Talking Tickets 18 March 2022: TPC! Birmingham! London! Ticketmaster! Oligarchs! And, More!
#127...a proper pint and some fish and chips.
Hey!
As you are receiving this, I’m in Birmingham, UK.
I was chatting to Tim Chambers on the Monday and we were discussing it and he said that “of course, I like Birmingham.” I wasn’t sure if that was a compliment or not, but then he got me another ale and I moved on.
How are y’all?
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1. The Big Story: John Oliver takes on Ticketmaster:
Big Ideas:
This isn’t the first time I’ve seen someone talk about Ticketmaster being a shield for the artist.
With “noisy” fans, you have to look and see if this is a real situation or a made up one.
This business model continues to point to the dominance of the “boom or bust economy”.
I’m certain to receive a few emails this morning from folks that will say something to the effect of “Lefsetz is a hack. He doesn’t know what he is talking about.” If Bob’s detractors are anywhere near similar to mine, that complaint usually jumps up when I’ve nailed some issue that doesn’t want to be addressed.
Like people have asked me why sports ticket sales is still dominated by boiler rooms and cold calls in too many places, I tell them, “There are no incentives to change.” Then the comments or the emails rain in…"You just don’t get it.”
This video from John Oliver and the story from Bob are good. They lay it out pretty clearly.
Everyone hates brokers until they can’t sell their tickets. Then, they love brokers.
Everyone is anti-broker until they are out of a job. Then, they are looking to get into “technology”.
Everyone is anti-secondary until they need to goose their revenue a bit.
How do I know?
Because I see it every day.
So, what should we look at here this week?
First, the ecosystem around live events.
I used ecosystem in one of these newsletters a few months back and someone send me a note that just said, “big words mean nothing.”
Obviously, that person didn’t go to Cambridge and study strategy like me.
Because ecosystem has a specific definition in strategy. I teach it like this that an ecosystem is a set of organizations that all work together to deliver a product or service to a business or person through some combination of competition, coordination, or cooperation.
It isn’t a big word definition. It is a recognition that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
That’s the world of live entertainment for you.
Second, live entertainment is about marketing.
As more and more events have returned, we are seeing that the big artists, big events, and big shows are doing well. The lesser stuff is doing less well.
We see premium selling better in a lot of places than general bowl seating.
This tells us a few things.
Number one, the big events have a built in demand curve because of hype, good marketing, and buzz.
In other words, awareness is high.
You start with awareness and getting people to pay attention. If you aren’t in control of that, you are failing as a leader.
Number two, you have to know your numbers.
I’ve been dealing with this one a lot lately because I take for granted that people know exactly the right numbers to measure or how they work.
Some organizations do. Some don’t.
There doesn’t seem to be any trend to tell me why one organization knows its numbers and another doesn’t.
I’ve seen businesses that have a bit of a grasp on their numbers do well because of their tracking of other data. I’ve seen businesses that have their numbers nailed but never actually use them well enough to create good insights and changes.
What are the right numbers?
That’s a trick question.
Because the truth is that you should track your numbers based on your business and your data. Each business will have a different funnel and sales cycle built for thier specific market.
If you aren’t seeing that, someone is blowing smoke.
So, figure out the right stuff to track and get to it.
Final point here, there is no shame in being a good business person. You can be good at business and still love music, sports, arts, whatever.
I was having drinks, many many drinks, with my buddy, Jamie Snelgrove in London on Tuesday night. And, we got onto the need to be more well-rounded. We brought up the CERN, we talked about traveling around the world and the things we picked up along the way, and we talked about having inspiration from outside of any “industry”.
When I say that you need to be a good business person, I mean just that.
Stop trying to be a good “arts marketer” and just be a good marketer.
Don’t be a good sports sales person, but be a great salesperson.
These skills translate across industries and one of the big things holding recovery, renewal, and the future back is the unwillingness to learn from all the great resources you have available to you.
This isn’t just a starting or middle career thing either. This applies all the way up the ladder to the very top. I don’t know who told me this, but “leaders are learners” and that’s true.
So, what does this story really mean…probably not much. It is interesting, amusing, and right. But does it really mean much, not really.
At least I got to rant!
Also, since I’m in Europe, I haven’t been able to watch the actual video yet…so I’ll deal with that later.
2. The Road to Recovery: “Do You Love Rock N’ Roll?” Foo Fighters return to Australia to re-open Australia!:
Big Ideas:
As Dave Grohl said in DC, “We open things.”
Australian touring has returned. Another excuse for me to return.
Have you noticed that Dave Grohl has been everywhere lately?
Ahhh…you knew I would find a way to work Australia into the newsletter during my first foreign trip in over 2 years.
The fact that it is Foo Fighters is even better.
This section doesn’t need to be long, but it should be celebratory.
First, it is great to see the Australian borders re-opening. I know we are still going to struggle with the virus for the next bit of time, but to quote the movie, Singles, “people need people, Steve.”
So this is a welcome sign.
Second, back to “The Big Story”. Awareness matters and Dave Grohl has been everywhere. He’s on YouTube shows, podcasts, TV, and in the movies.
This awareness means that the top of the Foo Fighters’ funnel is full.
The game has changed and if you are going to be successful now, you have to constantly work on feeding the top of that funnel. So people don’t forget you are around, doing your thing.
BTW, do you see that you are reading “Talking Tickets” today while I am still out in the world? And, people marveled when I still sent it out during my summer holiday?
Awareness, baby!
Finally, still be careful.
As I said at the top of the section, we are likely to continue to deal with the virus for the forseeable future.
You hear people talk about “covid being over”. Covid decides when it is done, we don’t. So be careful, don’t just think because you are over the virus that the virus is done disrupting things.
As I’ve seen this week, lots of folks are still getting sick from the virus. And, even if you are vaccinated, the virus can make you sick.
3. How-To: The Green Bay Packers announce their prices for next season:
Big Ideas:
Average isn’t a good measure.
These prices are falling in the line with inflation. I’m not sure if that is good or bad, but it is what it is.
The Packers are playing at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Just pay attention to the way teams set their prices this year.
I’ll be curious to see what happens.
With the theme of quickness this week.
First, average isn’t a good measure for telling you whether or not a decision makes sense or not.
Remember, if I stand next to Jeff Bezos, we have an average of over $100B each in net worth.
Second, these prices fall within the range of inflation, but will that turn out to be a wise decision?
Only time will tell.
For a long time, ticket prices have tracked beyond the cost of inflation, significantly.
So, with real pressure, it will be interesting to see what happens.
Third, the Packers are playing at the Spurs stadium.
That has nothing to do with pricing and everything to do with the Spurs Stadium is amazing!
4. Tech/Tools/Profile: Vivid Seats calls 2022 a comeback year:
Big Ideas:
Vivid Seats sees their numbers improve from the year prior.
Vivid is investing in brand awareness…smart.
Live events still sell, just not evenly.
This deserves a deeper dive because the secondary market has been something a lot of people have asked me about. But let me hit you with a few things this morning.
First, the idea of brand investment is smart.
To maximize the ROI of your marketing investments, you need to spend on both the long and short.
Long is emotional brand building.
Short is sales activation.
The fact that they talked about that gives me hope that they are pointed in the right direction.
Second, ticket sales continue to improve.
It isn’t a straight shot for everyone across the board, but you do see numbers continue to improve.
Third, what I’m interested in is what the secondary market will look like going forward.
I had a few people ask me if the secondary market was over and I did some research because I didn’t want to dismiss the question out of hand. What I discovered is that the market seems to have broken into three distinct pieces.
We will cover that later, but share your feedback with me. I’m curious what y’all are seeing.
5. Blurbs and Such:
The end of the oligarch era: I’m not so sure that I buy this yet, but pandemics typically cause shifts in society and maybe we are starting to see the wheels of change grinding again. With soccer, healthcare, safety, and other things on the line. I really just stick this in here to bug my Chelsea friends because they’ve had fun with Spurs…consider this my time to return the favor!
The Tomorrowland Festival sells 600,000 tickets: This is a good sign. If this goes off, it will be another signal that we are able to start putting the pandemic behind us. I think the festival will go off, but I still doubt if we are really through with the pandemic. You win some and you lose some.
Will Tasmania get a team?: Let’s make fun of Dave for a while here. I remember when I didn’t even realize Tasmania was a real place and that people really lived there. I’d love to see an AFL team there because it would be a good excuse to visit. It seems like there is going to be a drawn out process to decided about expansion, but if I were a betting man…I’d say more likely than not. It seems to make logistical sense.
I was in Sportico with Simon Mabb a few weeks back talking about Booking Protect, refund protection, and what customers want and need now. Give it a read.
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I’m at the Ticketing Professionals Conference UK. If you are in the neighborhood, get to the conference, Andrew, Carol, and the TPC team do a great job and they throw great parties.
I had my buddy, Simon Severino, back on the podcast this week. We talked about marketing, strategy, and long-term planning. Hit some of the previous episodes. All of the ones from 2022 have been bangers: Ruth Hartt, Hannah Grannemann, Lyndsey Jackson, and, now, MK Lever. I’ve got some more good stuff coming up!