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?

Sometimes Being Creative Means Breaking The Rules

You may or may not be aware that besides being in the event & entertainment marketing business, I am also attending culinary school.  Yes, I am also following my passion for cooking and food.  For a great post on passion check out yesterday’s  LiveWorks Newsletter  from my brother Jim.

Last night during a seminar on plating, my Chef instructor said something that I thought also works well for us in the event & entertainment marketing business.  He discussed how the culinary world has rules and traditions.  We have rules and traditions in our business.  While he teaches the culinary arts in the classic French tradition, he also points out that we are in the culinary “arts”.  I take this to mean that you also have to be creative. This may mean breaking with rules and traditions.

At first you have to learn the rules and traditions so you can better understand how to break them.  As with anything, some rules can never be broken. I am personally big on traditions.  For example, I believe that you never open your presents before the holiday.  It drives my family nuts!

Breaking rules is not always a bad thing.  Some of the best accomplishments in life are because someone broke with tradition or rules.  But you have to understand why the rules and traditions were put into place. 

Several years ago I was in Detroit promoting Goosebumps Live for Feld Entertainment.  The tour was not meeting sales expectations.  The company had given all the promoters a set of rules and guidelines to market the show.  Bill Lee (Olympia Entertainment) and I saw that trends did not favor the rules and guidelines.  So, he and I got creative.  We tossed out the rule book and went with our entertainment marketing knowledge and experience.  Guess what, it worked.  We had one of the most successful dates on the tour.  Kenneth Feld was in Detroit for the show.  He asked me what we did differently.  I simply answered “we broke the rules and got creative”.

Let’s Meet Face-To-Face

As all of you know I am a big fan of the internet, email, and all the web technology.  I seem to be on it all day.  If I am not using it at my desk then I am one of those addicted “crackberry” users.  Ask anybody who knows me; it is not hard to find me through technology.

What I like about all this technology is the ease of communications.  I blog all of you every weekday, get email all day long, and researching anything is a “Google” away.  What I don’t like about the new technology is the lack of face-to-face. 

Because we are becoming a slave to our technology we are losing the art of personal contact.  Do you remember when you actually met with people to discuss business?  Now we send email back and forth.  Deals are now made without the handshake.  This may be part of the problem with our economy.  When you have personal contact, look at the person in the eye, and shake their hand it means something.  I believe you just brought that business deal to another level.  It’s personal now.  If you cut a deal in person you have less a chance of one side screwing it up. 

My brother also writes a blog called LiveWorks Newsletter www.liveworksnews.wordpress.com.  He has started a “dinner club” for other peeps in the business.  They get together at a restaurant to eat and talk about the biz.  The place they meet is not some “powerhouse” deal making place.  The first meeting is at a pizza place.  He is also trying to get people in the live event & entertainment business to meet in other cities throughout the country on the same night.  I think this is a great idea.  Meeting face-to-face to chat about the industry.  I bet if this takes off it will make a difference to our industry.  Why, because people are focused when they meet in person (unless you are Joaquin Phoenix).

As we all get ready to enjoy the weekend lets try to wish our loved ones a Happy Valentines Day in person and not through email. It’s hard to kiss someone through the iPhone.  I don’t think they have made an app for that yet.

Have a great weekend!