When You Get Attacked!

This morning I was driving in my car and a radio spot came on with weird, distorted holiday music.  As I continued to listen I soon found out it was a radio spot attacking the touring show for the Radio City Rockettes Christmas Spectacular.  The spot was produced by the local musicians union here in Boston.  The reason, according to the spot is the touring show doesn’t use live musicians.   This radio spot was well produced and went right to the heart of what customers want; a good experience.

In the radio spot they compare the touring show from the New York City annual event.  They claim that in NYC you get live music.  On the road, you don’t.  They even claim the tapping of the feet is canned. They ask the question of why you would pay for that kind of experience?  They end the commercial asking the listeners to contact the Wang Theatre (where the show is playing) and let them know what they think.

So, what would you do if it happened to you?  What are the folks at MSG (the producer) going to do about this? Is this a potential PR crisis?

When I worked for Feld Entertainment, I was used to having animal rights protesters at Ringling Bros. Circus.  They set up shop outside the arena and hand out flyers to families entering.  Circus ticket buyers are used to it.  I think this protest with the Rockettes is different.  Why would anyone protest dancers in a family show? The musicians union is running drive time, 60 second radio spots on the number one radio station in Boston.

I am sure that MSG is aware the union has a problem with this.  The question is what are they doing to counter it? How are they going to ensure the buying public they are still getting a top notch, quality show that is comparable to New York?

With the union spending this much money and effort to get their message out, I don’t think MSG should sit back and do nothing.

EAMC 2011: We Need A Cage Match!

Yesterday, I received both an email and tweet that the 2011 Event & Arena Marketing Conference is going to Indianapolis June 15th – 18th.  I went to the website to look over what was planned so far to date.  One interesting discussion will be the State of the Industry from a promoter prospective.

One agenda item that I always thought should be on the schedule is a real serious pow-wow between venues and shows.  Maybe it should be a locked cage match. A no holds barred discussion. This meeting should have no time limit.  No one leaves the room until they have accomplished stuff that will change the industry (WWE can sponsor it). I have always thought there was a disconnect in the industry. Promoters bitch about venue marketers and venue marketers complain about the promoters. This doesn’t change our mutual challenge:  putting butts in seats. We need to get everyone (and I mean everyone) in the room to make it a meaningful discussion with results. Every promoter, show, and venue group needs to be there.

We need to find out why customers are not buying tickets to events! Whenever I write that customers are not buying tickets, I get someone telling me their venue doesn’t have that problem.  Well, then you need to come to the conference and let us know what you are doing because this is a huge issue in the live event industry.

Let’s have a conference where we shake things up!

Why Wouldn’t You Sell Groups?

Last week I was asked to give some information on group sales to a venue that currently didn’t have a group sales program.  They were thinking about starting one.  Why did they have to even think about it?

It blows me away to think that there are organizations in our business that don’t have group sales.  If you sell tickets then you should have a group sales program.  I realize that there are events and venues that may not need group sales for every show and event.  Unless every single event is sold out all the time, you need a group sales program.

When I was selling groups for a casino cruise company with locations in Boston and Miami, groups not only filled open slots but were sometimes the life blood of a daily cruise.   Thank God for those senior buses!  Family shows have known for years the importance of group sales.  I just got an email today about the girl scouts having a scout day at Disney On Ice (my daughter used to be a girl scout).

If you sell tickets, would you rather sell 2 tickets to a customer or 30 tickets to one customer?  Pretty easy answer, right?  Yet I continue to hear about events and venues that don’t offer it.  Some smaller venues will say they don’t have the capacity.  Do they sell out all shows?  I know the answer is no.

If you don’t have a group sales program start one today.  Hire people who are not afraid to go out and make the sale.  Don’t let them just sit by the phone and wait for an order.  They need to go out and make sales calls.  We are in the personal touch business.  Make your group leaders feel special and they will do a lot of the work.

So…I ask again, why wouldn’t you sell groups?

Up Sell

This past weekend my wife and I went out to dinner.  It was a nice rare treat.  After we sat down we looked at the wine menu.  Lots of bottles to choose from.  My wife is good for maybe one glass and I’m good for two.  Plus who is going to drive? While they had lots of full bottles to choose from they didn’t have that many “by the glass” choices.

The manager of the restaurant saw us pondering over the wine menu.  He asked us if we wanted to order a bottle.  We told him of our issue.  He asked us if we knew that we could bring our unfinished bottle home?  They offered a state approved “doggie bag” for wine. In our state as in many others, you can bring home any unfinished bottles purchased at a restaurant.  While I vaguely remember when the law was passed, I had never had a restaurant offer it.  This was brilliant! They used a law to up sell us on buying a bottle of our choice.

Up selling is a vital part of any business where sales revenue is involved.  Live events & entertainment can really benefit from up selling. Yes, our main goal is to move tickets.  But like anything, we have more than one revenue source to help the bottom line.

During the Ticketmaster / Live Nation merger, they discussed a one stop shop where a customer could buy tickets, merchandise, and even the artist latest CD. I thought that was a great idea.  But why wait for Live Nation/TM to do it?  Why not start your own?

When a customer comes to the box office to buy a hockey ticket, why not offer to sell them advance parking?  Why not ask if they want to buy a pre-purchased food card for the concession stands? Are they buying the ticket as a gift? Do they want some merchandise to go with it?  Doesn’t need to be a pushy hard sell, just a simple offer.  The worse that someone will say is “no”.  But think about how many may say “yes”.  This is added revenue for just asking a question.

Thank God It’s Over!

I am sure that everyone in the USA is uttering those words today.  Doesn’t matter who you voted for.  This year’s election campaign was crazy.  I can’t remember ever seeing and hearing so many campaign ads.  Most were really nasty!  As live event marketers, we should be shouting for joy that the election is over.  We can now get back to selling our shows and events.

Anyone who buys media knows that the election season is never good for marketers.  First off, there is never any inventory to buy.  But even worse are the rates to buy the ads.  We have no real negotiation power for the lowest rates.  Political ads always get the lowest rates.  Why is this fair?  I always find it funny that politicians can find time to change any rules or laws that help themselves first.

I remember many political campaigns when I had shows on sale.  I always hoped that my show was far enough away from the election to hold off on my cash buy.  Forget trying to run promotions during the campaign.  These spots are considered free and that would mean that pols would get free spots too.

One good thing about marketing today is that we have other choices.  We don’t have to buy just TV, radio, and newspaper to get our message out.

I would be really interested to find out what you did to market during this political season.  Please feel free to post comments about your experience and I will share them with all our readers.

Now call up your TV rep and get some free spots!