That “Certain Something”

I am very happy to announce that The Lewi Group is now handling the representation, marketing, and public relations for Pastry Chef Lisa Raffael.

Lisa is the owner of Delicious Desserts in Cape Cod.  She makes some of the most amazing wedding cakes and other pastry creations you have ever seen or tasted. I am not the only person who thinks there is something special about Lisa. She has been on Food Network Challenge at least three times.  Next month she will be featured on TLC’s Fabulous Cakes.  She is a rising culinary star!

There are lots of great chefs in this world. Just like there are great musicians, athletes, shows, and events.  What do the top ones have that the others don’t?  There are no direct answers to this question.  If there was, you and I would be famous too.  First off, you have to have talent.  After that, you have to have that “certain something”. 

As an event & entertainment marketer you have to figure out what is going to make your show rise above all the others.  You fight every day against any other product that might take discretionary dollars from you.  There is always a market for any show or event.  You do hope the producers did their homework.  But after you figure out the target market, you need to ask yourself; “what else?”  What can you do that will make the show or event rise above everything?

When I was with the Atlanta Knights back in the 90’s we were the minor league hockey team in a major league market.  However, we out sold the Atlanta NBA team in ticket sales.  What made us special?  We had no stars.  We made the entire brand the star.  The brand was built to create excitement and offer the customer a great night out. From the moment they entered the arena until they left, they were entertained.  It had that “certain something”.

With Lisa, besides being a great pastry chef, she has a great personality that works well  for TV and live entertainment. She makes cake fun! If you want to see for yourself, check out TLC’s Fabulous Cakes on Monday, January 3rd.  As they always say “date is subject to change. Check your local listings for exact date & time”.

EAMC – Mind Your Elders

The participants of the Event & Arena Marketing Conference were in the presence of legends yesterday. 

The first full day of the conference should have put awe in all that were sitting in the general session room.  As per tradition honors were given out.  This includes the GiGi award and new inductees to the Arena Marketing Hall of Fame.  The board got it right! 

The GiGi award named after GiGi Pilhofer was given to Larry Rubin.  Larry is considered to be one of the best arena PR people ever!  He is one of those rare people who “get it”. 

The Hall of Fame inductees included Linda Deckard, Rich Krezwick, Lynn Plage, Linc Cavalieri, and Bob Reed.  The “wow” moment came when we found out the contributions that 92 year old Linc has done for the arena business.  He invented both the glass around the hockey rink dashers and box suites.  Both were created from necessity.  The glass was because fans were losing teeth when the puck would fly through the chicken wire fence.  The box suites, because his boss (the owner of the Red Wings) was sitting near the fans and getting shit when the team was losing. Today, those suites pay for new buildings.

I know I am old when a kid of one of my early bosses is now attending the conference.  Ian Adler is an Assistant Marketing Manager with Comcast-Spectacor in Philly.  His dad Richard Adler was not only one of my bosses at Ringling Bros., he was President of the Atlanta Knights hockey team when I was there. The last time I saw Ian he was 12.

WTF Bad Business?

At the end of the conference day yesterday Jim Delaney and I walked over to the official Blackhawks store in the heart of downtown Chicago to buy some championship merch for our kids.  We got to the store at 6:30 PM.  The store closed at 6:00 PM.  Why wouldn’t this store stay open late the day after they won the Stanley Cup? The downtown area was packed with people.  We went across the street to another sports store.  They were jamed with people buying Blackhawks shirts.  The store was going through boxes of shirts.  Jim and I shook our heads and said someone was not thinking.

Arena Venues – Not Just For Sitting & Watching

Over the weekend I went to the Great Northeast Home Show in Albany NY.  The show was so large that it was housed in two venues; the Empire State Plaza Convention Center and the Times Union Center arena.  As I walked around the show I realized we should be using arenas more often for these types of events.

As arena marketers and bookers we are always looking at traditional touring shows and events that we can book into our venues.  What about other events?  There are 365 days in a year.  Most venues are not booked 365 days so this means there is capacity to fill.  Convention halls seem to have the lock on consumer trade shows.  The show I was at proves that arenas can do a fine job of hosting consumer trade shows too.  I am looking to produce a food show in the next year or so.  I will now look at an arena venue to possibly host it.

As I was walking around the arena concourse and looked at all the trade show booths it reminded me of when we offered our sponsors at the IHL Atlanta Knights, sponsor tables.  What if you took that idea to the next level?  What if you sold concourse booth space to create a trade show?  If you are an arena sports team you know your demographics.  Why not produce a consumer trade show on your concourse during a game or two?  This may work better for a minor league team but why would it not work? This could be new found revenue.  Find exhibitors that believe your fans are their customers.  If the match is right you will have a win-win for all.

As I have discussed in the past, our business is changing and we need to change with it.  We need to find new sources of revenue and offer our customers new and exciting opportunities.

The Fan Experience Gets Some Press

Over the past two days the Boston Globe has run a two part series on the fan experience.  In yesterday’s paper was a front page story on the “show” around the show.  It must have been a slow news day for a story on the sports fan experience to be front page center news.  But as an event & entertainment marketer and huge fan of the “fan experience” I read every word. 

The article had a graphic that showed one major reason why we have to entertain our fans.  They gave an example of a Celtics game.  The total timeline for the game was just over 3 1/2 hours.  Of that time, the players were on the court 1 hour and 23 minutes.  This left 2 hours and 4 minutes to fill with “other stuff”. 

Back in 1993 I had the privilege of being in charge of the game presentation for the Atlanta Knights hockey team (IHL).  Yes, we were a minor league team in a major league town.  However, we were the only professional hockey in Atlanta.  The words “minor league” was not allowed in our organization.  Because we were in a major league city, we marketed and ran our game presentation like a “major league” team.  It paid off.  We had one of the best attendance records in our league.  We also outdrew the NBA team we shared the venue with.  From the moment the fan walked into the venue until the moment they left, the fan was entertained.  We couldn’t control what happened during the game so we had to make sure the fan was happy win or lose. We always put on a show. We succeeded! Our game presentation experience was even a major part of a 1994 Sports Illustrated article.   Our overall success was a big reason the NHL put a team in Atlanta.  We were also an early fore-runner of the fan experience.  We didn’t have the technology that is used today, but a lot of the same ideas and principles are still used. 

Part two in today’s paper is on the front page of the sports section.  This article focuses on the technology.  This blog has discussed in the past some of the new cool stuff.  I was surprised the article didn’t talk more about all the mobile technology that arenas are using now.  There should have been more on data capture and the re-marketing back to the fan.  Don’t you think it’s cool when you get a text message as you enter the arena that says “Welcome back Dave.  We have that ice cold Bud Light waiting for you”. All of this information was from previous data capture. Instead they discussed in great (too much) length what one company Cisco is doing for sports teams.  While it sounds like Cisco has a lot of new products and ideas, there are lots of companies that also have technology that venues and sports teams are using.

The overall point to both articles is that teams have to continually update the fan experience.   The fan demands this.  They pay a lot of money to see a professional sporting event and they want their money’s worth. 

But all the cool special effects, technology, and interactive is only part of the fan experience.  A fan or customer needs everything to be a good experience.  From how they buy the tickets, to getting to the venue, to getting to their seat, to buying concessions and merchandise, to using clean & working restrooms, to seeing a great game (win or lose) is all part of the overall experience.  Some of this is new technology and some is still human.  Please don’t forget the human touch.  Human fan experience is still the number one way we can give our fans the best overall experience. 

The goal is to give them a seamless good experience from start to finish.  Yes, sometimes shit happens but we learn from that don’t we?