Talking Tickets 22 October 2021: Ted Lasso! Group Sales! Chelsea FC! Red 61! And, More!
Number 107!
Hey There!
Welcome to another edition of the newsletter.
If you are a fan, please share this with folks. The ideas of improving your strategy, selling more tickets, and growing your brand are more important than ever. And, the newsletter and podcast are my two big marketing pushes right now…so you’re doing me a solid as well.
I was feeling a little overwhelmed with new activities lately so I went back to the basics of Getting Things Done this week to reorganize myself. If you’ve never read the book by David Allen, the latest edition is made for the digital age we live in.
It always helps me to go back and look at this stuff. Maybe it will help you too.
Check out my conversation with Giles Edwards from this week’s podcast. Great stuff on “proper marketing”, pricing, branding, and sales. Not a lot of ticket-specific examples, but an excellent marketing episode…if I do say so myself.
To the tickets!
1. Target your non-customers Dave says?! And, look at this?!
Big Ideas:
Look at what your non-customers find valuable.
You can use your core competencies in unique ways.
Brand extensions can enable a brand to move into new areas.
This might not seem like the typical way to open the week. But allow me to show you how Chelsea is using some key ideas to move their business forward and strengthen their brand, their core business, and their market orientation.
First, three new products that are all focused at people that might not be considered regular customers is a wise decision.
Peter Drucker was famous for saying to look for the non-customers because there are always more of them.
In this case, Chelsea appears to be looking to the non-customers to find a way to bridge the gap between their core competencies and what other folks find valuable.
It is wise to think like this because the market is likely to always be looking for value in a different way than you have been offering it up or in a different way than you might imagine.
Second, let’s go back to the core competencies again.
Core competencies is just the idea that people and businesses do somethings better than other things.
Crazy, I know.
What is even nutsier to me is that this idea only really caught on in the 90s.
Chelsea has broadened the way they think about core competencies to find new ways to deliver value. In this case, working into human performance, skills training, and diet.
These are all ways that they have a knowledge base that they can offer the market.
So, a wise move.
Finally, the idea of brand extension allows Chelsea to successfully make the jump into these new areas.
A brand extension is just using your already well-defined brand to jump into a new area of play.
In this case, Chelsea takes their football club and turns their attention to areas that are connected. Again, nutrition, skills development, and performance.
Are these things guaranteed to work?
No.
Do they have a likelihood of being carried forward by the Chelsea brand?
Certainly.
How do these three ideas apply to all of us?
Simple.
First, look at your non-customers.
This is essential if you are in sports, concerts, opera, theatre, or wherever.
You are always going to find that there is a bigger population of folks that aren’t using your solution than are.
Full stop.
This makes the need for research so important.
You can use primary or secondary and mix in some qual and quant, but the key is to always know what is going on in the market.
Look at what people that aren’t using you are doing because it is valuable to know why folks are choosing to focus their attention somewhere else.
There’s a time and place for talking to the die-hards, but they can’t constitute your entire research focus.
Look at the non-customers.
Second, know what your core competencies are.
Take me as an example, I know that people look at me for a few things that I do best:
Strategy
Branding/Marketing
Pricing
What do I do?
I give y’all that.
Let’s look out at the world around us for a moment and recognize the core competencies of certain popular businesses that we deal and their core competencies:
Four Seasons: luxury and service
Apple: simplicity of computing experience
Coca-Cola: consistency and access (Seriously, have you ever been anywhere that you can’t get a Coke product? Any country at all? I know they exist. I even know a few, but they are few and far between.)
My challenge to y’all is to think through your businesses right now and figure out what your core competencies are and if they are expressing themselves in the work you are doing and the experiences you are giving folks.
Finally, use brand extensions wisely. In the case of Chelsea, they are the Champions League winners so extending their brand into health, skills development, and nutrition makes a lot of sense.
When I worked for Paul Allen and the EMP in Seattle, I was really great at creating brand extensions for the different brands that existed within the EMP experience like delivering new experiences with the Liquid Lounge or premium experiences that fell within the confines of the museum or the Sky Church.
In nightclubs, we did the same thing with opening a pop-up nightclubs, new nights, and a whole host of other ways for folks to engage with us that grew out of the Trio and Boogie Nights concepts.
The key is to be creative, but don’t just go slapping your name, logo, or brand on anything because it is easy. Make certain that it fits what you are working on and doing and has value that is evident.
That’s the key to a successful brand extension. And, I bet we can all come up with at least one new way of using our current value to reach new areas.
2. The Premier League is using their Ted Lasso tie-in as a growth tool:
Big Ideas:
This is about the Premier League’s strategy more than it is about Apple’s.
The essence of this Ted Lasso tie-in is one of targeting.
Beware the buzzword.
I’m a fan of Ted Lasso. I even said to one of the guys I coach the kid’s soccer team with that I should start making Ted Lasso like jokes since I’m kind of the hokey, feel-good coach with the kids.
In looking at this story, I actually see it a bit differently than the average person might because I look at this as a wise move by the Premier League to get Apple to help them deliver on their strategy.
Let me explain.
The foundation of marketing strategy as I’ve shared previously is STP:
Segmentation
Targeting
Positioning
The execution of this is driven by tactics and SMART objectives and goals.
In the case of the Premier League, their segmentation is going to take on many different levels and their research will point to markets where they have the best potential opportunities.
The segmentation has pointed out that the Premier League is as popular in the United States as MLS is in the United States. Survey results also show that the Premier League is neck-and-neck with the Bundesliga in the United States with 20% of the population saying they are fans of the Premier League.
This is a marker of opportunity because there is still growth opportunity compared to other sports and due to the overall popularity of soccer as a participation sport in the States.
So targeting the United States through a tie-in with one of the most popular streaming shows in the United States is a wise targeting strategy.
Targeting is the essence of strategy. It is about making a decision on what you are going to do and what you are going to ignore.
Where this all comes together is in the form of elevating the awareness of the Premier League at a time when the sport is starting its season. Because Ted Lasso’s release schedule this year timed with the start of pre-season training and the opening of the Premier League season.
By tying in with Ted Lasso, the Premier League has an opportunity to drive awareness of the new season, the clubs involved in the Premier League, and ties the two together using emotional cues.
There need to be further steps to move folks from awareness to watching a game, buying a top, or visiting the UK, but it is a start that, if done wisely, can open up the American market in a way that hasn’t always happened.
Partnering here with Apple TV+ to activate this strategy is wise.
I’d just caution you that when you think about these things to beware the easy take or the buzzwords like “demographics”, “digital”, or “growth”. Because part of setting a strategy with SMART goals requires that you identify targets that move past “demographic” segmentation which we all should have decided is weak tea, past “growth” as a standalone fill-in because if I have 1% and I grow to 1.10%, I have grown 10%, but that might be nothing compared to the investments I’ve made, or digital because everything is really digital at this point.
So make sure that when you think through this stuff that you are as specific as possible because the more specific the definition, the better the outcome.
3. Are group sales different now?
Big Ideas:
The right answer isn’t yes or no, but different.
What new thinking are you going to apply to your group sales efforts?
Research should be a partner in this journey.
Ahhh, I get to talk about group sales through the lens of an article on the arts and theatre!
Winning!
Especially since so often you only get to show this story through the lens of sports ticket sales.
To begin, I want to focus on the answer to the title question of has COVID changed sales?
The answer is, “I hope so.”
Because if it hasn’t, I think folks are going to be in for a long-term challenge in getting audiences back into their buildings.
We’ve seen shifts in traffic patterns, folks have moved, and the economy has shifted.
These are all signs that your strategy should have changed because you can’t count on the old stuff to continue to work.
Now, the other interesting question I get pretty regularly is, “Are ticket sales up or down?”
And, in most cases, comparing up and down is a bad idea.
I’d say they are different.
In my conversations with group leaders in theatre, the performing arts, sports, and beyond, a few key ideas have popped up repeatedly when it comes to ticket sales right now:
The nature of value has changed for their buyers.
The nature of groups is different.
Many leaders have moved into new roles, new positions, or changed their approach meaning they have to revisit the entire sales process now.
How do you do this?
First, you begin with our good friend research.
We are talking about research that you direct: primary and secondary, small to large.
Start with the ideas I’ve shared in my backward market research article.
Know what question you are looking to answer.
Define how the answers are going present themselves.
Design your research around those two ideas.
Second, from the research, you should be able to draw up a nice segmentation of your market with a maximum of 8 different segments. If you have more than that, you’ve not done a good job looking at meaningful and actionable characteristics of your market and you need to go back to the thinking spot for a little longer until you see a map that really is around 6-8 segments.
Those segments should show you the size of the opportunity with the number of targets, financial muscle, and percent of the market you own.
All of this is important because you are going to want to target the best segments for you now.
It is important to make a decision because you are likely fighting for resources now and you probably can’t afford to target everyone right now.
Finally, revisit your tactics and come up with new tactics that fit the current market, not the market the way you want to be or how it used to be.
Remember, you execute through the marketing mix of the 4 Ps:
Product
Price
Place
Promotion
I’ll show you how this works with one example for each P to get you started.
On the product side, you could offer up a new way of engaging with your product. I know a team that is getting ready to launch a brand-new group area for 2022 that will allow their fans and groups to engage with the team and the stadium in ways that have never happened before.
That’s rethinking your product.
You can do a bunch here that’s just one top-of-mind example.
Price. Don’t get me started on this topic because I could be here all day.
But I know one group that priced one section very specifically to capture college students in one section.
It worked.
And, the carryover effect was that college kids buy a lot of beer and they can turn the energy up in a way that makes the building a lot more lively.
When I discuss place, I am talking about distribution.
You have direct and indirect methods of distribution.
One company I’ve talked about here and on the podcast is Project Admission. When I had Derek Palmer on the podcast a few weeks back, he discussed how their partners can create new websites, new links, and new opportunities for you to get your tickets to your fans in a number of ways.
Finally, let’s go to promotion.
I lump sales in here because in a lot of places, smiling and dialing was the dominant method of sales.
Going forward, you might consider creating a new email advertising program that focuses on specific targets like Gillette did with their razor, NFL teams, and Wal-Mart a few years back.
Again, the correct answer to the question of whether or not COVID has changed groups isn’t “yes” or “no”, but it should be “definitely”.
What say you?
4. The Long Tail and growing an audience:
Big Ideas:
This is a call-out for an idea I’ve been preaching for a while here: Market Orientation!
You don’t define value, your audience does.
Strategy before tactics.
I wanted to share one of Hannah Grannemann’s new blog posts because looking at the list for this newsletter, she was one of the first subscribers! And, I like to encourage folks to share their ideas and do things that help push new ideas out into the atmosphere!
The Long Tail is an interesting book and you should give it a read. It is just over 100 pages so you can read it in an afternoon or less.
But what Hannah is really shouting from the roof here in her piece is the idea of Market Orientation. This is great because she’s spot on because you need to recognize that you don’t define value, the customer does.
During the pandemic, we have learned that lesson over and over.
Or, we should have.
Go back and check out the conversation with Sean Kelly about the difference, or lack of difference, in the customer’s willingness to pay for a streaming event.
If you aren’t familiar, the punchline is that people would pay a very similar price for a streaming event.
The big idea that cuts through this piece is the need to focus on those foundations of marketing strategy:
Market Orientation
Research
STP
I guess there is a theme this week.
Tactics before strategy.
But to tie it all into a bow, let’s run through things really quickly:
Market Orientation is just the idea that you are pulling the voice of the customer into the organization. The reality is that without research, you don’t know a whole lot.
You are just guessing or worse.
As my marketing professor says, “The first step in your marketing strategy is a step backward to get some perspective.”
Research, we’ve covered already today.
Start with the question to be answered. Figure out how it should show up. And, design a survey that reflects those first two points.
Finally, STP.
Segmentation. Targeting. Positioning.
Segmentation is your map. It shows you the size, shape, and opportunities in your market.
Targeting is the essence of your strategy because it is a choice about what you are going to focus on and what you are going to ignore.
There is a school of thought to target everyone, but I know that most of your budgets aren’t large enough to do that right now.
So pick what you will do and what you won’t do.
Finally, positioning is about how you’ll stand out in the market.
For yourself or against your competition.
You can’t do both.
That’s a recipe for not differentiating yourself and being seen as something mushy and indistinct.
Choose your position wisely, but it should be easy if you’ve done the other stuff correctly.
5. Links:
Red 61 and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival come together to create a digital festival experience: This is an interesting case study because the Fringe had to really rethink the experience for its attendees in 2021. Technology was involved, absolutely. Presentation and distribution, the same. And, pricing as well.
Live entertainment in India is set to bounce back: I like these pieces that force me to think about what is going on in other parts of the world that I haven’t visited regularly. India, high on the list of places to go, but I’ve never been there. I do have a story of babysitting a B-list Indian soap opera star for some night at a bar. But in looking at this stuff, look at all of the ways that people are approaching live entertainment in developing markets.
Adidas’s CEO thinks a more frequent World Cup is too much: I’m with him. It is easy to create products, but the real skill in marketing is knowing when to kill something off or to kill an idea. The challenge that many sports organizations are dealing with is that they are addicted to the TV money and the TV money keeps telling them we need “more” and they say, “yes” even if that isn’t right for their customers, their players, or their strategy. Because more is always better, am I right?!
67% of concert goers support mask mandates: You can’t get 2/3s of people to agree on which way the sun rises. So this is a clear sign that folks are not going to go out to shows as often if they don’t feel safe. This is a point where behaviors back up the words that people are using.
Ron Evans shares his thoughts on rethinking what you are doing: I’ve talked about going back to school and thinking through how I do things. So this message isn’t new coming from me, but Ron adds his voice to the mix and if you are on a thinking jag, maybe this note will help you focus.
I’ve got a Linktree with all of my links!
Check out Booking Protect! Since tickets have gone on sale after lockdowns, between 30-70% of consumers have taken up refund protection, meaning that they are yearning for the peace of mind refund protection gives them. Refund protection is a great way to improve your service, add value, and create a new stream of revenue for your organization.
Hook up with the folks at Activity Stream. As I mentioned in the engagement section, email is one of your best tools when used well and the Activate email tool will help you do just that.
Get the NPS worksheet I created with the folks at Eventellect. Like I mentioned at the top, I talked about the topic in detail with Simon Severino on this week’s podcast. That’s three people from different parts of the business world telling you that NPS is important and can help you improve your business. Send me an email and I’ll send you the worksheet.