If I Was There…

This week is the annual Event & Arena Marketing Conference in Indianapolis.  For the first time since this blog started I am not going to the conference.   Since last year’s conference I have become a chef and melding the world of live entertainment with the world of culinary (I have never worked so hard for so little money!  But I love it!).   Anyway, it’s just not going to work this year.  Plus, I blew the conference budget on the Ringling Bros. promoter reunion.

If I did go to this year’s conference, this is what I would ask:

1. What is the industry doing to get butts back in seats?
2. Are you using social networking to market and is it really selling tickets?
3. What do you think of the Live Nation / Groupon deal? 
4. Are you thinking of offering your non LN shows on sites such as Groupon, Goldstar, and LivingSocial?
5. What is new in marketing our shows?  What really does work to move tickets?
6. If you work in the venue marketing department are you getting what you need? If not, what do you need?
7. What are the latest trends in group sales? What are your group leaders telling you?
8. What still works and what doesn’t with traditional media?
9. Media promotions: Are you still getting them?  Are they effective?
10. What is the industry doing to get butts back in seats?

You may notice that number one and ten are the same question.  This is by far the most important question to be answered at the conference.  This should be the number 1 focus of this year’s conference.

Since I won’t be with you in Indianapolis, I am giving you the chance to be a guest blogger.  If you have info, comments, or gossip you want to share from the conference, send them to me and I will post them.

More: They Are Finally Getting It

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!

Are They Finally Getting It?

This week Live Nation and Groupon announced a partnership to move tickets.  The deal is called GrouponLive.  This is a major breakthrough for the concert industry.  They are finally starting to get it.

How can I not like this partnership?  Anyone who reads this blog knows that I constantly preach about this stuff.  Instead of just papering the house, leaving the seat empty, or canceling a show, they are going to try and get some ticket revenue for the seat.  Don’t forget that Live Nation runs many of the venues.  Getting a customer in at a discount also means getting revenue for parking, concessions, and merch.

This matchup is closer to the marketing thinking that the live family show business has been doing for years.  The live concert industry always believed it was beneath them to offer discounts, group sales or promotions.  I still remember a certain manager of a very famous rock band giving me shit when I came up with a clever promotion to create exposure for his on-sale. His quote was “this ain’t a fuckin circus”.  He was referencing my Ringling Bros. marketing background.

As a music fan that grew up spending lots of summer nights at an outdoor amphitheater, this could help bring that summer ritual to a new audience.  When I was a teen, anyone could afford to see multiple shows at a summer shed and teens took advantage of this.  Today, kids have to save the whole summer just to see one.   Offering a GrouponLive coupon could fill those lawn seats once again.

This deal is probably a better deal for Live Nation then Groupon.  Yes, Groupon will move tickets with their 60 million subscribers, which will bring them new revenue.  For Live Nation, they get to market to 60 million subscribers and fill those empty seats. As Michael Rapino CEO of Live Nation said “finding ways to deliver the message to local email in-boxes is the way of the future.” 

I believe this is a shot in the arm that Live Nation needs save the 2011 summer season and maybe even the company.

Ticket Fee Free Weekend?

This weekend is a sales tax free holiday here in Massachusetts.  All items under $2,500 are tax free.  This is a big weekend for retailers.  It’s like a weekend stimulus plan for them.  What if we applied a fee free weekend for tickets? 

A weekend where you can buy tickets to any event anywhere fee free.  The face value of the ticket is the only cost.  We could go even better and offer a weekend sale on advance tickets.  How about 10% off and fee free.  Do you think our customers and fans would buy?  Would it stimulate them enough?

It would take an agreed effort from the venues and ticket companies.  I don’t think it would be that hard to accomplish. For Live Nation it would be easy.  They control the ticketing with Ticketmaster and the run some venues.  But for it to be successful it needs all of us in the industry to be on board. It would take a combined marketing effort.  

I am sure the ticketing companies who are reading are saying “hey you are asking us to give up our main revenue source for a weekend”.  Because ticket sales are down in general they are losing revenue every day. I am asking them to eat some revenue for a weekend to defibrillate the sale of tickets. 

If everyone jumped on board it would create a big buzz and I bet we would move some tickets.  Think about it. 

Have a great weekend!

If It’s Not One Thing, It’s Another

There are two articles of interest to the event & entertainment marketing community in today’s Wall Street Journal.  

Anybody want a slightly used ticketing system?

The WSJ article states that Live Nation Entertainment is being sued by European ticketing company CTS Eventim for breach of contract.  After I read the article I was still confused but here is what I think is the issue.  Before the merger with Ticketmaster, Live Nation wanted its own ticketing system and cut a deal with CTS to compete with TM.  This was the Live Nation ticketing system.   Now that Live Nation and Ticketmaster are one and the same LN does not need a ticketing system and CTS is suing.  I don’t know enough about this to really comment.  However, you got to believe that Live Nation and Ticketmaster had a plan on how to deal with the disbandment of LN’s ticketing system?

Michael always liked the circus

The other article of interest in today’s WSJ is the deal being cut between Michael Jackson’s estate and Cirque du Soleil.  The always thinking live entertainment company is going to produce a themed show on Michael’s music.  Kind of like the Beatles themed show in Las Vegas.  The plan is to produce two shows.  One will be an arena show that will travel and the other will have a home at the MGM Mirage in Las Vegas.  I think this is a really smart move for both parties.  The shows will keep the MJ brand moving and Cirque will sell lots of tickets.  I hope to hear more about this from Cirque at the Event & Arena Marketing Conference in June.

So…What Does This Mean?

Since the news broke on Monday that the merger between Live Nation and Ticketmaster was approved by the Government, the number one question I am asked is “what does this mean?”  The quick answer is: I don’t know yet.

Depending on where/what you are in the industry could determine if you see changes now or later.  For the customer I don’t see any real changes at least in the short term.  Christine Varney from the Department of Justice Anti-Trust division was quoted as saying “we expect that we will see ticket prices coming down”.  Why does she think this?  Live Nation alone does not control the price of tickets.  If Live Nation, AEG or anyone else is still willing to pay “out of whack” dollars for talent then prices are not going to drop. Greed is not with one company alone. Ticket prices will drop when effort is made from artists, managers, agents, promoters, and venues to work together. 

DOJ is also making the new company license its ticketing software to AEG.  For Live Nation Entertainment, this is no big deal.  The ticketing software is not a major piece of the company.  For AEG, this is a good deal because they can now sell their own tickets “ready made”.

For peeps working at Ticketmaster and Live Nation, there is a lot of uneasiness.  What will the consolidation look like?  Are there jobs that could be considered duplicates?  Yesterday, Liberty Media offered to buy more stock in the new Live Nation Entertainment.  If this happens it would give them a 35% share of the new company.  How will they play into this? They are known for taking over companies.

I do know this.  The industry as a whole is not in the best shape.  This past year was a killer for all of us.  We need to see improvement and growth in 2010.  We need to move lots of tickets.  It’s in Live Nation Entertainment’s best interest to help facilitate this.  I ask that they don’t just look at their bottom line but the bottom line of the whole industry.  As the line in the movie Spiderman said “With great power comes great responsibility”.

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!

Is There No Shame?

In the past I have been accused of always picking on Ticketmaster when it comes to ticketing issues.  This is not true at all.  I am an equal opportunity offender.  If an issue rears its ugly head, I believe we as an industry should bring it up and discuss it.  Today’s blog post is not about Ticketmaster.  Today I am picking on a ticket broker. 

Unless you live in the Boston market, you may not have heard about the ticket fiasco between Ace Tickets and New Kids on the Block.  The New Kids are doing a fundraiser at the Boston House of Blues for Toys for Tots.  Proceeds from ticket sales are going to the charity.  Somehow Ace has lots of tickets selling on their website for as much as $300 per ticket.  The actual cost of the tickets is $60 each. Donnie Wahlberg from the band announced his disgust that ticket brokers were scooping up all the tickets for a fundraiser.  Ace released an apology and said they would give their profits from the sale of tickets to the charity.  Ace claimed they didn’t know it was a fundraiser.

Here are my questions:

1. How did Ace not know this was a fundraiser?  If you are going to be in the ticket selling business, don’t you need to know what you are selling?
2. How did Ace get the tickets in the first place?  I thought Live Nation and Ticketmaster (not picking on TM) have technology in place to prevent this from happening? If so, who gave Ace the tickets? Was it the venue, band, promoter, etc…?
3. Once Ace realized their mistake, why didn’t they give back all the unsold seats?

As an industry, we need to stop all this crap and start marketing and selling tickets in a correct way so that our customers will want to buy our seats. The blame is industry wide.  This goes from the agents & managers, to the acts, promoters, venues, and ticket agencies. Our customers are starting to look at us as not a legit business. We are better then all this. We are not the Wild Wild West.

Feedback: Maybe A Blogs Most Important Tool

People like to read daily blogs as part of their online reading. But do they realize they can comment?  Did you know you can be a part of the discussion?  

Most blogs are written in first person.  You can use “I”.  It is the writer’s opinion. This lends itself well for starting a discussion.  Think of it as a hybrid “letter to the editor”.  I believe you do a disservice to your readers when you don’t allow feedback.  Many bloggers don’t post feedback.

People like to read what other people have to say on an issue. Bob Lefsetz makes a great effort to post feedback from his readers.  Sometimes this feedback is more popular then his original post on the topic. Depending on how controversial the topic is will dictate the amount of feedback. 

Feedback is really the most important element of blogging.  Think of blogs as online discussions. Allow feedback and you can take the pulse of an industry.

With feedback in mind I pose two questions today:

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

Send me back your answers and I will post them on Friday. 

People in the biz reminder

Don’t forget that I will also post updates on what people in our industry are up to this Friday.  Please email me your updates.  As I mentioned last week, I will post these updates every Friday. This is a great chance for your fellow event & entertainment marketers to hear what you are doing or your business is doing.  We can all learn from this.

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?