Talking Tickets 2 July 2021: Let's Keep It Short and Sweet, I'm at the Beach!
Number 91
Hey oh!
I’m on vacation this week in Miami! If you need recommendations, I have them.
I have managed to finally launch the new and improved Dave Wakeman website! Now I’ll be insufferable with my new options and tools!
Let’s get to the tickets quickly this week and I’ll be back to normal next week, or something.
Get your tickets to Ticket Summit in Las Vegas. I’ve put together a great pricing panel and my panelists have some great data to share! You won’t want to miss us and the entire ticket crew in Las Vegas!
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1. Pricing is always on my mind:
Big Ideas:
Get your tickets to Ticket Summit! What are you waiting for?
Don’t flinch. People are waiting until the last minute to buy now.
Keep an eye on prices across sectors. Folks might be getting squeezed.
Experiment with your pricing. Everything is new.
I’m hosting a panel at Ticket Summit on pricing! You’ll want to be there because there is some incredible pricing data that is becoming available as more and more things re-open.
In the past few months, I’ve talked with Kate Howard about some of the interesting data points we should be looking for and as I’ve been chatting with folks in preparation for the panel, the lessons on pricing now are starting to become much clearer.
What are some of the interesting pricing ideas folks should be keeping in mind?
You are going to need to be more willing to experiment with your prices right now. The old patterns of pricing and sales have changed and the gap between early sales and last-minute sales has widened.
Hold the line on your pricing. Meaning, don’t reflexively drop your prices. There is a lull leading up to the last 24 hours of sales that last about 3-4 days. So if you have an event on Saturday, don’t just drop your ticket prices on Tuesday to move stuff out. That’s bad business.
Pricing in other areas could be squeezing ticket sales. I’m in Miami and I typically stay at the Four Seasons on Brickell. The concierge said that this is the hotel’s best year ever because people are looking to travel and get out for things, but it has also meant that the prices are higher. In general, prices are high on a lot of things so you are going to need to keep an eye on where you fit in the mix.
These data points are playing out as I see a lot of teams resort to old school tactics that were bad before the pandemic like:
Heavy discounts.
Bad promotions.
And, the added wrinkle of, influencer marketing.
I shared the example of the Nationals and Budweiser last week and pointed out a few ways to improve on that model.
Here are three pricing ideas to keep in mind right now:
Do some research. Things are fluid right now so you are going to need to be in constant research mode.
Have a pricing strategy that doesn’t revolve around just set it and forget…then panicking at the end.
Don’t discount. You have the chance to reset and reimagine your relationship with your fans, don’t start out with throwing bad ideas out right away.
Also, get your tickets to Ticket Summit! Let me know if you are going!
2. The Public Theatre uses contactless tickets for Shakespeare in the Park:
Big Ideas:
Focus on value. Technology matters, but the real magic is in value.
Allow technology to let you be more human.
Impact is important.
Keeping with the theme of letting me get back to the pool this week, this announcement from the Public Theatre is awesome.
One of my favorite things to do in the summer in NYC is to go see Shakespeare in the Park.
Last week I had lunch with Matt, True Ticket’s CEO, in Boston and we talked about a bunch of stuff that is happening in the world of tickets and some cool stuff to keep an eye on.
In reading the press release from The Public Theatre, I’m reminded of three important ideas from my conversation with Matt and that highlight a real need in the market now:
Focus on value.
Technology is a means to an end. Not the end itself.
The key is impact.
Quickly, the big key is to focus on value.
The Public Theatre used to only give away tickets and you’d see huge lines to get those tickets. Then they realized they could sell some seats to fund the theatre and their productions. Then you saw the secondary market get more sophisticated, meaning folks could stand online and sell their tickets.
For the Public, I’m sure part of the key here is maintaining the value of the production and the products they sell.
The key is to add value in the relationship.
In reading the press release, part of the value is health and safety, security, and customer experience. You should be thinking about your offering with the same lense to add value.
Second, technology is there to allow you to be a better human.
Duh!
Tech is a tool.
Use it to add value.
Remember this rule: you don’t define value, the customer does.
We were batting around the different ways that you can add value to the mobile ticketing process. And, I settled on the way that Pearl Jam uses digital ticketing to only allow one ticket to be transferred.
This is an example of smart contracts within digital ticketing situations and it is valuable for them.
But if you go beyond that example, where can technology add value?
We’ve already seen it in transfers. We’ve seen it in the way that tickets can be marketed and sold. The list is endless.
What are you doing?
Third, focus on impact.
Matt shared a story from one of True Tickets’ first live runs. Some guys bought tickets on the secondary market that wouldn’t have passed muster. (If I can share the full story, I’ll do it later since it was funny how much people were willing to pay for this artist.)
Running into Matt, he actually was able to help the people and introduce them to the box office and the venue in a way that had real impact.
I’m torturing the example here but focus on the impact you can have.
That’s where the opportunity is.
3. Project Admission Pushes Forward:
Big Ideas:
Derek Palmer owes me many drinks.
Awareness has always been the biggest obstacle folks share when they talk about not buying tickets.
Distribution in new ways can help increase competition.
Potentially a theme here, most of this week’s stories feature people I know and respect.
Holidays!
YOLO!
Like True Tickets, I was an early advocate of Project Admission because I was part of a startup that did some research that showed that the biggest barrier to ticket purchase for a lot of folks was lack of awareness.
The kids at Project Admission have built a platform that does two things nicely:
Helps increase awareness.
Expands distribution in a unique fashion.
At the top, I said that Derek owes me drinks. TBF, one of us always owes the other one drinks so that’s more of a HT to hanging out with Derek in places all over the world than it is with the story.
But the idea of raising awareness is pretty huge right now.
There is so much stuff going on and so many demands for attention that you can’t just expect that people are going to notice you and buy. You are going to have to get in the right places at the right time, consistently.
This is true no matter if you are a technology company or a content provider. You can’t just assume awareness.
Second, with distribution, distribution alone isn’t important.
The reason I point to what Project Admission is doing is that they are integrating a wider array of distribution sources to ensure that they reach the best possible audience:
Fan clubs
Newsletters
Websites
They’ve worked to move beyond the normal distribution channels we’ve come to understand and are working on offering up new ways for people to engage their audiences.
To sum this up quickly, it isn’t so much important to just drive awareness even though that is the promotional P. You also need the Place which is the P for distribution.
Along with the Pricing P and the product P.
Even with a truncated newsletter, you are still getting points on how everything ties together?!
Ha! I’m good like that!
Someone send me a Weatherspoon’s at the pool at the Four Seasons!?
4. Corey Gibbs makes a bet on a different vision of the secondary market:
Big Ideas:
Control your customers!
Service always has a market!
Corey is as much of a wine aficionado as a whiskey guru! Do your research Eric!
Y’all all know that I go way back with Corey so I’ll just throw that out there. Throughout the thinking of his new project, we’ve talked about it.
Corey is my guy.
But that out of the way, Corey is working to create a business that touches on two things that matter a lot to me:
Customer Focus
Adding Value
The challenge with the secondary market for the last dozen years as Eric points out is that people have thrown away their connection to the customer.
Dumb!
Save your emails about how hard it is to build a direct business because it was never easy but guys like Corey, Jim Holzman, and some others were able to do it quite nicely.
I mean, part of the reason most of y’all listen to me, read me, and follow me is because I had a huge direct business.
The big key in this story is you have to focus on the customer.
If you pay attention to me, you know I’m a Peter Drucker guy. Peter Drucker says that a business has one job, “create and keep a customer.”
So the key to what Corey is doing is working to build a book of business, creating and keeping customers.
That’s business 101.
And, just so y’all know.
I still have folks that call me for tickets a dozen years after I left the day-to-day secondary market. I refer to Corey or a few other folks.
Second, the big idea is that if you are in the right market, service always matters.
I’m sitting poolside at the Four Seasons on Brickell right now because I value the level of service I get at the Four Season, especially the one on Brickell.
The reason people buy for me for years as a consultant is because I deliver value and service. I’ve been on 3 different client calls from the pool and helped folks with sticky situations even poolside.
Service always differentiates.
Don’t be fooled by the “no one wants to deal with people crowd.”
Also, Corey is as much of a wine guy as he is a bourbon guy. C’mon man! Follow him on the ‘Gram!
5. Going forward, selling tickets will need some new approaches:
Big Ideas:
Doing what you’ve always done will get diminishing returns.
Creating value, especially new value, is a constant.
Change is constant.
Did I mention I’m going to be in Las Vegas for Ticket Summit?
To make going to Vegas even more enticing, the ALSD is going to be holding their conference at the same time, in the same hotel, sharing a tradeshow!
Get to Vegas…it is going to be where the world of American tickets is in August.
Guess what, I’m talking pricing with a few really smart folks that know how to price and have some cool data.
I’m also going to run across the hall to share some of the insights from my sports business survey on what is going on in the world of tickets right now and how to win the business of tickets going forward.
I’m still working on what the survey will tell me, but let me give you a sneak peak of what I’m going to tell you in Vegas about the future of sports tickets sales. Here are 7 quick hits:
Positioning yourself in your market is going to take on an added importance.
Reaching non-customers is going to be important because they provide bigger opportunities and most businesses don’t look to them for growth.
Effectiveness in sales will be even more important because staffing will continue to be a challenge.
Your communications efforts need to focus on value and be consistent. Fans are mad if you only come around looking for cash.
Price is always going to be the kneejerk sales objection. Overcome it with value.
Learning how to deal with a glut of options is going to be important…meaning, manage the process, know your value, and be consistent.
Don’t discount. Discounts are for dummies!
Back to beach and pool for me! See y’all next week!
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