Grass Roots Still Works

Last Sunday I went to the Patriots game here in Boston.  The guys I go with always park and tailgate outside of the stadium parking lots like thousands of others.  Once you are outside the stadium grounds, it becomes a grass roots marketing haven.

Not five minutes after we setup for tailgating, we were approached by a new natural cereal called Barbara’s.  They came complete with a cart full of free samples.  Not only did they give us all the samples we wanted but they asked if they could take our picture with the pretty “cereal girl”.  My guess is this would be the follow up to post on the web. For a small company trying to market in this big world, this is a good option.  Visiting crowds of people, being able to talk one on one, and offer free samples is real marketing.

Once we left the lot and headed for the stadium, we realized how many different grass root marketers were out and about.  Some were even ambush marketers.  For example, Schick was giving away coupons for free shaving cream and razors.  I’m sure the Gillette Stadium peeps were not all too happy about that.  After the game, Pepsi was giving away free samples of Pepsi Max. This worked well for the walk back to the car.

How much grass roots marketing do you do in your business?  In years past most of our industry limited our grass roots efforts to handing out flyers.  We should take this up to the next level.  What about giving something away?  It could be as simple as a coupon for something free at the venue.  Instead of some kid just handing out flyers, how about using someone who can strike up a conversation about the product.  Remember, that before the internet this is how it was done.

Expose Yourself!

This is what you should be telling any and all potential sponsors/partners.  Our shows, events, and venues are just the place to do it.

We have discussed in the past niche marketing and grass roots marketing.  Speaking directly to our customers has always been the best way to market but today it’s even more important.  Today, customers have the internet.  They go looking for what they want.  They look for the direct source. Think about it.  Don’t you always Google anything you are interested in? 

Today, running ads on TV programs with good ratings in the proper age demographic may not be the best use of marketing budget.  Yes, I am sure you will hit some of your potential customers but how much waste are you also paying for? If you are going to buy TV/cable then buy a niche channel or program for your product.  For example if I marketed a casino, I would look to buy spots on the poker shows and the horse racing networks. But I would not limit myself to TV. You still need face-to-face with your customers.

All of us in live events have a great vehicle for exposure marketing.  It gives a sponsor an opportunity for “hands on” direct contact with a customer.  Today, companies are looking to speak directly with customers. It’s an opportunity to give them a sample of their product (as we discussed last week).  They can receive direct feedback from a customer.  Why wait for them to post negative tweets.  Let them tell you in person. 

Today, we live in an age where customers want to see, touch, taste and hear everything.  They want full exposure.  Creating these opportunities for your sponsors/partners and your ticket buying customers will payoff for all.

It Was All About The Marketing!

This blog is about event & entertainment marketing, not politics.  However, when I believe we can learn something about marketing from a political campaign then I write about it.  I am not writing this as a Democrat or Republican but as a marketer.  What happened here Massachusetts last night was all about the marketing.  One side did a great job and the other side did not.

Did we not all learn from last year’s Obama marketing campaign?  Everyone agreed that President Obama did an amazing marketing job.  That is why he won.  So why did Martha Coakley go back to “old school” thinking? 

The Democrats used the number one rule you never use, they ASSuME’ed. This is a blue state.  All branches of the state government are controlled by Democrats.  The voters would never elect a Republican.  Early in the marketing campaign they had a big lead so they pulled back on the marketing campaign. Why did they do this?

Scott Brown had a marketing plan and he stuck with it.  His message never changed.  He studied and used the Obama playbook.  He had a fabulous grass roots marketing campaign. He did his market research.  He knew his market.  He played  offense.  He created excitement. He got voters to like him as a person.  He even marketed his truck.  From what I hear he did all this without national Republican help for most of the campaign.  They didn’t jump on the bandwagon until he started moving up in the polls. 

The Democrats got caught with their pants down. Martha Coakley did not work the media.  She did very little grass roots. She did not create excitement.  A candidate is a brand.  You have to create brand excitement. Negative marketing does not work in the 21^st century.  When are they going to learn this?  When she fell behind she started spending marketing dollars  again for defense and negative. 

What can we learn from all this? A lot, but start with this:  Market every show or event with the same intensity.  Never stop or slow down until it’s over.  If you have tickets to sell, keep marketing until they are gone.

A Few Marketing Thoughts From London

I just returned from a week in London.  As an event marketer I noticed two things while there:

1) They know how to market shows and events

2) Group sales is very big and very good

Marketing in England is a combination of traditional and non-traditional.  They understand that you need to “spread the word” any and all ways.  The Underground subway (The Tube) is used daily by millions of people.  They place advertising messages in The Tube anywhere commuters will be.  They used traditional posters on the walls that line the escalators.  You have no choice but to read them.  They use the new electronic transit boards.  They do grass roots marketing.  They hand out flyers in a proper way.  They are pushing the social network sites.  You don’t see a lot of TV ads for events but you do see PR on the TV morning news shows.  You do see TV promotions! 

Newspapers are still a very important communications tool.  Even the BBC and other TV networks discuss what the daily papers are saying.  It seems everyone has a newspaper in their hand.

Group sales are a part of everything in Europe.  They have tour operations down to a science.  All shows, events, and attractions have relationships with tour operators.  This is something that live event marketers here in the USA need to work on.  Amusement parks in the U.S. live and die with group sales and tour operators.  If you handle the marketing for an arena or live event, you need to cut deals with the tour operators.  Every bus group you sell represents 55 tickets.  We saw tour bus groups everywhere in Europe.  They provide groups with a very good customer experience and offer them very good package deals. Groups are given priority access.  Bus groups are dropped off upfront.  Group leaders have the relationship with the venue or attraction and use it to take care their customers.

EAMC -Grass Roots / Alt Marketing

While at the Event & Arena Marketing Conference, I went to a discussion on grass roots and alternative advertising.  The speakers were Mark Gianturco and Scott Becker from Neoterics.  They are an agency that specializes in this type of marketing.

Their big street marketing concept involves the use of Segways.  The thought process is that as they roll down the sidewalk they will attract attention.  Makes perfect sense.  Now deck out the Segway with an advertising message and give the person driving the Segway flyers or samples and you got yourself a great rolling marketing tool. 

Other street advertising that was discussed included bike taxi’s and wrapped vehicles.  My thought is that these are not as effective anymore because people ignore them.  You have to keep ideas fresh.  People tune things out very quickly.

 The guys from Neoterics discussed street decals.  They showed some examples of 3D decals.  They were pretty cool.  They noted that these have a strong visual appeal and strong word of mouth.  From the slides they showed us I would agree.  The coolest example was the decal at the bottom of the stairs.  While you look from the top of the stairs, you see a person laying on the floor at the bottom.  It was made to look as if she fell down the stairs.  That will get your attention!

They have come up with a new way to use street teams.  They made them look like “big” fans of the team or band and had them drive all around town creating “excitement”.  In one example they showed how this street team received TV coverage for a “bunch of fans” driving all around town.

Other forms of alternative advertising included illumination on the sides of buildings with logos or  artwork.  The TD Banknorth Garden was doing this during the NBA Championships and was shown several times on TV.  Mobile billboards can be very boring.  But they showed an example that I liked.  They took a mobile billboard with the background that actually matched the exact location.  Then they placed something “crazy” on the board they made it look like a tornado was coming right at you.  The visual was cool. 

Hockey Team Idea:  Place a huge block of ice with a hockey stick frozen into it.  Run a contest where the person who can pull out the stick will win a 10 game package.  This is a take off on the story “The Sword in the Stone”.  This would make a great radio promotion.  I suggest setting this up somewhere with maximum visibility.