Talking Tickets 13 May 2022: Nashville's Industry Recovery! Stadium Tours! Australian Cinema's Lessons! And, More!
Number 135
Hi There!
Happy Friday the 13th.
Thanks for being here and thanks for reading. If you dig the newsletter, share it with folks that might learn something or benefit from the analysis and action items.
BTW, doing a secondary market podcast later today. And, if you have any questions about the secondary market, drop me a note and I’ll see what I can work in.
I’m going to get right to the tickets this week!
1. The Big Story: Nashville is leading the way for live entertainment’s recovery:
Big Ideas:
Jobs in the arts are still down over 20%.
People will consume art in many different ways.
The road ahead is filled with adjustments.
I’ve lost track of the number of waves and variants that the pandemic has laid at our feet, but I’ll call it many.
As the pandemic continues to work its way through our societies, we are seeing people adapt their lifestyles, change their habits, and find new ways to experience life while the virus is still around.
I don’t have to tell anyone reading this that the last 2+ years have been difficult on folks in the world of sports and entertainment, y’all have all lived it.
That’s why I noticed this story about Nashville this week because Nashville is an example that all of us can learn something from as their venues rethink their businesses, artists find new ways to share their art, and the entire ecosystem recreates itself to reflect a new reality.
Three big items stood out to me and I want to draw your attention to them this morning:
First, the depth of the hole for folks in the live entertainment business is over 20% in many places.
Last week, I talked about Broadway and how having so many shows running right now at low capacity was a challenge that could harm folks as they get back to work.
Going a touch further than what I wrote about last week, we need to think about new ways to create value in our roles in the world of live entertainment to help draw folks in, create revenue, and build sustainability for the long term.
What will this value look like?
It may be similar to what it was before. It may be different. The challenge is really to continue the search until you find a new way to add or grow your impact in the industry.
My career is a minor example since I started out with nightclubs and promotions, moved to operations in sports, did some stuff in theatre, sold Broadway, and now I’m involved in strategy.
I’ve evolved my value-add, we all must.
How can we all change the shape of our value creation?
Second, look at our customers.
In the Nashville story, we uncover that people consume art in many different ways. This was always true, but it has also become more true since the pandemic started.
In the beginning, this was out of necessity as we turned to more in-home experiences like shows on Zoom, or shows posted to streaming services.
We continued with socially distanced concerts and performances in random places like fields and parking lots.
Now, we have a chance to combine all the things we have learned to give people even more ways to consume arts.
As we learned from Sean Kelly, it doesn’t matter how folks consume art, they put the value on the art, not the medium.
Finally, know for sure that the road ahead will be filled with adjustments.
In the article at the top, we see a handful of folks that talk about their path and how the pandemic changed their path.
In the before times, we often saw folks fight change as their lives depended on everything staying the same.
In truth, fighting change is a losing battle because change is constant.
At every turn, it seems like the pandemic has thrown us a curveball when we should have been expecting one, but we were still caught off guard.
I’d be surprised if that didn’t continue to be the case moving forward.
How can I be sure?
I can’t be 100% sure.
But I can tell you that I do know that this virus has been unpredictable and that the only right bet has been the one that says to expect the unexpected.
That’s what I am betting on.
So, put these ideas to action:
Think about how you are adding or creating value. This will make you more attractive and make your events more attractive.
Think about different ways to share your art, sports, or entertainment. People consume in different ways.
Have a Plan B. That’s probably true no matter what situation you find yourself in.
2. The Road to Recovery: Stadium Tours Fill the Void of Attendance at Stadiums:
Big Ideas:
Concerts are selling out stadiums.
This is buffering slower sales for some team sports like baseball.
This is part of a general trend of change in how or where folks consume art and entertainment.
This is a nice companion to the top story because it highlights how concerts have been selling out or selling well in stadiums at the same time that many baseball teams are seeing very low attendance numbers through the first 4-6 weeks of the season.
I have been thinking about the nature of the situation in Oakland and around baseball as attendance numbers are low, but I haven’t put my thoughts down completely yet so I’ll focus a bit on the overall story here and keep it tight, saving the overall baseball story for later. (Maybe Memorial Day weekend when y’all can send me some cold beers and read the newsletter poolside.)
Let’s take a quick hit on this story though:
First, we do see lots of concerts coming to baseball and football stadiums. And, some of the acts are acts that I wouldn’t have thought would go the stadium road right away because I didn’t know if they would have the demand to fill the venue like the Red Hot Chili Peppers tour.
Love the Chili Peppers. Have seen the open for Pearl Jam and REM, but wasn’t sure that they’d be able to sell out or well in baseball stadiums.
But these shows are selling reasonably well.
This shows a continuing of a trend of big events or one-off events selling well, but the regular season schedule struggling more because we are still seeing baseball teams clocking in with what looks like only 3-5,000 fans in a lot of places. Less, even, at others.
Second, the success of the summer concert series is buffering the sales challenges teams are seeing because they provide some revenue on nights when the building might be closed and where the team may be struggling to bring in revenue right now.
In some cities, you might see them host 6-10 concerts over the summer. That isn’t a full 81-game schedule, but it does help with the bottom line.
What I do think needs to happen here is that baseball teams and teams struggling to sell tickets need to reframe the conversation away from sell-through rates or tickets distributed to get to things that are going to really help build sustainability for the organizations through ups and downs of winning and losing like brand building, turnstile attendance, and customer loyalty.
Third, just like we discussed above, this highlights the trend of people consuming art and entertainment in different ways.
We have to be flexible in what we offer and how to make sure that we aren’t missing out on the chance to create opportunities to offer fans something that they want.
Remember: you aren’t the customer. So what you want or think is valuable isn’t just wrong, it may be dangerous.
In action:
Be creative in what you offer your customers. They might want something different.
Rethink how you measure success. The old numbers or old ways of thinking aren’t necessarily the ones that will help you achieve success.
Give the customers what they want…even if it is the Chili Peppers in a baseball stadium. Who knew?! I’m in though.
3. How To: Australian cinemas show us how to reinvent ourselves:
Big Ideas:
Entertainment is a big part of folks’ lives everywhere in the world.
The total experience matters.
Looking at Australia cinema, we see that a lot of entertainment is appointment based.
Y’all thought I forgot about Australia?
I have not and I expect to see y’all at the Ticketing Professionals Conference this year on 2-3 November in Parramatta.
In the States, we’ve seen some version of this stuff taking hold at different locations like:
My local theatre had a bar before it closed down for good during the pandemic.
The CMX Cinema chain which I visit when I’m staying in Miami.
IMAX 4DX cinemas around the country.
All of these are ways that cinema chains have worked to expand the customer experience of going to the movies as the TV and streaming experience gets better and better.
The challenge of enhancing the customer experience is global at this point, but it also highlights the way that entertainment is a big part of our lives in every society and culture.
For a refresher on how important entertainment is for folks, give my chat with Ilya Kratsov a listen if you haven’t already because we talk about how in developing countries that are having rapid middle class growth like SE Asia, one of the first things people look for is entertainment.
In understanding the importance of entertainment, we have to consider that the total experience matters and finding ways to enhance that experience will lead to better outcomes for your marketing and sales efforts.
The cinema is a good example because as streaming and in-home options grew, the movie night at the cinema took a hit because there were so many in-home options, the experience at the cinema wasn’t keeping up, and the quality of movies wasn’t able to overcome those two challenges.
This mirrors some of the challenges that the world of live entertainment is dealing with as well.
On Friday, I took a little bit of time to watch the Apple TV+ presentation of the Red Sox v. White Sox game and the production quality was exceptional. I enjoyed the commentary and in-game graphics. And, because I was watching the game on a 72 inch TV with Sonos surround sound, the quality of my experience was pretty great.
If I were having beer or wine, I can tell you the F&B experience would have beat almost every in-game offering as well. (I mean I got a recent care package with several fresh bottles of Pliny the Elder, Blind Pig, and other Russian River brews. I also got a very expensive bottle of Van Winkle as a Christmas gift. So my drinks game is on point.)
I used these examples because this is the competition you are facing.
Think of all the points of friction that you are putting in the way of your fans before they actually get to your theatre, your ballpark, your arena because most customers aren’t just picking whether or not to go to the theatre, game, or concert.
They are also picking whether to go out or not.
There are many choices.
And, lots of things that can get in the way like:
Perception of value to cost. (Poor marketing)
Parking or travel to the game. (I have this problem a lot if I go to Audi Field or Nats Park. It is easier to get to Baltimore than SW DC from Upper NW DC many times.)
F&B options. (Long lines. High prices. Poor quality. Limited options.)
More choice. (Use me again, in SF that 21st Amendment Brewery near the ballpark is a strong incentive to watch the game on TV when it is a night game and cold. Or, the pier next to the Sydney Opera House and all of the options there are definitely challenges to getting folks to come inside the Opera House for a show.)
All of this is to say you have to consider what is going on from the POV of your customer.
Their opinion matters.
If you invest too much into your own opinion, things can get dicey fast.
The most interesting point to me here is how the Australian cinema talks about the “appointment based” nature of entertainment now as folks work themselves out into public from their pandemic induced hibernations.
This mirrors a John Wall Street piece that talked about the changing nature of premium ticket sales last summer.
It also highlights a trend from my conversations with folks on the secondary market and in other countries around the world.
People are still a bit cautious about going out like they may have gone out before the pandemic began, but if it is something really important to them…they will go out.
Some examples of this include:
NBA Playoff games including the Heat and 76ers series which I’ve been watching and I see some pretty good attendance.
Big baseball matchups like the Yankees vs. Red Sox series I was at in the summer. Not an empty seat in Fenway Park or, at least, it felt that way.
Pearl Jam at the Forum. Friend of the newsletter, Chris Asa, sent me a bunch of pictures from his trip to the show on Saturday night.
The Premier League and British sports have shared pretty strong attendance numbers as well.
Big Broadway shows like Wicked continue to draw.
We have to keep this dynamic in mind because it will impact our marketing and sales efforts. It will also impact how we package our products. And, the experience that folks receive when they come to visit.
How can we put this to work?
Think through the entire experience.
Understand the value dynamic at play: does this feel like a big event? If not, what can I do to adjust the dynamic?
Know that people love entertainment, but the environment for attention is extremely competitive. Don’t just listen to me, listen to Scott Galloway. Then, come back and listen to me.
4. Tools/Tech/Profile: LCV not CLTV for me, but knowing your customer is important:
Big Ideas:
Lifetime Customer Value is nothing new if you’ve been reading my stuff or listening to my podcast over the last few years.
Collecting data is easy, but turning it into something useful is hard.
The direct relationship between fan and team has renewed importance, but I don’t think this is a new thing. I think this is just new for teams to actually pay attention to the need to have the tightest relationship with their fans.
In many weeks, this could have been the big story.
Today, I’m going to get in and out with some quick touches on important aspects of this piece.
First, it is nice to see folks talking about CLTV even though the easier and more common idea is LCV (Lifetime Customer Value).
I’ve been talking about it for a while and I’m glad that folks are paying attention to it because it highlights the importance of building relationships with your fans and customers.
In too many instances, new customers are highlighted more than keeping the ones you have.
Why not focus on both when it makes sense?
Second, I’ve hit on the idea of the overload of data before.
Again, we need to keep in mind that we can have all the data in the world but without the right questions to guide your investigation of the data to create insights, you won’t get very far.
Third, a topic I really find interesting is the one about the direct team to fan relationship.
The fact that teams have given over so much of their brand building power to their TV partners and sponsors was a bad decision to begin with. But I’m hoping that this new period of the industry, recovering from the pandemic, will highlight the importance of driving the relationship with your fans.
Because you should be controlling the relationship not someone else.
Case in point, this newsletter: we call that direct relationship in the world of marketing.
Can you put these ideas to work?
Yes you can.
Start tracking LCV. It will be a difficult transition but worth it. You want to know how much someone is worth and has been worth to your business and you want to reward them so that the number grows.
Focus on asking the right questions so your data makes the most sense to you and provides insights. Remember the old saying, Garbage In Garbage Out. Focus on the question.
Look for ways to build the direct relationship now. Goose your efforts for your newsletter. Create something that folks have to opt-in to. Give people a reason to connect with you by offering them value.
5. Blurbs and Such:
Softjourn helps support the Ukrainian economy: The war of Russian aggression is still going on in Ukraine and their economy has been decimated by the Russian war efforts. That’s why I was happy to see this piece come from Emmy Gengler of Softjourn that shares ways that folks can support the Ukrainian economy because their tech sector is able to still function.
Tottenham and the South Korean tourism association sign a new deal: Spurs are heading to South Korea in the summer for their preseason tour and Son is one of the most popular players in the world…a partnership is born. Let’s hope this leads to more transfer funds.
Chelsea FC’s road to profitability isn't clear: Get to Stamford Bridge while you have a chance because there is not going to be a profitable path forward for the club that doesn’t involve some sort of renovations or changes to the stadium. That out of the way, the interesting thing here will be how the new ownership team manages to build a sustainable business model, new game day experience, but also fitting all of that into a relatively small footprint. Or, is moving to a new location the only road. There is a lot to pay attention to here.
FIFA 23 won’t be called FIFA 23: A lot of brand equity is going out the door with this announcement. My question is will it impact the popularity of the game or of futbol at all. Don’t jump to conclusions. We just don’t know.
The Idiots of F1 take on the Miami F1: The idiots take on the presentation of the race in Miami is informative of how the rest of the world views the US and it also highlights the idea that each market is unique. Another level, just because you think it is “premium” or “good” doesn’t mean much. It is all about the customer.
When it is 1992 pricing every series, you’d gain more by repricing your building: YOLO! But this is the kind of situation calling out for repricing over discounting.
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