatre in my town.  I chair the annual benefit concert.  We had a wrap up meeting last night.  While this year’s event did not lose money, it did not make the budget. We took the recession hit in both sponsorships and ticket sales.  For 2009 we discussed is it possible to raise money with this kind of event while keeping production expenses lower for a better ROI?  This is what all of us in the entertainment industry need to discuss.

 

The Times They Are A Changing

Unless you live under a rock, you have to notice the changes that are slowly evolving from the recession.  Not only are companies cutting back with manpower and product but the theme of marketing is going in the recession direction.  Marketers are writing the recession into their advertising scripts.  A good example of this is Disney On Ice.  The folks at Feld Entertainment have the wording “family friendly pricing” in the TV spot script.  This is a good marketing phrase to use. Let families know that you can still afford to take to the kids out for some fun. 

I decided to check and see what the “family friendly pricing” was.  I logged into Ticketmaster and went to work.  The show is coming to the TD Banknorth Garden starting December 26th.  Ticket prices range from $75 to $20.  The $75 seats are the rink side seating.  Feld has been offering these special rink side seats for many years.  I was working for them when they first started the program.  I think it was around 1986.  These same seats were $25 each back then.  Not a bad increase after 22 years.

I requested four tickets best available.  For the performance I requested it returned $30 club level seats.  I happen to know that these are nice seats in the Garden.  They are located in the premium section of the venue.  They even have in-seat waitress service.  So I think Feld backed its claim.  But (you knew I would have one), to get the $30 seats via Ticketmaster you have to add a $4.50 convenience charge per ticket and a $2.00 building fee per ticket.  So the $30 ticket is really $36.50.  Now you have to have them delivered.  If you trust the US mail you can have them shipped for free.  If you want to pick them up at the box office you have to pay $1.00.  If you want to print them yourself at home, the price is $2.50.  Why does it cost $2.50 to print at home?  Is there some behind the scene labor I am not seeing?  It costs nothing to the box office, there is no ticket stock being used.  All the work and the cost seem to come from the customer.  It is our labor, ink and paper being used.  I would love for someone at Ticketmaster to please let me know what the story with this is.

Cutting Back On Home Delivery?

I read over the weekend that the Detroit News / Free Press is cutting its home delivery to three days a week.  I think the term to be used is “cutting off your nose to spite your face”.  The papers claim they are losing advertisers which in turn means loss of revenue.  So let’s take it out on the loyal readers. They are ones who get the newspaper everyday.   What are the publishers at newspapers smoking?  I can hear this conversation in the board room.  ”Let’s see, our revenues are down so let’s reduce our loyal readership.  Those who buy our paper everyday at home will have to look for it four days a week somewhere else.  Our advertisers will be so impressed with this they will buy more ads that fewer readers are seeing.  Yea, that’s the ticket”.

 

We Are The Fun & Happiness Business

One of the main reasons that the entertainment industry is usually the first to come out of a recession is because we are the “escape”.  I have written about this before.   So why are we not marketing this to our customers? 

With people losing their jobs everyday, tons of bad news in the media, and the weather bringing everyone down, we need fun and happiness in our lives.  Even major retailers now realize this.  Many have changed their campaigns this year to focus on fun & happiness.   TV networks report that sit com ratings are up this year.  So what are we in the “fun & happiness business” doing?  I have not seen much.  Our marketing should be geared toward the escape, the fun, the happiness and I don’t think we are doing this.  Have we learned anything from Disney?

If you market for a venue (arena, theatre, stadium) why is it fun to go there?  If you are a sports team, why is it fun to buy a ticket to watch the game (besides winning)?  If you promote concerts or family shows what makes the customer want to use you as their escape?

Advertising that just gives name, dates, and place is not going to cut it.  Where is the feel good attitude that goes with the brand?  Why do I want to spend money that I really don’t have on seeing your event? You might say that it costs too much to tell the customer all this?  My answer is: if you don’t “sell” the customer on your product you are not going to have a product.  What about your ticket prices?  Do you think the customer can really afford to see your show or event? 

If you run a venue, what is your customer experience like? Will customers walk away with good word of mouth about the venue?  How can you promote the fun and excitement that your venue provides? Have you promoted the “ease” of getting to your venue or parking when they get there?  What are your concession prices?  Can your customer get a decent deal on food?  I went to a sporting event this week.  I spent $100 on concessions for two adults and two kids.  Do you think that customers will continue to spend that kind of money on arena food?  Will it make them think twice before purchasing a ticket for the next event at your venue?

We have an opportunity to step up and show the world that we do care.  We are the standard bearers for fun and happiness.  We have a great story to tell about our products.  Buying a ticket for our events is the escape.  Now all you have to do is tell them why.

Have a great weekend!