Last week I wrote about Live Nation cutting a deal with Groupon to move tickets. I mentioned that this kind of deal was closer to the type of marketing that family shows have been doing for years. This week I saw another example of family show marketing for a Live Nation concert.
Here in the Boston area, we have a large furniture chain called Jordan’s. They are no small outfit. They are part of the Warren Buffet empire! Everything they do is bigger than life. They are all about mixing entertainment with selling furniture. All of their stores are themed toward entertainment. Some even have IMAX theaters. Over the past several years they have teamed up with the Boston Red Sox on promotions that include the possibility of everyone who buys furniture getting it free. Currently they are running a promotion that if you buy a mattress, you get free tickets to see Tim McGraw. This promotion is right out of the old Feld Entertainment handbook!
I took a peek at Live Nation’s website to see how the show was selling for the summer stop here in Boston at the Comcast Center. Thanks to LN’s new seating chart, I was able to see how many tickets were still available in each section. The answer: thousands of tickets are still available! This does not even include the lawn seats.
This is a good promotion for Live Nation. They know that Jordan’s does quality promotions. They know Jordan’s spends tons of money in advertising. They are one of the top advertisers in the Boston market. LN could never afford to buy the amount of TV exposure for one concert that the Jordan’s promotion is giving them.
I’m sure that I will get feedback from old school concert promoters ripping the promotion. They already responded to last week’s post on the Groupon deal. They believe that customers will wait to buy tickets at a discount. The family show biz has been offering discounts for years and customers didn’t always respond by waiting. If the concert industry doesn’t want to discount, than lower ticket prices.
While not every deal and promotion will breed success for concert ticket sales. My hat is off to Live Nation for at least trying!
Tags: Comcast Center, family show marketing, Feld Entertainment, Groupon, GrouponLive, IMAX, Jordan's Furniture, Live Nation
