Lots of things are going on in the desert:
There’s the Mayweather and McGregor fight at the end of the month.
There’s NHL hockey coming to the Strip.
There’s NFL football coming to somewhere near the Strip.
And, the usual amount of things that happen in Vegas.
Having just spent a week out in Vegas learning about the situations around their new arena, new teams, and big events, I wanted to take a few minutes to write up a few ideas that might help drive sales for these events in Las Vegas and that might also be helpful for all of you.
Marketing Matters:
In many places, the idea that publicity or general sports awareness is going to drive the sales of your event is pretty much a given, or, in a lot of places, a best practice.
Unfortunately, it is this mindset that has put most of what constitutes sports and entertainment marketing into a rut!
Why do I say that?
Because in far too many instances, what ends up being called “the marketing” of an event or a sport is little more than a bunch of ill planned advertising that worked in the day, but that isn’t nearly as effective now.
You know the things:
- Full page ads in the newspapers
- Banners posted
- Billboards
- Flyers or posters
Those may have worked once. They may still work in some places for some things, but they have become static, not active.
The key is that marketing matters and as Las Vegas becomes a full fledged major league sports city, outside of just boxing, the need to market is going to become more and more important.
Just look at the uphill fight that the NHL has faced in all of its’ sunbelt cities.
To set the right tone, if I were the Golden Knights, I would work on expanding my base and educating my market: ASAP.
I’d do that by teaching everyone in area about hockey. I’d be opening practices.
I’d created opportunities for fans to mingle and connect with the players, to learn, to see the sport live.
I’d expand my base by looking at the entire market and figuring out how the live sports experience can create value for all of the residents.
This might include making a lot of seats available at really reduced rates at the box office with local ID.
This might be working with partners in the area to get their employees to games.
It might include working on ways to change the schedule around to enable people that work at odd hours a chance to watch the games in person.
The big key here would be a focus on putting the game in people’s lives in a meaningful way in as many ways as possible because the best way to build your brand is to be new: so with hockey, new is now. The second best way to get people to fall in love with the sport is to have them actually experience it.
I’ve got more thoughts on the Golden Knights, but I’ll put them in their own separate post.
Price Is Important:
The big idea that is getting thrown around about the next “Fight of the Century” is that the pricing is off.
That is debatable.
There’s one school of thought that says that if you sell out immediately, you are leaving money on the table and set the secondary market up to take a lot of “your” profits.
There’s another school that says not having instant sell outs is good because it means that you are more likely to have priced right and are likely to capture a higher box office take.
The truth is that despite the hype of dynamic pricing, algorithms, and other tools, the pricing of events is an art as much as a science.
I’ve always felt like I want to keep my prices a little lower, if I can because I know that if I can get you into my venue, I can get a higher dollar value out of you at the concessions, merchandise, and other in-venue points of purchase while making you feel like your experience was much better.
Others don’t feel that way, I mean there’s whole consulting arms of the leagues that are built on spreadsheets that tell you how to maximize each touch point on each day, never really taking into account the idea that you might want to build a long term relationship with that buyer.
That’s a bit of a run on, but the key is that pricing is important.
In the case of hockey, boxing, and football, you have to make sure that you don’t play to tons of empty seats while never capturing enough of the revenue.
In my mind, the big thing is going to be more partnerships between the primary and secondary going forward.
But the takeaway here is that you don’t ever want price to get in the way in a way where you event comes off as overpriced, not hot, or meh.
Your Experience Will Be Different, But Will It Be Amazing:
Just by the fact that you are in Las Vegas, sports is going to be new and different. This sets you up for an experience that is unique.
But the thing is, different isn’t enough.
You are going to have to work even harder to make your experience amazing.
Think about the way that the casinos are always working to outdo their competition.
One casino gets Britney Spears, another gets J Lo.
One casino has a volcano, the other gets a river.
The arms race is never ending.
That makes the challenge of sports really difficult because there are going to be games that have less cache than others.
I’m sure that first Golden Knights & Florida Panthers game is circled on everyone’s calendar. (I use the Panthers because they are the team I grew up near, no other reason…and the fact I don’t think there are a ton of Floridians moving to the desert.)
Which sets a really high bar for experience.
But the only hope is to make sure that you create a mind-blowing experience for your fans and guests.
Knowing what the competition is, reinvention is going to be a constant part of that.
But what about some other keys to outstanding experiences?
Like partnering with local businesses to create a feeling of locality?
Creating opportunities for locals to connect, network, congregate in a way that isn’t work or forced.
How about partnering with some of the premier hotel and casino partners to add a little of the Vegas flair to the arrival or departure?
Can you use technology to make the seating experience VIP worthy?
Is there a piece or pieces of old Vegas that you can incorporate like the Sydney Opera House uses old stage props?
The key in making the experience standout and exception is creativity.
Creativity and a will to fight complacency.
All told, sports in Vegas has great potential.
The key is not falling into the trap of the paint-by-numbers ideas of entertainment business and embracing some of the unique cultural, societal, and experiential aspects of Las Vegas.