Small Plate Events

There are two facts that we live with everyday in the live entertainment industry. Events and shows are getting bigger and we are having trouble filling the seats for them.  As the Devo song goes; “when a problem comes along, you must whip it”.

The larger and more complex our shows get, the higher the production costs.  The higher the costs, the higher the ticket price.  I am not suggesting we get rid of the big production shows, I am saying that we also need to create smaller, lower cost shows too.

When I worked for Feld Entertainment in the 1980′s and early 90′s, ticket prices were pretty reasonable for a family to attend.  We would get them in the venue and then get them to buy merchandise.  As we joked, it was the traveling toy store.  One of Allen Bloom’s famous quotes was; “We are for the masses not the classes.”  Today, ticket prices are much higher. They are running TV spots that talk about “affordable” prices but customer can’t get them because they are limited.  Or, the ticket price might start off affordable but by the time the fees are added in… I remember when we first offered “special rink side seating”.  We offered the seats at the premium price of $25 and wondered if the customer would buy.  Today, these seats are big bucks.

If I ran a venue I would look for some smaller but quality shows and events to fill in around the big shows.  Shows where you can charge a lower ticket price and fill up the seats.  If you are a producer of events, think about shows you can create that will offer excitement to a potential ticket buyer but won’t cost anyone their first born.

One of the hottest trends in the restaurant industry is small plate menu items. With small plates, customers tend to buy more of them which get’s them to often spend more than if they just ordered a full meal.  Why couldn’t we do the same in the live event industry?

Catering To Business

As event and entertainment marketers we are always putting all our efforts to selling tickets to single ticket buyers and to a few groups.  Unfortunately, groups tend to get the step child treatment.  When we do market to groups, we go after what is called in the business “SMRFS”.  This acronym means social, military, religious, fraternal, and schools.  Marketing to these groups makes sense but one key group demo is missing; business.

I’m sure I am going to get someone saying “how can we market to business groups when companies are laying people off or not rehiring”.  While many companies have pulled back over the last few years, this doesn’t mean they are dead.  Business still has to continue to move.  Companies that do have employees need to keep them.  Sales people that have clients need to keep clients and find new ones.

Last week I taught a private cooking class to a law firm.  The partners in the practice invited some other members of the firm to enjoy an evening of learning to cook, and good food.  This was a fun and relaxing evening that made for good employee bonding.  It was not an expensive event.  It was “affordable luxury”.

Go into any doctor’s office on any given day and you will find pharmaceutical reps.  Besides bringing samples of their newest drugs, they also like to bare gifts.  Some of these gifts can be tickets to events.  How many of you are pushing tickets to the pharmaceutical companies? How many of you have a sales manager list of all companies in your market?

What about marketing directly to company employees?  Amusement parks have been offering consignment tickets to HR/Benefit managers for years.  Movie theaters also offer this service.  Why not all of us in the live entertainment business?

I bet that if you sit and think about every business in your town, you can come up with a group marketing strategy for each one.

Learning From Starbucks: Revisited

Back in May 2009 I posted What We Can Learn From Starbucks.  In that post I discussed how Starbucks was having growing pains.  Many customers felt (including myself) they were moving away from what gave them the edge in the coffee market.  Almost a year and a half later they are turning things around.

Starbucks got over their caffeine headache and are now going back to the roots of the business: “the experience”.  People fell for Starbucks in the beginning because of the experience.  We spent $5.00 for a latte and we didn’t care.  We wanted to hear them call out the order with those made up words.  We wanted to see the barista make our drinks in front of us.  As they grew, they continued to raise the price of the drinks but pulled back on the experience and the quality.  All of a sudden they were not special.  McDonald’s now has “fancy” drinks at cheaper prices.  Dunkin Donuts even started messing with their coffee drinks.

Starbucks is making policy changes.  They are now back to requiring the barista to only make one drink at a time.  This helps with quality and enhances the customer experience of seeing their drink get the personal attention we pay for.  Yes, it will cause longer waits.  But Starbucks is betting the customer will appreciate that while shelling out $5.00.

There is a lesson here for all of us in the event & entertainment business.  Why don’t we get back to the core of our business?  Give our customers an escape from the real world for a few hours.  Think back to the days when you were the customer.  Remember what made you want to spend all your money on concerts, sports teams, shows, and events.  If we become the “experience” again our customers will buy.

Ladies & Gentleman: We’re Live!

After what seems like a lifetime but was actually five months, my new website is up and live.  Check it out at thelewigroup.com.

The Lewi Group is all about culinary.  It includes culinary marketing, chef representation, events, demos, classes, and catering.

Now that the website is live, I actually have to practice what I preach and market the new company.  You would think this would be easy but sometimes it’s harder marketing your stuff then marketing other people’s projects.

You might ask what does this have to do with entertainment marketing?  It has everything to do with it.  Food is entertainment!  We have all seen the success of food entertainment on television.  It is not just the actual food channels.  It seems every channel is coming up with a culinary concept.  So if it works for television, why not live in our arena venues?  If you are going to bring culinary live and on tour then you need people who understand both worlds.  The Lewi Group is all about that.

As an event & entertainment marketer I realize that we need to be always looking for new ways to put butts in seats. Our customers are looking for new and exciting products. Food sells!  Everyone loves food.  As a live event marketer and chef I’m bringing these two worlds together.

PR Stunts Are Back

Well, they never went away but they are back in fashion again.  I’m not surprised in this “WOW” world we live in.

I have always been a big fan of PR stunts and events.  Maybe it’s because I grew up around them.  My dad may still be known as the king of PR events.  He made a great career of promoting something by an event that always drew media attention.  He reminded me recently of when some of his crazy stunts didn’t work.  He still got press!  PT Barnum once said “there is no such thing as bad PR”.  Even his stunt failures were still huge successes.

There is an article in today’s Wall Street Journal about brands getting into the Guinness Book of World Records.  Guinness has even created a new division to help companies accomplish this. In the 21^st century world of YouTube and viral marketing, brands want that exposure and buzz.

When I worked for Feld Entertainment in the 1980′s, they were still known for creating great PR stunts and events.  Who can forget the famous Ringling Bros. elephant manure giveaways?  When that event needed to kick it up a notch, they went one step further.  “Someone” stole the manure in one city.  This turned into national media attention.  I still remember Jay Leno talking about it.

All of us in the event & entertainment business have potential PR events and stunts all around us.  Our business is tailor made for them.  I understand that in today’s world of marketing measurement, it’s hard to account for their results but these events do sell tickets.  Many of the best events don’t cost a lot of budget.  They only require your imagination.