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šŸ” Ticketmaster: All Eyes On Them!

Hi!

What will you dress up as this Halloween?Ā 

Iā€™ll be hosting a pre-teen Horror Movie Night tomorrowā€¦send whiskey?! 

Update: Thanks to yā€™all that have taken the time to fill out the NPS survey. Currently, Iā€™ve got a 50ā€¦down from 65 the last time I ran this. 

50 is great. 65 is greater. 

What I have discovered is some folks want more stats and numbers. Iā€™ll work on that. (To be fair, I prefer that and in my client workā€¦we use numbers and stats with context more.) 

Also, a bit more about smaller and challenger brandsā€¦which I will try and answer. Look at the checklist below. 

Thereā€™s still time to fill it outHereā€™s an explainer

To the Tickets!


I. The Big Story: How Does Ticketmaster Get Away With It?

Ticketmaster is getting a lot of attention lately. 

The Big Idea: Consumer advocates, industry leaders, the government, and fans are all starting to raise a lot of noise about Ticketmasterā€™s business practices. 

Frustration is high around Ticketmaster and tickets. 

Examples:

Judd Legumā€™s piece on how we got where we are in tickets is worth a quick read. 

He lays out the situation. 

Why is this getting attention now? 

Good question. Talking with regulators, elected officials, attorneys, and others involved in this renewed effort, I see three big things driving it:

  • An overall emphasis on the power of big tech to extract ā€œmonopoly rentsā€ from consumers.
  • The destructive power anticompetitive behavior has on the economy in terms of prices, employment, and innovation. 
  • Tickets is an easy way to illustrate antitrust law and anticompetitive behavior in a way that battling ā€œfreeā€ products like Facebook or Google might not be. 

How does this impact you? 

  • Live Nation is the big dog in the industry. So whatever they do impacts everyone. 
  • Pay attention to competition and lack of competition. Lack of competition drives up costs, cuts wages, and makes it harder for other businesses to operate. 
  • Having a lack of competition makes everything we do more difficult. We canā€™t always control our data, marketing, pricing, or product. Keep an eye on all of these things and the challenges that you are encountering. 

II. Tools: ClipperVision Offers Fans a New Way to Watch Clippersā€™ Basketball

Know This: The Clippers were able to take a chance because of the expiration of their local TV deal. 

What Is It? ClipperVision is the Clippersā€™ answer to streaming and reaching fans that are cord-cutters or cordless. 

Is It Wise? The split between national, local, and streaming means that the Clippers havenā€™t put all of their broadcasting in one area. This is wise. 

What to Watch? How many people are willing to sign up for $199 a year to watch the Clippers? 

  • The geographic area is big, but is the value proposition there for casual fans? 
  • Would there be enough diehard fans to make it a viable business? 

I donā€™t know. 

III. Concept: Discountsā€¦

Definition: ā€œThe Crack Cocaine of Marketingā€ā€¦Les Binet

The Skinny: Discounts destroy your marketing efforts:

  • Undermine your brand equity
  • Reduce your profit
  • Teach your customers to wait

Research shows that they also eat up sales that likely would have already happened. Or, steal sales from other locations. 

As an example:

  • Run a sale online, it might steal sales from walk-ups. 
  • Discount the 72 hours before the game, you likely eat into sales that day-of or the day before would have happened anyway. 

IV. Bullets: Marketing as a Small Venue/Challenger Brand:

My working hypothesis is that 90% of the actions you take are the same, but here are a few actions that you can take that a bigger player canā€™t. 

Big Idea: Remember, every marketing situation starts with your research. A minimum of doing an NPS survey and some secondary research. 

Whatā€™s this mean?

  • Branding happens with emotional connection. Donā€™t lose sight of emotions when you do your marketing. 
  • Discounts are for dummies! Donā€™t discount and donā€™t get into price wars. Focus on your value. 
  • A + B > 2A or 2B: H/T to Mark Ritson who taught me this formula and has worked repeatedly. 
  • Focus! Focus! Focus! You can be everything to everyone and you canā€™t do everything. 

V. Links: 

Inflation killed Phantom

As a long-time New Yorker, I never went to see the show. 

I donā€™t say that as a badge of honor but as a reflection of John Gapperā€™s idea that the lack of tourists helped send the phantom to its end. 

On LinkedIn a few days back, a comment came in about what trends will stick from the pandemic years. The truth is that we probably wonā€™t know for a decade or more. 

One thing that seems like to stick is the more streamlined nature of musical productions. 

RIP Phantom.

Arsenal rebuilds the fan experience

I can admit when you are right, you are right. 

Arsenal listened to their fans and it is paying off. 

This is a case study in doing research and being customer focused. 

Obviously, COYS! 

Price Caps due to cost-of-living issues

My American readers will want to move to the next one here. 

For the rest of the world, finding ways to make sure that people donā€™t completely stop going to shows is by working to make sure that shows continue to be affordable. 

Just look at ā€œThe Misery Indexā€:

Glastonbury raises prices, but they do it well: 

3 phases to setting your price:

  • The process
  • The price
  • The promotion

Emily Eaves does a good job of coming out, saying the price increase is due to inflation and they worked to set the price to the best of their abilities. 

Thatā€™s about the best you can do. 


Linktree: Find everything Iā€™m up to.

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Booking Protect:

Customers are buying refund protection at rates 2x higher than before the pandemic.

Offering your customers refund protection:

  • Gives customers certainty in their purchase.
  • Gives you a new revenue stream.
  • Improves your customer service.

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