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?

“Oh No, They Cancelled My Show”

With all this crazy weather hitting the country, the title of today’s blog post is being said all over the Midwest and Northeast.  Of course they are really starting the sentence with “Shit, they cancelled my show”.  What do you do when this situation happens?  What goes into the decision of canceling?  What do you do afterwards?  If you have never experienced canceling a show due to weather, it is not fun. 

I remember years ago having to cancel a couple of performances of Disney On Ice in Niagara Falls NY.  Of course the blizzard hit on a three performance Saturday.  We were able to get through the morning performance before the city  announced they were closing the roads.  For those of you who don’t know it, Niagara Falls is part of the Buffalo market.  They are very used to winter weather.  So I had a hard time explaining to my bosses in Washington DC why we had to cancel two performances due to snow. 

The best part of the story is how we got the Sunday performances going.  The venue told us that the mayor’s office was being noncommittal about opening the roads for Sunday morning.   I found out that the mayor had small kids.  I invited the mayor to the Sunday morning performance (front row tickets) and offered a meet-n-greet for his kids.  Guess what, the roads opened and we were able to do two performances on Sunday. 

Dealing with refunding or moving tickets is always a nightmare.  We were able to move many into the Sunday performances and we added an unscheduled Monday performance.  Of course we had to refund some money, but it could have been worse.  My suggestion to anyone in live entertainment is to always have a plan ready to go.  In the plan be sure to address canceling, informing customers, re-scheduling, refunds, and PR procedures.

For all of you dealing with this issue this week, I feel your pain!

So This Is Christmas

UK gives TM/LN a Christmas present

The United Kingdom’s version of anti-trust regulators has given Ticketmaster/Live Nation a surprise holiday gift.  They are now allowing the merger to go through on their side of the pond.  This should open the door and allow the U.S. to move forward.  I hear we could see the merger completed in the first quarter of 2010.  

Holiday Wishes

This week means one of two things to people in the live event industry.  You are either lucky enough to have the holidays off or your lucky enough to be working your ass off.  While Hollywood usually shuts down over the holiday period, the shows on the road are trucking along at full speed.  This is a very busy time for arena venues.  I remember several Christmas and New Year’s nights spent in Toronto with the cast of Disney On Ice.  While it is traditional to spend the holidays with family, my wife and I both agree we really did enjoy spending those holidays with our road show family too. 

This holiday period can be our version of “Black Friday”.  I hope that stockings are filled Christmas morning with tickets to all our events.  Let’s make the best of the next two weeks and put lots of butts in the seats.

I wish everyone either at home or on the road a wonderful holiday season!

The “What If’s” On Live Event Season Passes

I read in The Wall Street Journal this morning how Disney is about to market a new technology for on-demand.  This new technology is called “Keychest”.  With this, you will be able to pay a one time price for a movie and play it anytime you want on all your digital devices such as DVD, PC, iPod, and mobile. You will actually own the movie without physically having it.  This article made me think about the discussion and test trials of live event season passes.

The idea of season passes (beyond sports teams) for live events such as concerts is not new and has been discussed frequently over the past year.  This was a major discussion at last year’s Aspen Live Conference.  It has also been discussed in the LiveWorks Newsletter and The Lefsetz Letter.  Live Nation has been experimenting with season passes at some of its smaller venues such as House of Blues.

What if the artist or show was to offer lifetime passes?  Most major music acts have large fan bases with fan clubs. What if the artist was to offer a lifetime pass to these fans?  Would they buy them? Is it feasible?

This might work well for family shows.  What if Feld Entertainment offered a lifetime pass for all their shows?  They play at least two different shows (Ringling Bros. and Disney on Ice) in most markets every year.  How much money could Feld charge?  Would a young family buy into this program if it were a good deal for the years to come? 

What if the larger arena venues offered season passes for all their non-sporting events?  Is it really that far fetched?  They already sell suits and club seats, why not a season seat pass to see every event in a year?

The End Of An Era In Buffalo

This week the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium (The Aud) was torn down.  Can’t believe I am saying this but I am a little sad.

The Aud was really the venue where I got my big start.  Good things and bad things happened in that building.  For a long time, I had the record of doing more Feld Entertainment shows in that building then anyone else. 

There was a time when I hated that building. I used to say it was the Disneyland for rats and roaches.  The first time I promoted a show in the building the ushers/ticket sellers union tried to scare me.  They had a little stuffed troll hanging in the corner of their office.  They said he was the last Ringling promoter who tried to f**k with them.

Anyone who has done a show in that building will never forget the ramps.  The only way you could load a show into the building was from the basement.  This required moving everything up long twisted ramps.  Try doing that with circus wagons.  It required two forklifts per wagon.  Those ramps are the reason I screwed up and became the victim of one of the cruelest Ringling practical jokes of all time.  It is known today as the “murder joke”. 

With all the bad stuff that has happened in that building, I remember good stuff too.  The people of Buffalo and Western NY always come first.  My wife and I had our first home in Western NY.  We saw some great hockey in that building.  There is something special about watching hockey in an old hockey building.  Even though the building was old and dirty the fans would still dress up to go see a Sabers game. I will never forget the Tux and Pucks games.  It was always an event.

The Buffalo News has posted a video tribute of The Aud which is really good.  Check it out.

http://video.buffalonews.com/player/?id=257

Same Brand, “All New Show”, Who Cares?

Last week at the Event & Arena Marketing Conference a panel of family shows and Ticketmaster discussed several areas from ticket sales patterns to marketing the shows. During the marketing portion, my ears perked up from what I heard about brand awareness.

Unless you are creating a new brand name show or concept, most potential customers know who you are.  The Harlem Globetrotters are a perfect example.  Their brand name goes back 84 years.  So when they marketed the show as “All New Show” no one got it.  When Michael Kenny, Senior VP of Live Event Marketing at the Globetrotters said this, I realized this might be the most important statement of that day. 

Using the term “all new show” for any of the shows represented on that panel really didn’t make sense.  The panel represented the brands Ringling Bros., Disney on Ice, Stars on Ice, Ticketmaster, and Harlem Globetrotters. If you have an established brand then the customer or fan knows who you are.  The question is, what is going to make them come see you?  Saying ”all new show” means what?  If you are the Globetrotters, the customer knows you are the most fun and famous basketball team in the world.  If you are Ringling Bros. you are the biggest and most famous circus in the world.  If they skip a year, will they really miss something that is “all new”?

Michael Kenny explained that this was their challenge.  So instead of telling the customers they had a new show (which they did), they decided to market to the parents.  They told mom to remember when they went as kids.  Continue the family tradition and take their kids. This could be termed “brand awareness reminder”.

If you are an established music act and you tour, why does the fan buy a ticket to see you?  You usually tour to promote a new album.  But do you think the fan really cares about that?  No, they want to see you and hear the hits.  If the new album has a big hit while you are touring (i.e. Coldplay Viva La Vida Tour) then great!  Saying come see me because I have a new album is not the right marketing tactic. 

Market your message to what your customers want to hear, not what you want to hear.

Try It You Might Like It

If you are not marketing your brand on the social websites, why not try a few?  As we have discussed for a few months, everyone’s budgets are getting smaller and we still have to market.  So why not do a social experiment?  It doesn’t really cost anything to try it.

The social networks are a perfect place to do a promotion.  They work best when you offer plenty of interaction and you give them something.  Let’s throw some ideas around.

Facebook is now the most popular of the social sites.  It appeals to a wide demographic age group.  From high school kids like my son to old dudes like me.  At the high school level, they do use it to socialize but they also love to see how many “friends” they can have.  I compare it to collecting Pokemon cards.  But having a lot of friends is what it’s all about.  The more friends, the more eyeballs seeing your message or talking about you.  Facebook is a perfect place to promote and offer something.  They have options that include; start a group, start a fan club, or invite friends to your event.   The new Will Smith movie 7 Pounds is promoting on Facebook.  Instead of just placing a boring banner ad they are inviting Facebook friends to go see the movie.  You can RSVP with yes, no, or maybe like an evite.  As of this writing, almost 20,000 people have said they plan to attend.  Why not try it with your brand. As we discussed yesterday, traditional banner ads on Facebook are not working. 

Twitter is a great site to speak directly to your fans and customers.  This is all about having a conversation.  Have a cool new event and want to spread the word.  Let your Twitter followers know about it.  Ask them to tell you what they like.  What kind of events do they want?  This can be your direct pulse.  Be prepared to also take criticism.  While you may think this is not good marketing, this is part of the social network scene.  Your response or lack of response to any criticism can be the make or break. 

If you are a family show, there are social sites for you.  Disney On Ice is promoting its show with MomsLikeMe www.momslikeme.com.  As the name states, it appeals to moms.  Check out the website.  You can log into the nationwide site or go to your own local city site.  On the local Boston site they have an online ticket contest for the upcoming DOI show.  I found out about this because the Disney On Ice TV spots are promoting the social site.  This is a win-win for both.

Pick any event you are trying to promote and offer something that members of the social website can receive.  For example, if you are an arena, why not try making a social network offer? Why not a free popcorn?  Give them a code word they need to say to get the popcorn.  See how many people take advantage of the offer.  Who cares if non-social customers get the code word.  That is the beauty of it.  If done correctly you will create buzz and word of mouth.  That is social networking.

More and more social sites are entering the space everyday.  No matter what you are trying to market, there is an online social group for you.

If you need any help with this or other creative ideas, contact me at: http://www.joelewi.com/contact_joe_lewi.html.

The Times They Are A Changing

Unless you live under a rock, you have to notice the changes that are slowly evolving from the recession.  Not only are companies cutting back with manpower and product but the theme of marketing is going in the recession direction.  Marketers are writing the recession into their advertising scripts.  A good example of this is Disney On Ice.  The folks at Feld Entertainment have the wording “family friendly pricing” in the TV spot script.  This is a good marketing phrase to use. Let families know that you can still afford to take to the kids out for some fun. 

I decided to check and see what the “family friendly pricing” was.  I logged into Ticketmaster and went to work.  The show is coming to the TD Banknorth Garden starting December 26th.  Ticket prices range from $75 to $20.  The $75 seats are the rink side seating.  Feld has been offering these special rink side seats for many years.  I was working for them when they first started the program.  I think it was around 1986.  These same seats were $25 each back then.  Not a bad increase after 22 years.

I requested four tickets best available.  For the performance I requested it returned $30 club level seats.  I happen to know that these are nice seats in the Garden.  They are located in the premium section of the venue.  They even have in-seat waitress service.  So I think Feld backed its claim.  But (you knew I would have one), to get the $30 seats via Ticketmaster you have to add a $4.50 convenience charge per ticket and a $2.00 building fee per ticket.  So the $30 ticket is really $36.50.  Now you have to have them delivered.  If you trust the US mail you can have them shipped for free.  If you want to pick them up at the box office you have to pay $1.00.  If you want to print them yourself at home, the price is $2.50.  Why does it cost $2.50 to print at home?  Is there some behind the scene labor I am not seeing?  It costs nothing to the box office, there is no ticket stock being used.  All the work and the cost seem to come from the customer.  It is our labor, ink and paper being used.  I would love for someone at Ticketmaster to please let me know what the story with this is.

Cutting Back On Home Delivery?

I read over the weekend that the Detroit News / Free Press is cutting its home delivery to three days a week.  I think the term to be used is “cutting off your nose to spite your face”.  The papers claim they are losing advertisers which in turn means loss of revenue.  So let’s take it out on the loyal readers. They are ones who get the newspaper everyday.   What are the publishers at newspapers smoking?  I can hear this conversation in the board room.  ”Let’s see, our revenues are down so let’s reduce our loyal readership.  Those who buy our paper everyday at home will have to look for it four days a week somewhere else.  Our advertisers will be so impressed with this they will buy more ads that fewer readers are seeing.  Yea, that’s the ticket”.

 

Mobile Mobile Everywhere

I went to the Boston Bruins game last night.  In case you don’t follow hockey, they are currently in first place and they won again last night.  This is the best start they have had in years.  I hope they keep it up.  Boston needs another championship to make it a complete sports domination.  So now that I ticked off all my readers in the other markets let’s get back to business.

At the game last night I had three opportunities to use my mobile phone.  First off the NHL is offering digital ways to vote for your favorite hockey all-star.  At the game you could use your mobile phone to text in your vote.  At home you can go to the website to do it.  Gone are the days when they handed out paper ballots that ended up on the arena floor because no one had a pen.

I used my mobile phone to text in my entry to win a trip to Florida to see the Bruins on the road.  The mobile phone was also used last night to text in my vote for which song they were going to play during the game. 

All this fan interaction is good for the fan to keep them stimulated during the TV timeouts.  But the real reason for the mobile text messages is to capture data.  The big question is; what are they going to do with it?  I purposely entered each of these mobile opportunities to see what will happen.  If and when I get anything from this data capture, I will let you know. 

In the last few months, I used my mobile phone to enter to win tickets to a few family shows coming to town.  I don’t know what they are using this data for but so far it is not for marketing back to me.  In the early fall I entered to win tickets to Ringling Bros. Circus.  Now Disney On Ice is coming and I entered again.  Both of these shows are produced by Feld Entertainment.  Don’t you think that a text message should have been sent to me when Disney On Ice went on sale?  They captured my mobile data with the circus promotion.  It is great to have this new technology but a waste if not used correctly.

Retailers Are Going Mobile Too

There is an article in today’s Wall Street Journal about how retailers are taking advantage of mobile marketing technology.  Wal-Mart and Target offer text messages with daily or weekly specials direct to your mobile phone.   They are not invading the customer’s personal space because these customers signed up for this type of marketing.  You cannot beat this kind of marketing.  These are customers who want you to send them advertising.  The retailer is saving major marketing dollars.  Look how many trees were saved to promote the weekly specials.

Buy.com is using Twitter messages for their followers.  Sears now offers customers the option to make purchases directly from your mobile phone with its Sears2Go program.  Amazon and Target have taken mobile one step further and now offer a free application for iphone users.  Just click on the icon and way you go to help the economy. 

What all these retailers need to do next is offer marketing messages to customers when they enter the store.  The technology does exist.  I can’t believe they are not using it.  Just think, you walk into Wal-Mart and you get a text message “Welcome back Dave.  Doing some Christmas shopping?  Here is a list of gift ideas for the wife & kids”.  You don’t get much more personal then that.

 

Make The Holidays Work For You

With the holiday season coming up next week, I thought this might be a good time to discuss how to market in the holiday season. 

I mentioned last week that I don’t see as many holiday show ads in the newspaper.  While I agree that print should not be your number one media expenditure I do think it has a place this time of year.  Consumers are looking now for holiday gift ideas.  If you are going to run print or any form of media this time of the year why not put a tag line in that says “makes a great holiday gift” or something like that.  Now you might be saying “duh, this is a no brainer tell us something we don’t know”.  Yet, as I scan through the morning newspapers I see ads for all kinds of shows and most don’t say that.  For example there is an ad for Stars On Ice in today’s Boston Globe.  The show is coming to the TD Banknorth Garden April 5th.  The show went on sale today.  If you are running an ad today (November 21st) for an April show, would it be so wrong to have a tag in the ad say “Start your holiday shopping here”?  I bet there are lots of skating fans that would like to have tickets for the show sitting in the stocking Christmas morning.  With all the choices out there for holiday spending, you need to remind people tickets make great gifts. 

In the same newspaper section was a full page tab ad for The Hanover Theatre.  I am giving them a shout out because I have been impressed with their marketing campaign over the past few months.  They are a Worcester, MA theater that has decided to market like a big Boston venue.  In today’s ad they have several upcoming shows listed from now through June.  They did use the holiday period to their advantage.  The tag line in their ad reads: “Give the gift of entertainment.  Start your holiday shopping at The Hanover Theatre”.  Perfect! They are even promoting a “holiday open house” the day after Thanksgiving (Black Friday).  At the open house they are going to sell gift certificates and  have a one-day 10% off sale on all shows.  They are making an event out of it. Santa is even making an appearance. They are using the holiday to work for them.

If you have a live event during the holiday time period, don’t fight it.  Make it work to your advantage.  Several years ago I had the privilege of promoting Disney On Ice in Toronto.  The show opened at SkyDome the day after Christmas.  In Canada, they celebrate Boxing Day (day after Christmas).  This has turned into the biggest shopping day of the year for Canadians.  The first time we put the show on sale in Toronto, we didn’t know what to expect from Boxing Day.  Would they buy for that day?  Not only did they buy, but we sold out two performances for that day.  Besides, shopping this is the big day to get out of the house and do things.  We did a big campaign around buying tickets for the holidays and it paid off. We became a holiday tradition that first year.  You can make your events a holiday tradition if you market to the holiday and not against it. One word of advice, don’t try to run a performance on Thanksgiving or Christmas.  I was involved once and it failed in a big way!

If I was sports team, I would use this time of the year to push ticket packages.  Besides season ticket packages, teams have all kinds of packages to fit different budgets.  This would be a great time to work those deals.  If you are a team that is currently in season, the holidays should be part of the current campaign.  If you are in your off season, this is a great way to keep your ticket sales office busy.  Even in this bad economy, this is the time of the year that people will spend discretionary dollars on gifts.  Do you want them to spend it on sweaters or on your products?

Have a great weekend!