20th Century Marketing In The 21st Century

Everyone who reads this blog on a regular basis knows that I love the new media.  Even though I was trained in live entertainment marketing in the 20^th century, I have embraced the internet; social media and any new form of marketing that will help me reach my audience.  But just relying on 21^st century technology is not enough.

If you are applying your 20^th century bad habits to the 21^st century then nothing is going to change.  In fact, you could make your results worse.  Remember, today’s marketing offers instant feedback and social interaction.  If you use today’s marketing to announce and put on sale (break) a show, how are you doing this?  If you just announce, run an ad, and put the show on sale then you are wasting your time and money.  It’s just like they did it in the 20^th century.  This was especially true with rock promoters.  God forbid they would kick off with a real promotion that created real buzz.  Today’s marketing is all about involving your customer.  They want input.  They want interaction.  They want a relationship!

You can put good 20th century marketing practices to work in the 21^st century.  First you need to slow down and do your homework.  Do today’s entertainment marketers even do marketing plans anymore?  Who is your customer?  I like to use the old apple tree analogy.  When I write my plan I first go after the low hanging fruit.  What marketing tools will help me get it?  Social media is good for this.  Then I get out my ladder (even though I am afraid of heights) and start climbing and working for those harder to reach apples.  I don’t know about you, but I think the hard to reach apples taste sweeter.

Today’s marketing takes effort even though you can do it from your computer.  If you just sit on your ass in front of the computer and try to market, you will develop 20^th century bad habits that will aid bad marketing health.  Apply the good, old fashion exercise of hitting the pavement with your creative marketing mind and your feet.

How Do You Rank?

Everyone is always so concerned how many hits their website gets. But more important than hits is where do you fall in the food chain of web exposure?  There is a TV spot running that tells the small business owner that without a website, you are invisible on the web.  This is partially true but it’s not just about the website. As a marketer you know that one marketing tool is not enough.

Everyone that uses the internet uses Google, Bing, or some other search site. Most people will stop the search as soon as they think they found what they are looking for.  But are they finding you?  What if you are half way down the search page or even worse on page 2?

There are tons of companies that claim they can get you to the top of the search page.  Most of them are full of shit! I get email from them every day making this claim.  They must not Google my site. There are two ways to get you to the top.  One costs money and the other does not.  You can buy ad space from the search sites or you can work to get yourself on top.  

Just having a website is not enough.  The more exposure you have on the web, the better your chances of coming out #1 on a search.  For example, I have a website, a blog, two Twitter pages, LinkedIn, and Facebook.  Google my name and I am the top eight of nine rankings.  The only reason I am not all nine is because my great great grandfather was a famous doctor listed on Wikipedia. 

Some people think I waste too much time on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. There is a method for my madness.  As a marketer I understand you have to work the web to get the results.  Every time you post anything you raise your overall ranking.  If you use Twitter for your business then you need to tweet every day.  This not only helps with your ranking but also gets you more Twitter followers.  

Next time your boss catches you playing on Facebook, just tell him/her you’re marketing.

Online Coupons

I get my daily offers from both Groupon and Livingsocial and I always chuckle.  Not because the deals are funny but because this concept was so… frowned upon just a few short years ago in the entertainment marketing world, and some still do. I was part of a concept in 2000 that was way ahead of its time with grouptickets.com.  These sites have taken our concept to the next level.  I was almost a dot-com millionaire!

I love these social coupon sites.  They have taken the idea of group sales and super groups to the mainstream.  You can get discounts for restaurants, car washes, clubs, bars, dental, etc…  The one participant I don’t see a lot is our industry.  Some are doing it, but they are in the minority. What is wrong with us?  Why are we always one step behind?  We should be all over these sites. I just read this morning that even the movie business is using it. Lions Gate Entertainment is offering a half price coupon on Groupon for an upcoming movie release.

Everyone always thinks that coupons make the product look cheap.  It’s all in how you market it!  If you market it cheap, it will be cheap.

If your show performs with empty seats then you should be looking at these sites. Why leave the seats empty.  Why do you try to fill them with comps?   When you paper the house you have no idea how many will cash in the comp. With these sites, the customer has to buy the coupon.  The chances they will redeem it are much greater.  

These sites offer minimum and maximum coupons that can be sold.  They offer time limits.  You can control the flow of coupons.  They do a mass email marketing campaign for you.  Do you realize how many million people get their daily emails?

No I’m not on Groupon’s or Livingsocial’s payroll, just a happy consumer who gets it.

Are We Too Predictable?

Our customers are always asking what is the next great thing?  What is the newest trend? What is the show we have to have a ticket for?  Could our problem be that we are leaving them with too many question marks?

Have we become too predictable? Maybe we need a live entertainment makeover.  As shows go on tour and their marketing hits us, I notice nothing really new, fresh, and exciting.  I know that shows have new themes but I am talking about a show and marketing campaign that wow’s people. Something they really have never seen before.

In the music world they currently have Gaga.  She played here in Boston last night. The buzz was awesome.  I have not seen that kind of excitement for a concert in a long  time.  But one singer can’t carry the music industry.  Who else is coming down the pike to re-energize the concert industry?

What is the next big thing in the family show business?  What are the kids excited about? It is commonly known that you really don’t have to change the format of a family show because as one generation of children age out, the next ones are coming in.  But does this still work?  What if mom and dad are not interested?  When I was a kid I would always go to the circus or the Globetrotters.  So it made sense that I wanted my kids to see them too.  But as our audience is shrinking, this means less future adults wanting to take the kids.

I believe we have become too predictable.  This goes for both the shows we produce and how we market them.  Let’s shake things up in the live entertainment industry.  Let’s get our customers excited.  Show them why going to see something live is a treat for all our senses.

Doing It By The Book

You know the saying “There is a time and place for everything”.  This is true.  There are times when you really have to follow rules, policies and procedures.  In the culinary business you have to always go by the book when it comes to food safety. There are other times when you can go outside the lines, for example when it comes to recipes.  Now that I am in the culinary biz it reminds me how you can sometimes leave the comfort of rules and procedures and do what you know best.  But you can’t do that until you really know and understand it.

When you first learn a new job, craft, or profession you have to go by the book.  The book was written for a reason.  You have to keep going by the book until you understand it backwards and forwards.  You think about them in your sleep! Once it becomes “second nature”, then you know how to go off roading.

Several years ago I was doing some consulting work for Feld Entertainment. I was hired to work on a Goosebumps Live date in Detroit.  Unlike the old days when I worked for them full time, they had everything spelled out on how to market the show.  I met with my friend Bill Lee from Olympia Entertainment.  Bill is the live entertainment marketing genius in Detroit. We looked at other cities where the show was on-sale and saw business was not good.  He and I decided that we were not going to let Detroit fall into that rut.  The tour was being promoted as a theatre show for children. We threw out the playbook and wrote our own marketing plan for the engagement.  We decided to promote the show as a family show that just happens to be playing in a theatre instead of an arena. 

When the show got to Detroit, Kenneth Feld was there for opening night.  He pulled me aside and asked why business was good in Detroit.  What were we doing that other cities were not?  I said “we didn’t go by the book”.  We went with our gut.  Bill and I knew the market.  We knew what would move tickets.

Did we take a risk not going by the book?  Yes we did.  But sometimes you have to let people do what they do best!