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!