Put The Thinking Cap Back On: It Still Fits

We all know the saying “every dark cloud has a silver lining”.  This recession has been really good for something.  I believe it has been great for thinking outside the box.  It has forced us to be creative and think. It is making us put our thinking caps back on.

Many of us have lost jobs or business over the past year.  Traditional companies have not hired people back.  This has forced very talented people to put their thinking caps back on.  As event and entertainment marketers we have really big thinking caps.  This comes in handy in times like this.  I have many friends in the business that have been coming up with new ideas.   They are really excited with their ideas.  They see these ideas as new opportunities.  It has given them new energy.

During this time of uncertainty, this is the best time to write down all your ideas.  I’m sure you have lots of them.  Think about all the opportunities you wanted to do but never had the time. Spend this time to research your ideas.  Some of them may not be ready for prime time but it only takes one idea. 

Don’t let this economic downturn hold you back.  We are event & entertainment marketers.  We are known for selling ice cubes to Eskimos. Put your thinking cap back on and make it work for you.

The Friday Doubleheader

The customer experience is worth its weight in gold

My friend Doak Turner sent me an example of a good and bad customer experience with his new iPhone.  He bought his new iPhone at the Apple Store.  He asked them if they could transfer his contacts from his old phone to his new phone.  They told him that he would have to have AT&T do this.  He went to AT&T and for some reason they couldn’t do it.  They sent him back to Apple who still could not transfer them.  While at Best Buy buying a charger, he asked them if they could help with the contact transfer.  Within minutes the task was completed. 

As soon as I read his email I said, “Wow, Apple’s customer service has really gone south”.  This is not the first time I have heard or noticed Apple’s decline in the customer experience.  I remember when everyone raved about their service. 

Right after I read his email, I read Seth Godin’s blog today titled Spare No Expense.  Coincidently, the take away from the post is that if you train your customer to expect a great customer experience and then pull back on this you will amplify the bad experience.

As event & entertainment marketers we need to remember that we are in the discretionary dollar business.  Our customers buy our tickets to be entertained and provide an escape.  They expect and deserve a great customer experience.  They may need to buy a mobile phone but they don’t need to see our events.  When you budget for the event, make sure you also spend the money on the customer experience.

Project Showtime?

The Wall Street Journal is reporting today that two years ago Ticketmaster considered buying up some of the biggest ticket brokers to counter Live Nation.  Of course this was all prior to the merger of LN and TM.  The name of this secret project was called “Project Showtime”.  First off, is that the best name they could come up with? 

Can any of you imagine what would have happened if they had proceeded with this project? The article claims that one of the reasons this deal didn’t happen is because none of the interested parties trusted each other.  Really, what a surprise!

The article states that Ticketmaster actually did an experiment last year with the Van Halen tour.  They pulled tickets from 20 Van Halen concert dates and gave them to the brokers.  The money was split 70 -30.  The 30% went to the brokers and the 70% was split between Ticketmaster and the band.

Why is this article coming out today?  I can’t see Ticketmaster or Live Nation wanting this out right now. The Justice Department is in the middle of reviewing the merger and this revelation can’t help. 

 Have a great weekend!

Spreading The Word: Use The Right People

I just started reading Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point.  After only a few chapters I am already hooked on this book.  If you are a marketer, you need to read it.  The book discusses what makes something “big”.  What causes a brand or product to become hot?  What makes a disease an epidemic?  What creates the “tipping point”?

Chapter two is called “The Law of a Few”.  In this chapter he discusses spreading the word.  This is our biggest marketing tool today. In fact throughout history, it has always been our biggest marketing tool.  Why this is so interesting is not how we spread the word but who we use to spread the word.  The best people to spread the word are individuals he calls “Connectors”.  These are people who seem to be connected to everyone.  Not everyone is a connector but we all know someone who is.  These are the people we want to help us get the word out. He gave a great example of Paul Revere spreading the word about the British. We all know about Paul Revere because he was successful in spreading the word.  He was a connector.  Did you know that someone else was out spreading the word that night?  His name was William Dawes. He was not as successful at spreading the word. Gladwell suggests that he was not as connected so his message did not get out.

If you are promoting a live event, you want connectors to see the show.  For example, if you’re marketing a touring Broadway show you want these people at your opening night.  On an opening night we always invite media who will help spread the word, but what about the connectors?  If they like your show, they will get the word out very quickly.  A personal endorsement from them will go even further then any media PR.  They know all the right people.  They know the kinds of people who would enjoy your show. 

Next time you are planning your opening night, try it.  I bet you will be glad you invited them.

A Few Marketing Thoughts From London

I just returned from a week in London.  As an event marketer I noticed two things while there:

1) They know how to market shows and events

2) Group sales is very big and very good

Marketing in England is a combination of traditional and non-traditional.  They understand that you need to “spread the word” any and all ways.  The Underground subway (The Tube) is used daily by millions of people.  They place advertising messages in The Tube anywhere commuters will be.  They used traditional posters on the walls that line the escalators.  You have no choice but to read them.  They use the new electronic transit boards.  They do grass roots marketing.  They hand out flyers in a proper way.  They are pushing the social network sites.  You don’t see a lot of TV ads for events but you do see PR on the TV morning news shows.  You do see TV promotions! 

Newspapers are still a very important communications tool.  Even the BBC and other TV networks discuss what the daily papers are saying.  It seems everyone has a newspaper in their hand.

Group sales are a part of everything in Europe.  They have tour operations down to a science.  All shows, events, and attractions have relationships with tour operators.  This is something that live event marketers here in the USA need to work on.  Amusement parks in the U.S. live and die with group sales and tour operators.  If you handle the marketing for an arena or live event, you need to cut deals with the tour operators.  Every bus group you sell represents 55 tickets.  We saw tour bus groups everywhere in Europe.  They provide groups with a very good customer experience and offer them very good package deals. Groups are given priority access.  Bus groups are dropped off upfront.  Group leaders have the relationship with the venue or attraction and use it to take care their customers.

The Power Of Free Marketing

I heard a great example of the power of email marketing and word of mouth when it comes to live events. 

My cousin Annie sent me an email yesterday letting me know that she received an email from Goldstar letting her know they were offering half price tickets to the Elvis Costello and Lucinda Williams concert.  The offer was good enough that she reacted and bought tickets.  In fact she called a couple of friends and four of them are going.  She went even further and emailed more friends to tell them about the great offer.

I have no idea how many people this email offer went out to.  I am sure it went to thousands.  The example above is just one person who received the email and a minimum of four tickets were sold.  Her word of mouth email went out to even more people.  This free marketing tool will sell tickets.  It might sell them alot of tickets.  This is a marketing power you can do today.

You Can Be A Blogger Too

The cool thing about today’s web 2.0 is that anyone can communicate with the rest of the world.  If you handle PR or marketing for a venue, show, sports team, or event you should start a blog.

When I talk to someone about this blog, the most asked question is “how do you find time to write it”?  We have all heard the term “time is what we make it”.  That is how I look at this blog.  It is part of my daily routine. The average time to write this blog is one hour. It shouldn’t take that long but you have build in interruption time. Some of you may be saying that you don’t have an hour to write a blog.  What if the blog is part of your job?  Blogging is a PR or marketing tool.  If you find the time to write a press release, buy media, or pitch promotional deals then you can find an hour a week to write a blog.  Use your blog to publish the press releases.

Posting blogs can be done for free.  Most blog sites host for free.  For example this blog is on WordPress.  I also use a free email subscription service call FeedBurner.  By using free services, I pass the free service to my readers.  You can also link your blog to other online and social sites such as Facebook.  If you are not yet using Twitter for your business, start a Twitter account today.  Twitter is a 140 character mini blog.  You can also send your Tweets to Facebook or even link them to your blog site.

This blog is used for marketing my event & entertainment marketing services.  It works.  Not only does it create online exposure for the business but it does generate leads and clients.  Why not try blogging for your business?

Time For The Return Of Retail Promotions

Last week we discussed retail marketing and retail’s ease at marketing to current trends.  Over the weekend I thought about retail and our events.  We need to go back to cutting promotional deals with retail.

At one time it was common to have retail promotions for our events.  Feld Entertainment was the best at it.  Today you don’t see as many of these promotions.  When you do, they don’t seem to have the “meat” they once had.  One reason I believe retail promotions have dropped off is because we started looking at them as cash sponsors.  We decided we rather take the money then the promotion.  As we all know, cash sponsors are now harder to get.  When the sponsorship dollars are not there, we need to sell even more tickets.  I propose we all look again at retail tie-ins as part of our promotional marketing effort.

Just like anything, the retail landscape has changed.  Trying to figure out who might be the right retail tie-in is the question.  A traditional retail sponsor for family shows had been grocery stores.  In the old days you could get lots of promotional mentions from them.  This included printed grocery bags, banners hanging in the store, posters in the windows, and coupons stuffed into the bags.  At some point the stores stopped offering these promotional opportunities and we stopped asking.  Maybe it is time to ask again. 

As we look at retail promotions we should look to non-traditional retail promotional partners.  As you plan the marketing for your cities take a good look at what you have around you.  What is unique to that market?  You want the locals to buy your tickets.  Go where the locals go. 

When you pitch to potential retailers ask for what you want.  The worse someone can say is “No”.  If you think you can get cash, then ask for it.  But remember you may lose promotional opportunities that just might make more for you.

What We Can Learn From Retail

As I was scanning the newspaper this morning, I saw an article titled “Antiviral Marketing”. The article is about how retailers are jumping on the H1N1 bandwagon.  With back to school shopping in full swing, retailers are marketing all the products that will help stop the spread of swine flu.  Retailer marketers are really good at jumping on a bandwagon.  As event & entertainment marketers maybe we can learn something from retail.

The other day I discussed “change” and why people don’t like it.  Well this theory doesn’t hold up when it comes to retail marketing. Retailers are really quick to change marketing strategies.  Many times they set the short term trends that consumers flock to. 

When we produce our events we usually plan these far in advance.  We may also plan the marketing of such events far in advance.  Is planning our marketing this far out the correct thing to do? 

Market research should be started well ahead of the event.  You need to know where the event will play.  You don’t want the event in a market where it won’t sell.  But what about the actual marketing of the event?  It’s good to know all your marketing and advertising options in advance but maybe we should design the actual campaign closer to the event.  By doing this we can tailor the campaign to current trends, economic factors, and other customer “top of mind” thinking. 

You don’t have to be as “cheesy” or blatant as retail marketers can be, but you can react and be creative to the customer’s bandwagon thinking.

One Live Event Cure: More Touring Festivals

We need more touring festivals!  Today’s biggest live event issue is the lack of ticket sales.  When a band tours, you get an opening act (or two) and then the headliner.  The headliner will play somewhere between 90 minutes and two hours.  The price of the ticket will cost north of $100.  Our customers are saying “not a good deal”.

Festivals are a good solution.  Put the right fest together with the right ticket price and you change the mindset of the customer.  Now they see value.  They see a “day out”. They see 10 hours of entertainment.  We need more of these.  

When I younger and lived in upstate NY I used to look forward to the jazz festival playing Saratoga each summer.  Even though I had long hair and liked rock, I still enjoyed going to the jazz festival.  Besides the great music that I was exposed to; I got to walk around, check out the cool stuff for sale in the tents, eat food that I would not get at a typical concert event, and just get caught up in the good festival vibes. 

Over the past few years there has been a decline in touring festivals.  One reason is the cost to move the show.  The economic climate we are experiencing might just be what we need.  We can do this right and make money doing it.  Don’t just put a festival tour out.  Do the market research and see what the customer wants.  Let’s do it right!

We are event marketers.  Let’s create some customer friendly, value added live event tours.  Let’s give our fans more “day outs”.

Change: Why Is It So Hated?

I was reading Ad Age Online this morning and saw an article on the reported mass exodus happening within the marketing department at Pepsi.  The article discusses that top and middle marketing execs are jumping ship due to changes being made from the new Pepsi America head Massimo d’Amore.  I don’t know anymore about this story then what I read so I can’t take sides.  But it got me thinking about what happens when change comes to a company, product or brand.

Cheryl Crow had a big hit a few years ago singing that “a change will do you good”.  Sometimes you do have to change.  When this happens, it seems everyone flips out except the person who suggested it.  I am not one who believes we should change something for the sake of change.  I believe in “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”.  However, if the product or marketing has issues then change it!

As event & entertainment marketers we need to be ready to change something when it is not working.  We always need a “Plan B”.  We create and plan events based on our knowledge and expertise.  Sometimes shit happens and we need to react to it. 

As a football fan, I get so frustrated when my team is having a “bad day” and the coach will not change the game plan.  Why won’t he make the change? 

Many times people hate change because it requires them to do more or different.  People take comfort in routine.  When change happens it messes up the routine.  What fun would our job be in the event & entertainment marketing business if everything was always the same?