Happy Birthday to 'The Business of Fun' podcast. It turns 5!
187: 12 May 2023
Hi folks!
Do you like the graphics?
Let me know.
You wanted more pictures.
I’m looking at doing some seasons in the podcast covering specific topics. Would that be interesting to y’all?
What or whom would you like to hear from?
Planning out my summer trips right now, but here are a few stops along the way:
The World Ticketing Conference in Nashville in July is penciled in right now.
September 17-20: Austin, Texas.
Miami, July.
NYC, late-June.
Boston, July 23-25.
To the Tickets!
P.S. Share the newsletter/podcast with a colleague that might appreciate it.
I. Are You Targeting the Right Part of the Market?
More importantly, are you targeting them with the right message?
Today’s graph shows you two axises: segmentation and value proposition.
You can segment your market generically or specifically.
Your value proposition sits somewhere between generic and specific.
What does it mean?
Upper Left: Your segment is general, but your value is specific is “Mass Market”.
You are talking about things like Pampers, Tide, or Charmin.
Everyone uses detergent, toilet paper, or could be in the market for diapers at some point.
For you, this is the area where you want to think about your branding.
At some point, everyone might want to find an entertainment option for client entertainment, a date, or team building.
Why not with you?
These people take a lot of touch points to get to the state of buying. But it is the realm of sophisticated mass marketing.
Lower Left: The segment is specific and your value proposition is very specific. These are often your “Early Adopters”.
These are people that bought the early Teslas, they saw Hamilton at the Public Theatre, these are your opinion leaders like bloggers, influencers, etc.
For you, you need to know whether or this audience is meaningful and if you should be focusing on them.
They are likely going to be a pretty small percentage of the total potential market.
You can get these people to buy quickly if you know the market because you will be able to design a campaign that can make them feel spoken to.
This is also where you find the sweet spot for any sales activation campaign.
Lower Right: General value proposition combined with specific segmentation.
This segment is often thinking, “Why Me?”
The segment is very specific, but the message is very general.
This isn’t a completely lost cause, but it can feel a lot like those spam emails that say, “You love the University of Alabama, have you thought about giving us some of your cash?”
TBF, Alabama hasn’t sent me a note like that in months.
The challenge here is that you’ve got the targeting, but the message is still tone deaf or better for brand building.
Sales activation isn’t going to happen easily here.
Upper Right: This is general targeting and generic value proposition.
I think about this with the stuff around “start with why” or “100 pieces of content a day”…it is motivational speaking fluff in most cases.
The only thing that this is really good for is brand building.
You’ll say stuff that is almost universal in applicability, knowing that it might take many touches before you pop to mind for people.
What does all of this mean?
It means that you need to be careful about your messaging.
The reality is that you need to do a bit of all 4.
If I had to guess a specific mix:
“Motivational Speaker”: 25%
“Mass Market”: 35%
“Early Adopters”: 30%
“Why Me?”: 10%
These are generic guidelines.
The key is that you need to do a mix of branding and sales activation. The right mix will depend on your spot in the market.
Hamilton can get away with a lot more “Mass” now.
Your mileage may vary.
The prive to value equation wins again.
Desperation marketing at the end of the sales cycle: Sounds about right…
Discounts
Fake urgency
MORE emails!
Read the article, you get a picture of the challenge that faces all sports business in the States at this point.
Brand building has been replaced by FOMO marketing.
A hot event takes care of itself.
Then, the heat dies out and the event collapses.
A few years back, the Nationals struggled to sell out the National League Championship Series. But folks wanted to go to the World Series.
Does that sound like #winning?
I think not.
Is there a better way? There obviously is, but you just want get people talking about LCV and long-term relationships.
Thinking long-term isn’t something that is rewarded.
Can F1 make it in America?
Yes.
But you also have to realize that it will need a strategy for sustainability, not maximum profitability at every point.
Again, look at the incentives?
What’s the incentive right now?
Max profit.
III. “The Rule of Four” is an interesting idea for the world of tickets:
Competition is essential for a healthy economy, innovation, and stability.
The Big Idea: The secondary market is the ballast in most cases providing competition in the American ticket market. In other countries, there are allocations and other programs to create competition.
What does a monopolized market look like?
One company is the dominant provider of a good or service.
Limited competition allows the provider to set prices and supply of goods.
Can lead to higher prices and lower quality.
“Chokepoint Capitalism” is worth a look: Look at this piece and send me your thoughts.
I don’t think a business is or sector is “healthy” just due to the profits or revenue it generates.
But I also believe nothing happens in a vaccum.
Read the articles above and share your ideas.
The Rule of Four: The benefits of a company not being able to have more than 25% of a specfic market.
I know there are complications to this in reality, but to dismiss the idea without thinking about it…that’s niave.
PS. The NATB is in Nashville this year and there is a legislative panel with Gary Adler and OG childhood friend, Brian Berry. I’m sure they’ll have something to say about concentration of power and lack of competition in the market.
PSS: Cory Doctorow has a Twitter thread about the strike in Hollywood.
PSSS: Live Nation aims at the secondary market as using dishonest antitrust arguments in their promotion of ‘Ticket Buyer Bill of Rights’.
IV. Happy Birthday, ‘The Business of Fun’ turns 5:
Started as an experiment, the podcast helped me go truly global.
Thank You!
I've had a chance to visit mainland Asia, Australia, continental Europe, and more due to the podcast.
The podcast has helped me create new lines of business, new speaking opportunities, and has helped me have my writing translated into 8 or more languages.
Thanks to my top guests over the years: Simon Severino, Patrick Ryan, Derek Palmer, Zoe Scaman, and Eric Fuller.
Make a plan for what you want to talk about, but let the conversation flow. I’ve had a plan in almost every podcast, but I have often found that the plan went out the door due to the topics my guest would bring up in the pre-recording part of the conversation.
Longer conversations can hold people’s attention. The average listener length of the podcast, 55 minutes. That’s the full episode in most cases. People have put their trust in me to share ideas, conversations, and perspective that they can trust.
Go to different places. Some of the biggest hits have been people that I wouldn’t have imagined would have had such large download numbers like Zoe Scaman. She’s not really a ticket person and I thought that might cause her to be a miss, but I really wanted to talk with her. Y’all rewarded my belief. That’s led me to have some different podcast guests.
How will I top the first 5 years?
Bigger, better guests.
More diversity.
More short form podcasts with quick lessons. They’ve had much wider pickup and higher download numbers.
More partnerships.
Have you listened? What’s your favorite guest?
Do you have someone you would like to hear from?
V. Links
What is this?
A bunch of organizations know an opportunity when they see one.
Why is this happening now?
Because despite the best efforts of Live Nation to stem the bad press, the bad press continues for them.
FYI: Pearl Jam’s tickets for their 9 shows have left fans feeling a bit angry.
Aerosmith fans have beef with prices as well:
At some point, there will be a breaking point in one direction or the other on pricing.
Does the orchestra need a PSA to halt talking?
If so, I do think the comedic route is better.
Laughter helps!
Linktree: Find everything I’m up to.
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