Happy New Year – Let’s Make It A Great 2010

I believe we can all agree that 2009 was not the best for us in the event & entertainment business.  Too many empty seats and too many comps used to fill them.  Here are my thoughts for marketing our events in 2010.

I believe 2010 is going to be a much better year.  It really can’t get much worse.  Ticket sales will increase in the upcoming year.  But as event & entertainment marketers you need to help make this happen.  Your New Years resolution needs to include a different attitude and approach to marketing your events. 

Don’t try to re-invent the wheel.  Use marketing ideas and techniques that have worked for years.  This does not mean use just older media technology.  You should be using any and all media that reaches your target demo.  What I am trying to say is “the message has never really changed, just the way you communicate it”. 

Keep an open mind to any new ideas or opportunities.  So many of us are stuck in our old ways.  We think that just because we have “never done it that way” we can’t try it now.  Your success in 2010 will come trying new things. 

Most importantly, create a reason for your customers to want to buy tickets.  Give them what they want, not what you want.  Keep your prices reasonable.  Give them product that will make them excited.  Make your message like the product.  Make the message fun and entertaining.

We should all be excited about 2010.  Say it will be a great year and it will.

Happy New Year!

So This Is Christmas

UK gives TM/LN a Christmas present

The United Kingdom’s version of anti-trust regulators has given Ticketmaster/Live Nation a surprise holiday gift.  They are now allowing the merger to go through on their side of the pond.  This should open the door and allow the U.S. to move forward.  I hear we could see the merger completed in the first quarter of 2010.  

Holiday Wishes

This week means one of two things to people in the live event industry.  You are either lucky enough to have the holidays off or your lucky enough to be working your ass off.  While Hollywood usually shuts down over the holiday period, the shows on the road are trucking along at full speed.  This is a very busy time for arena venues.  I remember several Christmas and New Year’s nights spent in Toronto with the cast of Disney On Ice.  While it is traditional to spend the holidays with family, my wife and I both agree we really did enjoy spending those holidays with our road show family too. 

This holiday period can be our version of “Black Friday”.  I hope that stockings are filled Christmas morning with tickets to all our events.  Let’s make the best of the next two weeks and put lots of butts in the seats.

I wish everyone either at home or on the road a wonderful holiday season!

Do You Live By: “Whatever It Takes”?

What if everyone lived by the slogan “whatever it takes”?  How different would this world be?  Most people will tell you they believe in this slogan.  If this is true, why don’t most practice it?

The airlines are a perfect example of not practicing this.  The big snow storm this past weekend on the east coast was not the airlines fault.  Most airline passengers understand this.  However, the passengers are asking the airlines to try and do “whatever it takes” to get them to their destinations.  The passengers get mad and frustrated when they think the airlines are not trying everything. This is all in the message.  If they just made a bold statement that said “We are going to try everything in our power to get our customers to their destinations” that would be a big help.

As event & entertainment marketers we have issues that pop up everyday. You can’t do everything by “whatever it takes”. But having the mindset of “whatever it takes” is worth your weight in gold. You learn to use this positive approach to help your customers, your business, and yourself. The marketers I know who live by this rule are the most successful marketers.

We all know that companies are always watching the bottom line.  But there are times when bottom line needs to be put on a back burner and the customer needs to come first.  When you go into “whatever it takes” mode this accomplishes more then a quick fix to help a customer, this will also pay dividends down the road.  If you think about bottom line everyday and in every situation and never think “whatever it takes” you will pay in the future.

Don’t Forget The Human Touch

I am a huge fan of modern technology and the internet.  I am not afraid of it and never have been.  But I have noticed one big change that is not good for companies or our customers.  This is the lack of human contact.

This year I tried to use the web to purchase many of my holiday gifts.  The internet method is designed to be easy and convenient.  It is supposed to take the hassle out of traffic and malls.  Sometimes the net can be more of a hassle then wading through the malls.  What happens when something goes wrong?

How many of you have had issues with buying something online?  My guess is most. Think how you feel when it happens.  Now as marketers of event & entertainment use that feeling to make your customers experience better. 

Give your customers as easy a fix as quickly as possible.  What this could mean is getting a human to speak with them right away.  Every minute and step the customer needs to make is one step closer to losing the sale.  On the same web page where the transaction is taking place, give them a couple of options to speak to someone.  This could be with a phone number or with “live chat”. 

Last year I gave my family hockey tickets.  First I went online and looked around.  Nothing was available.  Then I went to the arena box office and spoke with a very nice ticket seller. She took the time and effort to look around and found me great seats.  She took an interest in helping the customer.  The computer cannot do this.  The technology is not there yet.

The customer experience is always your best marketing tool.  Good word of mouth and repeat business comes from a good customer experience.  Sometimes the internet cannot fix issues when they happen.  Only a pleasant human on the other end can bring comfort and joy.

Can’t Find A Seat? Take Out An Option

There is a new service out called OptionIt and pro teams may have found a new ticket revenue source.  Click on the link and check it out for yourself.

If you are a consistently sold-out sports team or event, this is a way to bring in additional seat revenue and keep the seats full.  Here is how it works.  A customer can put an option on a seat or seat price for a sold-out event.  If the seat becomes open, they have the option to buy the seat at face value, sell their option, or just pass.  The customer of course pays for the option.  This cost is over and above the face value of the seat if it becomes available.

The first question that popped in my head is where do these “good” seats come from?  I understand that OptionIt is in partnership with the team or event but if these seats are “sold-out” how do they become available?  Yes, I know that teams and events hold seats for various things but they usually don’t hold too many if the team sells out on a regular basis. The website claims that you usually exercise your option a week or two before the event.  When do “holds” get released? 

According to their website they have signed three NFL teams, two NHL teams, and one NBA team.  They also have the SAP Open (tennis) and Strikeforce (martial arts).

Don’t get me wrong, I like this concept.  This is an interesting twist on ticket brokers and aftermarket ticketing.  Of course knowing our industry, the cynic in me wonders how many teams or shows will hold seats back just to make some additional revenue? 

As we enter the New Year it will be interesting to see where this new ticketing option goes.

Free Flow Friday

Billboard getting a new owner

Nielson is selling Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, Adweek and others to the investment group E5 Global Media.  When I first heard this story yesterday AM, I thought they were closing all of these magazines.  It will be interesting in the months ahead to see what the new owners will do with these trade publications that most of us read on a regular basis.  Nielson is closing Editor & Publisher.  This makes me a little sad.  When I was a senior in college and starting to look for a job, I read E&P every week.  I remember scanning their employment section hoping one of the great newspapers in this country might hire a young college graduate. 

Aspen Live Conference

The annual Aspen Live Conference is taking place this week in Aspen.  I am looking forward to hearing reports from the conference.  The attendees at this conference seem to have a pulse on what is happening in the live event industry.  In particular, I would like to hear what they think is going to happen with the lack of tickets being sold and the trend for 2010. 

Feedback Friday

Feedback from:  ”Do You Really Know Your Business” posted December 2, 2009

I had a similar discussion with a colleague of mine while we were working the load-in for Star Wars – In Concert a couple of weeks ago-  

You see, by trade, I call myself a “promoter” – but in reality, I make the majority of my income (for now) as an IATSE stagehand.  Pulling feeder, bolting truss, unloading trucks in all weather…sure, its grueling work, but my plan isn’t to always be a stagehand. We see the Events Execs gently strolling around the arena (or stadium…or theater) in their expensive shoes and freshly pressed shirts and often wonder how completely out of touch they might be…Certainly, it’s not ALL execs–but how many LiveNation or SMG higher-ups got their positions based not on “what” they know, but “who” they know.  

And unless they’ve been in the trenches…sweating it out with the rest of us grunts…how can they possibly understand the full scope of what goes into a production?  And to take it a step further- I’m a buyer/promoter for a 400 capacity club…our ticket prices cap out around $15 for the mid-range stuff that passes through my c-market….and I *constantly* hear from ticket buyers how unhappy they are with something as small as a $2.50 service fee (which is minuscule in contract to TicketMasters outrageous fees)…so to sort-of compensate, we make sure that beers are moderately priced and that doors open when advertised and we do a few bigger shows for “no cover” throughout the year as a thank you-So yeah, man…I agree completely. Let’s see some of these suits load in a band in a small club…or wait in line at will call…or pull feeder under a stage in 95 degree August weather…   Great post.  Jersey Mike

Holiday Marketing: Go Where The People Are

Just like all retailers trying to make their numbers this time of year, all of us in event & entertainment marketing should be doing the same.  One way to market this time of year is to go where the people are.

If you are looking for lots of foot traffic and eyeballs why not market inside a mall.  Even though people may have less money to spend this holiday season that doesn’t mean they are not shopping.  I live very close to a mall and I can honestly say it’s packed.  The traffic on some weekend days is so bad they divert traffic through my neighborhood.

We are in the discretionary dollar business.  We need to convince our customers to buy a ticket over buying something else.  We already know that our tickets make “great holiday gifts”.  We include that tag line in our ads.  So why not give them the option while they are shopping at the mall? 

Malls do not limit themselves to just permanent stores.  They rent kiosk space too.  Why not spend some of the marketing dollars to promote your events at a kiosk?  If you are a venue, you mostly have several events that would work.  Split the marketing dollars between the events.  The kiosk could be manned or unmanned.  Maybe you could only man it on weekends when the most traffic will go by it.  Why not set up a computer and sell tickets directly from the kiosk?  I find you have a better chance of closing the sale if you close it right away.

We all agree that traditional advertising and marketing is not working the way it used to.  Let’s continue to think outside the box and bring our shows and events directly to our customers.

What We Can Learn From Tiger

You probably looked at the headline of this blog post and said “what does Tiger have to do with us in event & entertainment marketing”?  My answer is: what he did wrong. 

Yes, of course his “transgressions” were wrong and there is no excuse for them. But I am talking about his PR blunders.  I continue to be shocked and amazed how companies and people (famous & not famous) screw up the handling of the PR message.  Lawyers, managers, PR execs, and agents are always telling their clients to “keep quiet”.  I understand why they want them not to say anything.  The more someone talks, the deeper in shit they get.  However, staying quiet is all in the timing.  If you stay quiet too long you raise more red flags. 

In the case of Tiger, he and his people made this into a bigger media deal.  They did this by the handling of the situation.  The story first broke in the late morning.  The incident happened in the middle of the night.  This means several hours had passed by the time the story went public.  Why did it take so long for his team to respond?  The correct crafted statement could have really taken the wind out of the media frenzy.  Instead, they said nothing for a long time. When they did say something it was a very cryptic message that raised even more media attention.

In our business things are going to happen that require a PR crisis response.  How we handle the PR can make all the difference.  Long before a crisis rears its ugly head you should have a plan.  Work with your legal team.  Discuss “what if” scenarios with them.  The legal people are there to protect you from legal and civil courts but they don’t represent you in the court of the media or public opinion.  There needs to be a balance. Make sure you ready on both sides.

Have a great weekend!

Do You Really Know Your Business?

Seth Godin had a great blog post on Monday (he always has great blog posts).  This particular one was called “Watch the Money”.  In it he asked if you really understand your customer? In other words, are you your own customer?   I would like to take this one step further.  Do you really know your business?

I totally agree with Seth.  How can you know your customers if you don’t experience it?  He gave a great example that pertains to our industry.  He asks us how can we understand our customer’s complaints about buying tickets if we never buy tickets ourselves? If you are in the industry, when is the last time you bought tickets from a ticket re-seller?

As I mentioned above, why not take this even further.  How can you really know your business if you only work in one area of the business? 

If you are an event marketer, when is the last time you worked in the box office?  Have you ever sat at the window and sold tickets? Do you know “first hand” what your customers are asking? Have you worked operations for your show or event?  Yes, there has always been the “friendly feud” between marketing and operations.  But do you really understand their side? Do they understand yours? As a marketer or PR person do you get frustrated when the artist or act doesn’t want to do the interview or the meet-n-greet?  Do you really know why?  I understand you may not get to trade places with them for a day but have you ever had a one-on-one discussion with them?  Do they understand your part of the business? 

When you put promotions together, have your really thought it through? How does it affect anyone and everyone?  You can’t really know this unless you’ve been there. 

You will never really know your business until you know your business.