Talking Tickets 7 January 2022: The AFLW's Vision For the Future! The New Washington Football Team Brand! And, More!
#117
Hey!
Happy New Year!
We are back to normal here.
Lots of exciting stuff coming up in the next few weeks.
Join the Slack channel if you haven’t already.
But first:
To the Tickets!
1. The Big Story: The Washington Football Team set a February 2nd date for announcing their new name:
Big Ideas:
Using focus groups, the history, and already established connections to the team and community is a wise decision.
Look at how much effort is invested in the launch and pre-launch. That is where brand and product launches are made or lost. After a launch, it is too late. You are playing catch-up.
Rebrands are difficult. That’s why you should avoid them when at all possible. In this case, a rebrand was necessary.
I’ll have more to write and share about the new name and brand when the official announcement is made in a few weeks, but considering this sits right in my wheelhouse, I wanted to share a few thoughts on brand management that we can watch as the Washington Football Team builds up to this announcement on February 2nd.
First, brand management is a key topic that more organizations and businesses should pay attention to.
My marketing professor always challenged us to come up with our own definition for what a brand means so that when we were making brand management decisions, we could have a lens through which to know what we were doing.
To me, my definition has always been: your brand is the accumulation of all the interactions you have with a market, positive and negative.
In recognizing this, you have to manage both the good and bad of your brand to make sure the ideas about your brand that you want to come across get into the head of the customer.
I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned this in the past, but the way I approach my own business brand is that I want y’all to think of these three ideas when you think of me:
Focused
Profitable
Smart
In that way, I try to ensure that every idea that I offer up is focused on creating impact, drives profits, and is smart in that it is backed up by experience, research, and thoughtfulness.
Second, the key to any good brand/rebrand/brand revitalization is the diagnosis stage.
Most businesses don’t spend enough time on the diagnosis. And, there is often a lot of good guidance on doing research and diagnosis well.
In my work, I often spend a lot of time with folks on understanding the environment, the history of the brand, and the customer that the organization serves.
Why?
I know from experience that all brands are different and unique. But in too many instances, we see brand managers that want their brand to be just like the rest of the folks in their category.
Take a look at the ads for most fancy watch brands.
Look at the work of too many teams.
Go check out professional services.
If you removed the logo, how many of these things could be anyone?
That’s a problem.
You need to get your diagnosis right to ensure that you can drive home those ideas about your brand that should be evident from your research.
At a minimum, you’re going to want to look at:
The history of your business
The founders
The home of the brand
Your key customers
We can go further and probably should, but start there and be curious. That’ll give you a leg up on the diagnosis phase.
Finally, having the logo, the name, the uniforms, and the other brand codes is great and all.
But the real thing that will make or break this launch is what happens between now and February 2nd.
A general rule of thumb goes like this, when I’ve successfully launched a product, a night club, a show, whatever…I’ve spent a bulk of my budget before we were open or the product was on shelves.
Why?
You are trying to build anticipation and a critical mass to pop your launch.
As an example, look at the way the recent Spider-Man movie was launched with Tom Holland going off to ask Mbappe why he isn’t going to sign with Spurs, doing interviews all over the place, and you and me seeing ads all over the place for the new movie.
Once the movie is out, we are seeing less of Tom Holland because the launch job is already done.
You build demand before something is on the market, not after.
Another example is a book launch. Friend of the podcast, Dorie Clark, just released a new book on strategic thinking and she asked me to be a part of her launch crew.
She shared a special webinar and plan with her launch team that showed us all the steps that she has created over the years for launching books. The big takeaway for me being that you want your book to pop onto the Amazon lists, the other lists right away because you only get that concentrated attention for a short period of time.
As the Washington Football Team prepares to launch their rebrand, it is important to see how they operate in the pre-launch and launch phases.
How much media is Jason Wright doing to build anticipation?
What kinds of events are the team planning on launch day to get the new brand into the community?
You over do it up front.
What do I mean by over do it?
I mean, put like 75-80% of your effort into the prelaunch and the launch.
This is even more important now because rebrands are notoriously difficult to pull off and something most people should shy away from. In the case of the Washington Football Team, they had no choice. So they need to make certain to get their launch right.
2. The Road to Recovery: Mrs. Doubtfire pauses to try and fight off having to prematurely close:
Big Ideas:
We might be done with the pandemic, but the pandemic isn’t done with us.
Being creative now might mean going against what has always been done.
Recovery is a long haul, not a sprint.
As we’ve all mentioned here before, re-opening isn’t recovery.
This is another example of that as the Broadway run of Mrs. Doubtfire is being paused to give the production an opportunity to survive over the long-term.
First off, the Omicron variant has thrown a wrench into any plans any of us had for getting back to “normal”. Despite what any number of people say about being “over” the pandemic, the pandemic does what the pandemic wants to do.
In other words, it is the pandemic’s world…we just live in it.
Second, taking unprecedented actions is likely something all of us are going to need to become comfortable with.
Andrew Lloyd Weber is being creative in London. The producers in NYC are being creative.
The reality is that what got us here won’t get us to the next spot in time, to our next success.
So, taking actions that might have been considered crazy or out there in the past likely just means you are being prudent going forward.
Finally, this decision highlights the knowledge that re-opening isn’t recovery. Recovery will take years in a lot of places. If history is any indicator, which it should be, the coronavirus will cause dramatic shifts in our society, economy, and culture that far outlast the end of the pandemic.
So recognizing that driving demand for shows and events going forward is going to take a lot of different focuses and ideas. That getting back to the basics of marketing is going to be essential for success in the long-term, just running out and opening up is not it.
What do we mean when we say, “back to basics”?
Here is an easy outline for y’all:
Be market oriented. I’ll be dropping a great podcast with Ruth Hartt about “Jobs to Be Done” and market focus.
Research. Small to large. Do it backwards.
Segment. Target. Position.
Create a strategy.
Execute using the 4 Ps.
3. How-To: The AFLW’s 2030 vision teaches us about strategy:
Big Ideas:
The first step in any successful strategy is having a big aspiration for success.
You don’t set strategies over a 10-year period. You set your strategies annually, but you can have a set of targets that you are moving towards.
In the past, the AFLW has done a great job of positioning their brand for their unique audience.
I love the AFL. I love the AFLW. We are big Demons’ fans at our house.
Go Dees!
I also like this story because it allows us to take a good look at strategy a little more closely.
The first thing to notice here is that the AFLW has set out a plan for where they want to be in 2030.
In laying out strategy with my partners, I talk about the five steps of strategy:
Ambition
Focus
Position
Tools
Actions
They move in that order.
The first one being you need a big ambition.
Things like a target of professionalization, expansion, and growth all are important because it is very easy to get trapped in the situation where you are just humming along, doing what you’ve always done.
So set a bold vision for yourself.
That’s the first thing the AFLW has done really well.
Second, the mention of the 10-year plan being more of a wishlist and a strategy shows a lack of understanding of how you set strategy because any properly run strategic plan sets specific targets and objectives annually.
You do this by looking at your previous goals, understanding where you were successful or unsuccessful, and doing a little research to stay fresh in the market. Once you’ve done all of that, you can set your goals for the next year.
Anyone that says they have a plan for the next 10 years may have an ambition, but they don’t have a strategy. Because so much will change in 10 years.
Finally, the AFLW is in a strong position to pull this off because they have typically done a great job of going through the strategic process.
A few months back, we talked about how successful the AFLW has been at identifying their audience, segmenting in a way that allowed them to target for their specific brand of the game, and positioning themselves against other competitors which hasn’t really put them in competition with the men’s game.
This is all really smart strategy work.
This is why I’m pretty sure that the foundation is in place to be successful going forward because their previous experience has helped them uncover audiences that making assumptions about your market would never have uncovered.
And, that is how you set strategy and you grow your organization.
By following the process, the research, and doing the work.
4. Profile/Tech/Tools: Belgian Grand Prix fans will receive no refunds:
Big Ideas:
This seems like the opposite of customer first.
A situation like this might turn off fans in the future.
Terms and conditions are a mother…I guess.
I highlight this one because it is an example of how not to treat customers in almost every way.
We’ve heard a lot of people moan about how ticket companies held onto money when the pandemic first kicked up in 2020. But this example kicks up things to another level.
First, focusing on your customers would have meant that you did something to make them whole.
It seems like a pretty clear cut case that there was no race and that people paid money for something that didn’t happen.
Second, as we focus a bit on brand management this year, remember that my definition of a brand is the accumulate of all the touchpoint that you have with your market, good and bad.
This is bad. And, the kick on effects could last a long time.
Finally, terms and conditions are a mother.
We’ve seen throughout the pandemic, that in many places the reaction has been for event organizers to dump all of the risk onto the ticket buyer and other folks that aren’t them.
I’m not sure how long that will really hold up because after people are burned a few times, you’ll start to see the law of unintended consequences kick in and who knows what will happen from there.
5. Blurbs and Such:
Gary V says that in a decade NFTs will be every ticket: Let’s be real, if he is saying that…I’m guessing that means the NFT bubble is somewhere in the area of about to pop. Gary V gets attention because he has attention not because he is right.
On top of recovery from a pandemic, Brexit is complicated the recovery of British arts and entertainment: Puppies and rainbows it ain’t.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas turns 50: I don’t know how many times I’ve read the book over the years, but the observations and writing still have a life to them that most writing doesn’t. Maybe a ‘Talking Tickets’ book club selection?!
I still can’t believe this isn’t an article from The Onion: Professional or collegiate sports and purpose! I guess it was published in the print version at the start of 2021…a more optimistic time or something.
Sardi’s is back: I’m nostalgic for NYC lately, forgive me. But I loved taking folks from out of town to Sardi’s. The food was awful. The service wasn’t great. Everything was meh, but it was Sardi’s! Actually, my favorite place was McHale’s for a burger and to pick up seats that had been dropped there.
John Wall Street puts out a list of folks to follow in sports business: What?! No Dave!? I am grateful that many of y’all think highly enough to add me to your own lists of must follows. And, check out the list to make sure you follow folks that might add value to your work.
Broadway’s attendance drops below 75%: Self-reported numbers like this are always a bit suspect to begin with. But I like to keep an eye on the numbers that are being sent out about attendance, ticket prices, and more.
Next week, I’ll kick off a new year of podcasts. We have some great ones lined up with Hannah Grannemann, Ruth Hartt, and Lyndsey Jackson to get the year started off right.
You can find me everywhere with my special Linktree! It is all my links!
Check out my friends at Booking Protect! Customers have been taking up refund protection at a rate that is double what it was before the pandemic began. This is a great opportunity for you to offer more value to your customers in a way that they want while also creating a new revenue stream for your organization.
Also, you’ll be able to see me and the Booking Protect team at INTIX in Orlando. I’m going to try and do some podcasting from the booth and we will have a grand time. Let me know if you’ll be there.
New Year, New Job?! Work at Fenway Park: