Ringling Bros. Promoter Reunion

I spent this past weekend in Sarasota FL at the first ever Ringling / Feld Entertainment promoter reunion.  Over 70 past and current promoters attended.  The best way to describe the experience is a kid over-stimulated on Christmas.

The weekend was one non-stop gab fest.  As David Rosenwasser said “we could have a Guinness Book of Records for the most bull-shit artists in one room”.  The group represented 50 years of promoters.  Most of them I knew and the rest I knew their name because they were of legend.

One of the biggest highlights was learning what everyone has done since leaving The Greatest Show On Earth. Being a promoter gives you so many experiences over your career that you can do almost anything. Everyone was not only eager to share what they were doing, but was also open to networking and helping each other.  The common word used throughout the conference was “family”.  Being a Ringling/Feld promoter is a very unique fraternal club.  I compare it to the Freemasons.  Everyone is a “brother/sister” who will help each other. They also have rituals and love their secrets.

The event kicked off with a dinner on Friday night with Kenneth Feld as our guest speaker.  He truly seemed to enjoy being with all of us.  He made sure he spoke with everyone in the room and was interested with our post Feld life.

Saturday night we went to Circus Sarasota.  I’m sure you are thinking why would ex circus promoters ever want to see another circus.  I thought this myself.  But I have to tell you that it was a really nice show.  I consider myself very jaded when it comes to family shows but I liked this show.  This cute non-profit circus was founded by Dolly Jacobs. My friend Bob Collins is the Chairman of the Board. 

Speaking of Bob, he is now in the tourism business.  He owns Big Top Tours. He bought himself a bus and drives tourists around Sarasota showing its wonderful circus history.

After the show we all went to Showfolks Club.  This is a bar for circus people.  In all the years I worked at Ringling I had never been but knew of it.  The walls are covered with 100 plus years of pictures of circus performers and lots of cigarette smoke.  There were ex circus performers at the club who I had not seen in many years.  Everyone remembered everyone. They are like elephants, they never forget!

The one agenda item I wish we could have added was a meeting of the minds.  The 70 plus reunion members have the collective creative power to address and solve what is ailing our industry.  I truly believe that if this group would have tackled the lack of worldwide ticket sales, they would find the answers.

Back To The Basics

This week I will be attending the 30th annual Event & Arena Marketing Conference in Chicago.  While at the conference I will be part of a panel on marketing and advertising basics.  This discussion should be great for people new to the industry and even better for industry veterans.

The panel is made up of entertainment marketers currently from different worlds but they all started in live event marketing.  The panel also includes: Hank Salemi – Six Flags, Jamie Macvicar – Author of Advance Man, Amy Dubinsky – Feld Entertainment, and Bob Collins – long time Live Event Marketing Guru and all around great guy!

It’s fantastic that the conference is offering this panel discussion.  Anyone who reads this blog knows that I truly believe we can never forget the basics while we invent new and exciting marketing and advertising programs. I am not a golfer but I understand why golfers always need to practice the basics.  You have to keep your basic skills sharp if you want to advance in the game.

Many of us get caught up in new technology or techniques. None of these are any good if you don’t keep up with the basics.  When you buy media do you make your decisions based just on what the computer tells you?  I know many media buyers that do.  A computer just works with stats.  These stats don’t tell the whole story.  Do you pass on print media these days?  Do you do this because everyone tells you newspapers don’t work?  Are you sure this is true? Have you tested this theory?  Do you still write a marketing plan with some thought in it?  Do you follow the plan?

Go back to the marketing driving range and get rid of the basic bad habits.  See you at the conference!

Super Weekend: Do You Have A Show?

This Sunday is the official “un-official” national holiday in the United States.  The Super Bowl is like no other sporting event.  Yes, the Olympics is the biggest sporting event in the world, but here in the U.S. we treat this football game like a national holiday.  The grocery stores will be packed.  Beer and wine consumption is huge!  In fact, I heard this morning that this Sunday is one of the top 10 biggest wine drinking days of the year. This game is so big that some people watch the game just to see the commercials. What happens if you have an event or show on Super Bowl Sunday? 

This problem happened to me once.  I remember being in Toledo one year with an ice show on Super Bowl weekend.  As soon as I saw the dates of the show, I immediately worked on the Sunday show schedule.  This was a family show, so it is normal to have multiple performances on the weekend.  Timing of the performances on that Sunday was crucial.  A Sunday performance too early and you bump into church.  Too late and the game is on.  We decided to only do one performance on the Sunday that year.  We even marketed that performance to let the public know they could see our show and be home in plenty of time for the big game.  Even with one less performance that year, our one Sunday performance did enough business to make it up.

Of course not everyone thinks when they book events on this day.  Both my kids have youth sports games this Sunday right at the beginning of the game.  What’s up with that?

Nothing like “old fashion” PR stunts

My friend Bob Collins let me know about a PR stunt he marketed the other day in Sarasota, FL.  He had Nik Wallenda walk the high-wire across the two largest buildings in Sarasota.  This was done to promote the opening of  Circus Sarasota which is touring the West Coast of Florida.  Even though this area is known as the home of circus’ he was still able to create a big buzz and had tons of media attention.  With all the new ways we have to market our events, it is refreshing to see that some of the “old tricks” still work today.

Feedback Friday

Feedback from posts

From: “More Lessons from the Big Screen” posted October 26

You make a valid point about those outrageous high-priced live concert tickets.

I run a small live music festival production firm. Two things are becoming apparent: 1. The public does indeed want affordable escapes from reality.  2. Ticket prices/cover charges must be a max. of $10.00 for local music talent or they won’t sell. They’d rather host friends in their homes, listen to free radio, rent movies and buy beverages from the supermarket. 

In fact, guests at one of my shows this weekend complained about a $5 cover charge to see two local veteran classic rock bands in a lovely, unique full-service bar and grill situated on the relaxing Sacramento River. I was forced to allow some in for free or risk losing future fans and possibly potential gig referrals. In this economy, it has become more important to me (and the bands) to gain exposure and build a fan base in hope they can charge higher cover in the future when the market can bear it. Until then, my work, and theirs is a labor of love!

By the way, I agree with you that combining local comfort food/wine/brewpub with music makes for a more attractive, fun show/festival/concert.

Seth Godin endorses the practice of selling season tickets for entertainment. I might give this try for my 2010 festivals, if I can get local venues on board.  

Thanks for sharing your wisdom,

Jenn Hill, Jenn Hill Productions

From: “What is a Freemium and Will it Work for Us? posted September 21, 2009

One of the things that could be done on this subject is for the Marketing Director/Manager of the building to approach other companies about getting something with the purchase of a ticket.  Marketers are always looking for something out of the box to do to break through with their product.  How about 2 free hours of play at Chuck E Cheese with every purchase of a family show…or how about a gift certificate to a grocery or drug store for the same $ figure they paid for their ticket?  Put the store all over your advertising……they will get a bump and so will the family show..imagine Pay $20 for a ticket to see the Joe Lewi family show and then get a $20 gift certificate to spend at Kroger or CVS!!! Wow what a value!  Do something different and see if it works….if you can’t figure it out hire me and I will do one for you and show you that it works.

 Steve Brodsky

I think that freemium will be a powerful tool in the future, yet I am not sure that free seats can be considered freemium. I would make a difference between free samples and freemium. With free samples it is piece of apple you can taste, a limited time where you can use something or a few free tickets to a show. With freemium the free part can be valuable for ever in and of itself. Like the free version of skype, wordpress or even the free videos from common craft.

Usually these free services are something that can be duplicated on the internet at virtually no cost. Making freemium ideal for companies with a large scope. As I understand it, you are only located in a single location, which would make freemium less ideal and free samples a better match.

Peter, www.freemium.org

Joe,
It has worked for me as an audience member.
While Goldstar’s tickets are generally 25 – 50% off sometimes they have a number of free tickets for an event.
I’ve been lured to an event with the free ticket offer sometimes I’ve opted to pay for better seats, other times I’ve gone to the free event and told others. Also, if the free seats are gone it raises the event’s ranking within Goldstar so it’s a hotter event.
Seems like it’s working for everyone.

Annie Uzdavinis

Feedback Questions

The other day I asked two questions for today’s feedback:

1. Do you think the merger of Live Nation/Ticketmaster will happen (why or why not)?
2. How do you think H1N1 will affect ticket sales in the upcoming months?

I only received one reply and his answers were:

1)    Yes, too much money at stake

2)    No, money in people’s pockets and strength of value in consumer’s mind will determine ticket sales

Since I didn’t get any other feedback on those questions, I will take the silence as “you don’t care” and move on.

 People in the biz updates 

Bob Collins, Chairman of the Board of Circus Sarasota (and formerly with WWE, Ice Capades, and Ringling Bros.-Barnum & Bailey) is currently teaching a marketing class in his hometown, Sarasota, Florida. The  course, entitled “Creative Marketing Tactics for Small Businesses,” is designed to coach local business owners and managers to use many of the same marketing concepts that we use to promote family shows:  particularly low-cost/high impact grass-roots marketing tools. Ultimately, Collins and colleagues hope to “take the show on-the-road” and offer the course in other cities as a day-long seminar to inspire business-owners to conduct their marketing with “show-business” creativity and flair.

Brandon Lucus of Carbonhouse  wrote in: “Joe, you know I wouldn’t miss opportunity to talk about our excitement on current projects. We just launched: 

www.accfootballcharlotte.com

www.landmarktheater.net,

 www.charlotteconventionctr.com.

 Check out these websites.  The guys at Carbonhouse do good stuff!

 Have a great weekend and Happy Halloween (my favorite holiday)!

EAMC – Opening Night At The Zoo

It is not easy getting to Colorado Springs from the East Coast.  No such thing as a non-stop, direct flight.  But after a lot of sitting on planes (some with electrical issues) and running through airports, I made it to the Event & Arena Marketing Conference. 

First on the schedule was the team building event.  This used to be called the “newcomers” event.  I didn’t make that event.  As my friend Carla likes to say “I had a thing”.

The main event was the opening night reception at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. The event was sponsored by Ticketmaster and Smucker’s Stars On Ice.  This was a very good place to host an opening party.  The zoo is actually on Cheyenne Mountain so the views are spectacular. We had the whole zoo to ourselves.  The habitats for the animals are great.  They created a very natural atmosphere.  We saw a coyote walking around on a hill.  He looked like he was free but after careful looking we realized he wasn’t.

I am getting older because venue marketers are getting younger.  An all new generation has arrived.  Of course all the regulars still come.  It would not be a conference without Bob Collins.  He retired from WWE last year.  He told me he is enjoying life.  He has been traveling but still looks forward to doing some projects.  He is one of those with show biz in his blood and that is a good thing for all of us.

Another person that is the fabric of this conference is Sunny Rubenstein.  Sunny will be speaking at the EAMC Grad School.  This is a session from event marketing veterans for event marketing veterans.  The session is for event marketers with at least 10 years of experience. It is a two hour session and limited to 30 people.  I am signed up for this and will blog you the highlights.