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!

 

Newspapers Need New Thinking

It was released this past weekend that newspaper circulation is down (again).  No one should be surprised. 

I am a big fan of print myself.  I get three newspapers at my house every morning.  Of course the internet and cable TV news are the main reason for print decline.  But is that the only reasons?  Newspapers have not done a lot to help themselves.   For example they keep raising ad rates and the daily price of the newspaper.  Usually in our world economy, prices are dependent on supply & demand.  When the “want” is up, prices go up.  So when print circulation and advertising goes down what do they do?  They raise the ad rates and the price of the paper.  That’s a great way to attract more readers and advertisers. 

All of us in the event and entertainment business seem to use print these days to “only” inform.  I look at the ads in the entertainment section each week and nothing has changed in the last 25 years.  A show goes on sale, we run an ad.  If it is Sunday, then we need to run an ad.  Newspaper ads for events are just information pieces.  Just like the movies, we run an ad to tell the customer when the show is coming, the times, and the place.  Boring!  It’s not just our fault.  Newspapers have done nothing to show us the way.  All they seem to care about is when are we running the ad and how much are we going to spend.  Why don’t they work with us?  We know our shows & events.  You know your newspaper.  Let’s work as a team and make it fun.  Think outside the box

Newspapers have embraced the new technology by going to the web.  This was a good idea but they need to make some decisions.  Are they going to be only print, only web, or both?  I believe there is a place for them to do both.  The key is to create a nitch that readers will use both print and the web.  When it comes to promoting our shows, I think they can do better then just placing a link to our website or a win free tickets button.

Here is a novel idea.  Why not make reading the paper ”in” again.  Go back to the research.  Find out what readers or potential readers want.  Find ”something” that will make them want to pick up the paper each morning.  Stop thinking old school and think 21st century.   Go to your loyal advertisers.  Ask them for some help.  They are marketers too.