Caitlin Clark, Variable Pricing, & More...
An eclectic Talking Tickets today!
Hi!
What did you think of the guest post from Bryan Ralston?
I got some nice notes.
Hit reply and let me know if you want more like that.
Today, I’m double dipping because I have been working through my inbox and my saved articles.
I’m having a bit of an existential thing where I’m trying to figure out the right value to provide to you that meets what I’m interested in.
I deal with this every year or two.
Lately, I’ve been playing with it a bit more.
I think I’m going to dig deeper into some bigger issues, but I’ve also got some really interesting ideas that have come out in my marketing research such as:
Understanding when your organization is ready for a change.
Overcoming sales orientation to focus on marketing in the arts.
How do you market effectively without a huge budget?
Why arts marketing is no different than marketing Apple.
Skills training for the arts.
Perspectives on the secondary market.
Pricing when your supply outstrips your demand.
The business of futbol.
B2B marketing in tickets.
Launching products, groups, seasons.
Am I missing anything?
Does this list inspire some ideas of your own?
Things you’d like to see more about?
So…here are some links to stories I’ve read with some bullet points about each.
I’m curious what you make of them.
Ken Davenport talks about variable pricing:
Ken used to throw a really great holiday party. Good guy.
Variable pricing isn’t all up or down there are pluses and minuses to the practice.
The sold out show was a marketing tool. The yield for the whales might be greater, but is it adding to the brand equity of Broadway?
Always think about the perception your price is creating.
Ethan Strauss asks if baseball is dying:
I’ve been thinking about the situation in Oakland and Las Vegas, a lot.
Peter Drucker gave me a new way of thinking about the business of sports.
I’m curious what you are thinking about baseball. When was the last time you watched a game? Were you a fan who has fallen out of love with the game? Never a fan?
Asli Pelit looks at the business of Messi:
50% of the crowd, minimum, had Messi tops on.
Kansas City sold out Arrowhead for Messi’s appearance the other day.
Will this turn into a long-term win for MLS?
How is this impacting the Apple TV subscriptions?
SBJ pegs the economic growth of the A’s to Sacramento at a bit more than $4M:
Looking at these numbers, they seem pretty accurate.
Looking at these numbers, they don’t seem very large for a city the size of Sacramento.
Looking at the entire situation, you have to really wonder what the end solution of the A’s situation is going to be.
Diamond Baseball Holdings bundles up minor league teams:
I’ve always been a huge minor league baseball fan.
When I drive to Georgia each summer, I plan the trip around going to some minor league games with the boy.
This article has a lot of stuff going on:
Fanatics partnership
Standardization
1975 business model (which I find inaccurate in my dealings with a lot of minor league teams)
Huge valuations
My questions:
MiLB has typically been a low-margin business and with these huge valuations, where is the revenue going to be made up? It isn’t just going to come from standardization and volume buying.
When the inevitable price rises come will that kill the goose? One of the reasons fans come out so frequently to MiLB games is due to the local feel, the value-to-price ratio, and the connection to the community.
WNBA is ready to go with more attention:
Last season, WNBA broadcasts drew an average of 728,000 viewers compared to 1.59M for NBA broadcasts on ESPN. What does this tell you? The WNBA probably deserves a better deal than they are getting.
The people who are saying we’ve been here before with women’s sports don’t understand marketing very well because the truth is that women’s sports have been under-marketed.
Dawn Staley’s comment about Caitlin Clark “lifting up” the sport is apt and for smart marketers, you know that top of mind awareness is great because more people in the top of the funnel gives you a stronger place to start moving people to consume and buy your product.
I bring this up because it is the same thing with the arts, men’s sports, and any other product.
You have to expand your top of funnel, brand-building activity.
While we are on the subject, I don’t buy the idea that NBA and WNBA rights should be sold together…two different products, two different markets, two different strategies.
Finally, don’t believe me about growing the top of the funnel and, instead, focusing on “retention”…just look at other industries.
If it doesn’t work in other areas, why is it going to work in tickets?
Do you think Maggie Rogers’s plan for beating scalpers will work?
As my buddy, Garrett Nolan says, this might enable more scalping.
What do you think?
Let me know: hit reply and give me your take!
I’ve gone on enough for this edition, but make sure you check out the:
The Business of Fun podcast. I’ve got a great episode with Solene Jimenez from Arenametrix in the next day or so.
Say hello in the Slack Channel!
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Cheers!
Dave