Deliver What You Promise

Seth Godin has written about this topic more than once before.  One of the worse things you can do when you market is not delivering on what you promised. The customer will never forget!  What happened to my son’s high school symphonic band this week is a good example.

The high school symphonic band that my son plays for is really good.  I’m not just saying this because I am a father of one of the members.  They are always invited to the Massachusetts Instrumental & Choral Conductors Assoc. (MICCA) competition and have won Gold three years in a row. The gold medal winners get the reward of playing a special concert at Boston’s famed Symphony Hall.  This is the home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Pops.  What a great treat for the winners.  MICCA calls the event Stars at Symphony Showcase.  Even though my son’s school won, they will not be playing this year because the concert schedule filled up before they won.  MICCA knew how many gold medals they were going to hand out but didn’t provide enough slots at Symphony Hall.  MICCA does offer to have bands play at another concert hall but the size of our high school band is too big to play in the smaller venue.  Plus, you can’t compare the experience.

When you market your show or event you need to review all marketing and advertising claims, offers, and prizes before you actually start the campaign.  Sit down with all parties that will be involved in the fulfillment. Can you deliver? Think about worse case issues and have the solution before the campaign starts.  It is always better to make smaller promises and over deliver on them. 

Creditability is your biggest asset.

Do You Really Know Your Business?

Seth Godin had a great blog post on Monday (he always has great blog posts).  This particular one was called “Watch the Money”.  In it he asked if you really understand your customer? In other words, are you your own customer?   I would like to take this one step further.  Do you really know your business?

I totally agree with Seth.  How can you know your customers if you don’t experience it?  He gave a great example that pertains to our industry.  He asks us how can we understand our customer’s complaints about buying tickets if we never buy tickets ourselves? If you are in the industry, when is the last time you bought tickets from a ticket re-seller?

As I mentioned above, why not take this even further.  How can you really know your business if you only work in one area of the business? 

If you are an event marketer, when is the last time you worked in the box office?  Have you ever sat at the window and sold tickets? Do you know “first hand” what your customers are asking? Have you worked operations for your show or event?  Yes, there has always been the “friendly feud” between marketing and operations.  But do you really understand their side? Do they understand yours? As a marketer or PR person do you get frustrated when the artist or act doesn’t want to do the interview or the meet-n-greet?  Do you really know why?  I understand you may not get to trade places with them for a day but have you ever had a one-on-one discussion with them?  Do they understand your part of the business? 

When you put promotions together, have your really thought it through? How does it affect anyone and everyone?  You can’t really know this unless you’ve been there. 

You will never really know your business until you know your business.

Feedback Friday

Feedback from posts

From: “More Lessons from the Big Screen” posted October 26

You make a valid point about those outrageous high-priced live concert tickets.

I run a small live music festival production firm. Two things are becoming apparent: 1. The public does indeed want affordable escapes from reality.  2. Ticket prices/cover charges must be a max. of $10.00 for local music talent or they won’t sell. They’d rather host friends in their homes, listen to free radio, rent movies and buy beverages from the supermarket. 

In fact, guests at one of my shows this weekend complained about a $5 cover charge to see two local veteran classic rock bands in a lovely, unique full-service bar and grill situated on the relaxing Sacramento River. I was forced to allow some in for free or risk losing future fans and possibly potential gig referrals. In this economy, it has become more important to me (and the bands) to gain exposure and build a fan base in hope they can charge higher cover in the future when the market can bear it. Until then, my work, and theirs is a labor of love!

By the way, I agree with you that combining local comfort food/wine/brewpub with music makes for a more attractive, fun show/festival/concert.

Seth Godin endorses the practice of selling season tickets for entertainment. I might give this try for my 2010 festivals, if I can get local venues on board.  

Thanks for sharing your wisdom,

Jenn Hill, Jenn Hill Productions

From: “What is a Freemium and Will it Work for Us? posted September 21, 2009

One of the things that could be done on this subject is for the Marketing Director/Manager of the building to approach other companies about getting something with the purchase of a ticket.  Marketers are always looking for something out of the box to do to break through with their product.  How about 2 free hours of play at Chuck E Cheese with every purchase of a family show…or how about a gift certificate to a grocery or drug store for the same $ figure they paid for their ticket?  Put the store all over your advertising……they will get a bump and so will the family show..imagine Pay $20 for a ticket to see the Joe Lewi family show and then get a $20 gift certificate to spend at Kroger or CVS!!! Wow what a value!  Do something different and see if it works….if you can’t figure it out hire me and I will do one for you and show you that it works.

 Steve Brodsky

I think that freemium will be a powerful tool in the future, yet I am not sure that free seats can be considered freemium. I would make a difference between free samples and freemium. With free samples it is piece of apple you can taste, a limited time where you can use something or a few free tickets to a show. With freemium the free part can be valuable for ever in and of itself. Like the free version of skype, wordpress or even the free videos from common craft.

Usually these free services are something that can be duplicated on the internet at virtually no cost. Making freemium ideal for companies with a large scope. As I understand it, you are only located in a single location, which would make freemium less ideal and free samples a better match.

Peter, www.freemium.org

Joe,
It has worked for me as an audience member.
While Goldstar’s tickets are generally 25 – 50% off sometimes they have a number of free tickets for an event.
I’ve been lured to an event with the free ticket offer sometimes I’ve opted to pay for better seats, other times I’ve gone to the free event and told others. Also, if the free seats are gone it raises the event’s ranking within Goldstar so it’s a hotter event.
Seems like it’s working for everyone.

Annie Uzdavinis

Feedback Questions

The other day I asked two questions for today’s feedback:

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

I only received one reply and his answers were:

1)    Yes, too much money at stake

2)    No, money in people’s pockets and strength of value in consumer’s mind will determine ticket sales

Since I didn’t get any other feedback on those questions, I will take the silence as “you don’t care” and move on.

 People in the biz updates 

Bob Collins, Chairman of the Board of Circus Sarasota (and formerly with WWE, Ice Capades, and Ringling Bros.-Barnum & Bailey) is currently teaching a marketing class in his hometown, Sarasota, Florida. The  course, entitled “Creative Marketing Tactics for Small Businesses,” is designed to coach local business owners and managers to use many of the same marketing concepts that we use to promote family shows:  particularly low-cost/high impact grass-roots marketing tools. Ultimately, Collins and colleagues hope to “take the show on-the-road” and offer the course in other cities as a day-long seminar to inspire business-owners to conduct their marketing with “show-business” creativity and flair.

Brandon Lucus of Carbonhouse  wrote in: “Joe, you know I wouldn’t miss opportunity to talk about our excitement on current projects. We just launched: 

www.accfootballcharlotte.com

www.landmarktheater.net,

 www.charlotteconventionctr.com.

 Check out these websites.  The guys at Carbonhouse do good stuff!

 Have a great weekend and Happy Halloween (my favorite holiday)!

The Friday Doubleheader

The customer experience is worth its weight in gold

My friend Doak Turner sent me an example of a good and bad customer experience with his new iPhone.  He bought his new iPhone at the Apple Store.  He asked them if they could transfer his contacts from his old phone to his new phone.  They told him that he would have to have AT&T do this.  He went to AT&T and for some reason they couldn’t do it.  They sent him back to Apple who still could not transfer them.  While at Best Buy buying a charger, he asked them if they could help with the contact transfer.  Within minutes the task was completed. 

As soon as I read his email I said, “Wow, Apple’s customer service has really gone south”.  This is not the first time I have heard or noticed Apple’s decline in the customer experience.  I remember when everyone raved about their service. 

Right after I read his email, I read Seth Godin’s blog today titled Spare No Expense.  Coincidently, the take away from the post is that if you train your customer to expect a great customer experience and then pull back on this you will amplify the bad experience.

As event & entertainment marketers we need to remember that we are in the discretionary dollar business.  Our customers buy our tickets to be entertained and provide an escape.  They expect and deserve a great customer experience.  They may need to buy a mobile phone but they don’t need to see our events.  When you budget for the event, make sure you also spend the money on the customer experience.

Project Showtime?

The Wall Street Journal is reporting today that two years ago Ticketmaster considered buying up some of the biggest ticket brokers to counter Live Nation.  Of course this was all prior to the merger of LN and TM.  The name of this secret project was called “Project Showtime”.  First off, is that the best name they could come up with? 

Can any of you imagine what would have happened if they had proceeded with this project? The article claims that one of the reasons this deal didn’t happen is because none of the interested parties trusted each other.  Really, what a surprise!

The article states that Ticketmaster actually did an experiment last year with the Van Halen tour.  They pulled tickets from 20 Van Halen concert dates and gave them to the brokers.  The money was split 70 -30.  The 30% went to the brokers and the 70% was split between Ticketmaster and the band.

Why is this article coming out today?  I can’t see Ticketmaster or Live Nation wanting this out right now. The Justice Department is in the middle of reviewing the merger and this revelation can’t help. 

 Have a great weekend!

The Day The Music Died

WBCN in Boston is going off the air! If you live outside of the Boston market you might be saying “so what?” 

Well it’s a Big F ‘ing deal to the concert and music industry.  You see WBCN is what is called a “tastemaker” station.  This station broke bands.  When U2 was in Boston this past winter playing at the small Somerville Theatre, Bono mentioned it was WBCN that broke the band in the United States.  This station was never afraid to look outside the box.  They didn’t play a band or a song just because the record company asked them to.  WBCN was doing live events when no other radio station was.  They were the pulse of the music industry.  If the radio gods think the station is not relevant anymore, what does this mean for the radio industry in general?

Frozen Fenway

Since we are talking Boston again today, it was announced by the NHL that the Bruins will take on the Flyers outdoors at Fenway Park this January 1st.  The NHL’s Winter Classic game is the best thing the NHL has done in years. If they want to get people excited for the sport, this is one good way of doing it.

This show is for you!

Seth Godin has a great blog post today called Gotcha. In his post he writes about how not every product is for everyone. Be careful how you market.  When we market our shows and events we should realize that not every show is for everyone. Don’t try to hide or cover-up what you are not.  For example, if  the show is not for kids don’t say “great for the whole family”.  I know this sounds like common sense, but you would be surprised how often we market this way.

I Have This Idea….

As event and entertainment marketers we all have ideas.  This is what makes us good marketers.  Some ideas we bring to the world and some ideas we just forget about.  What if we tried all our ideas?

We all have ideas we want to try. I believe there is no such thing as a bad idea.  But while the idea is good, what initially comes out of your head may not be feasible.   Bouncing these ideas off of a peer is a good thing.  When we come up with the idea, we are not thinking about all the little things that go into the idea. 

My favorite marketing blogger Seth Godin asked the question today “is marketing an art or science”?  He states that marketing is both and I agree.  When you come up with the idea, this is the art.  The marketing peer you run it by is applying the science.  I admit, I consider myself more of a marketing artist.  I love to come up with ideas. But I know I need to apply the science.  When I run them by somebody, I usually find the “speed bumps” that go with the idea. 

I mentioned yesterday, that I am going to the Great American Food & Music Festival in a couple of weeks.  One reason I am going is to learn.  I have my own idea for a festival I want to produce and market next year.  My current idea has lots of logistical issues that I need to fix. I am using this festival to help me with this.  The more “bugs” I work out now, the better the idea has of becoming real.

The most important lesson you can learn from this post is: Don’t let other people squash your ideas.  If everyone who had an idea let people “kill it”, we would not have all advances in this world.  Every idea is useable. Listen to the people who give you feedback.  Adjust your ideas based on this feedback. Don’t listen to anyone who puts it down or tells you it won’t work.

Are You Marketing Ready For The Next Ticket Crisis?

So here is a good question:  How will the swine flu outbreak affect our ticket sales?  Think about it.  In Mexico they have cancelled all kinds of events, concerts, and other places where crowds gather.  They have even cancelled Cinco de Mayo celebrations.

How is the live event and entertainment business preparing for this potential business disaster?  So far, I have not heard much of anything.  We are now entering the very busy summer season.  If our plan is to not talk about it and hope for the best, then we are setting ourselves up for failure.  All of us in the industry need to discuss and plan our marketing efforts for this potential crisis. 

We always seem to plan and market our events based on “wishful thinking”.  Do you ever plan your marketing around “what if”?   Everyone who knows me knows that I am a very positive person.  I am not trying to be negative.  I am trying to get all of us to be prepared. There is nothing wrong with being prepared.  I have discussed before having a “fire drill” plan.  This is a marketing plan ready to go when the original plan is not working.  Even if you don’t need it now, it could be useful in the future.

Seth Godin’s blog post today is called “Might as well panic”.  He discusses how we all love to panic.  We want our leaders to show panic as a way of helping to overcome a crisis.   I am not asking us in the live event marketing business to panic. I am asking us to be marketing ready if our customers start to panic.  When the recession started affecting our ticket sales, we were not ready for it.  Let’s be ready this time.  Remember that in our business, perception is reality.

 

SEO Marketing Is All In The Name

I have wanted to write about SEO (search engine optimization) for a while.  This morning I read a good piece on SEO from my favorite marketing blogger Seth Godin.  Check out his post on “How to Make Money with SEO”. 

Seth’s post gives an easy explanation of SEO.  He compares it with the Yellow Pages and the White Pages of a phone book.  If run a big ad for your product in the right section of the yellow pages then chances are you will get phone calls.  If you just let your product list on a Google search, you could get buried.  He gives the example of a plumber.  Do a search on “plumber” and you will get 4 million results.  If you own a certain name and you market that name this narrows your Google search results.  This would be like the White Pages.

If you search and/or collect followers on Twitter then you know there are “thousands” of “SEO experts”.  Or it just seems to be thousands.  If you come up with a way to stand above the clutter with your product or brand then you too can be a SEO expert.  There really is no one way to market in the SEO space. As with any marketing or advertising tool once someone does it one way, someone else is trying to beat it another way. 

Google makes a living selling advertising.  This advertising can come in the form of those ads you see on the side of the results page and on top of the results page.  How effective are these search ads?  No one really knows.  That is the problem with SEO paid advertising.  From personal experience I usually don’t click on these search ads.  For some bad reason I think that clicking on the “free” search results is more authentic. We all know how wrong that can be. I guess we believe that doing “investigative research” will lead us to the correct results. 

There is a perception problem with SEO marketing.  If you believe in what you see and hear with paid TV, newspaper, and radio advertising why not paid search ads?  Search engine marketing is only going to get bigger and better with time.  As we spend more time on the internet and less with other media, main stream marketers and advertisers will devote more effort to this direct and personal marketing tool.

BTW, I did a Google search of “event & entertainment marketing blog”. There were 12,900,000 results.  This blog came up first, second, and tenth in the first ten results.  Not too shabby!

 

Mobile Marketing Means “Marketing”

The key to mobile marketing is “marketing”.  This does not mean just asking the customer to send you a text.  This means capturing the data and then marketing back to the customer.  I have been using my cell phone as a test case for all of you who read this blog.  Whenever I have the opportunity to text a message for an arena promotion (either on TV or at the arena) I do it.  I know they are getting my text because I get a quick text back letting me know.  But the fact that they are not using my captured mobile phone data to market back to me is unbelievable.  What a freakin waste! 

Almost a month ago I saw a promotion for a family show coming to Boston.  They had a TV promotion to send a text to enter for free tickets to the show.  I sent in the text.  I received a text back claiming I was entered.  I don’t care if I win or lose.  I hope I lose!  I still don’t know what the result was because I never heard back.  The show is opening the end of this week.  If I did lose, don’t you think they should tell me?  This would be a good time to also let me know they have plenty of “good seats” still available and I should buy them now. Remind me that the show opens this Friday!

This is the second time I have entered a mobile marketing promotion via a TV promo spot.  It was also for a family show playing at the same arena.  Once they captured my mobile data, they should have sent me a text informing me that another family show (same demo) was going on sale.  But they didn’t.

Every time I go to a sporting event, they offer mobile promotions to the fans in the seats.  I make sure I try all of them.  They have not marketed back to me.  Why?  I know that arena marketers read this blog; could you please let me know what the hold up is?  Send me a comment or email.  I will keep you anonymous if you want.

Everyone from the arena’s to the shows want to market using the new technology and non-traditional marketing.  These topics were the most attended sessions at the Event & Arena Marketing Conference.  I have met with “top” arena marketers who think they are up to speed with this.  But are they?   Arena marketing leaders have told me they are looking for people who “get it” to help them with this.  Yet, I still have not seen it.

Just collecting data and not using it to market is like collecting dust.  If you don’t do something it will just sit there and make a mess.

Great Viral Info

Seth Godin, who I think (so does a lot of people) is a true marketing guru had a great blog post yesterday on viral marketing.  Here is the link: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/12/what-is-viral-m.html.  I think you will like it.

I hope you all have a very happy holiday!