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Tue, April 29, 2008
With so much money spent on advertising in print for live entertainment, I saw this article to be particularly interesting.
In what I would suspect will be an increasing trend, The Capital Times, one of Wisconsin’s leading daily newspapers, will suspend its daily printed newspaper and move its operations almost exclusively online. According to the article, “the staff will also produce two print products: a free weekly entertainment guide inserted in Madison’s remaining daily newspaper, The Wisconsin State Journal, and a news weekly that will be distributed with the paper.) While the business plan is still really being created for the move, it’s clear that they are proactively trying to address what, to me, seems like the critical issue being faced by daily newspapers - remaining relevant.
Let’s start with the basic fact that the news that goes to print is way-too-often old news by the time it hits newsstands. The news (aside from feature stories) has to be posted throughout the day on publishers websites if they expect their editorial to remain relevant. The speed of news reaching consumers moves faster than ever – publications have to break the news on their website first if they expect to survive. In addition, news in print that you pay for is available for free online. Both of these points are, in many ways understandably, self-inflicted wounds.
So, when you add up the fact that consumers have less time in their day, more options to consume media and less disposable income why would a consumer pay for a daily newspaper if they can get the same content online when they want it, in a quicker way and for free?
I don’t think the distribution channel is necessarily the big issue. I think plenty of people read newspapers (our Dot project showed many Sunday Times readers) – they just don’t rely on it as much for daily news. Same goes for the nightly news on TV - it’s painful to watch as it feels like a wrap-up to news you’ve already heard about from 10 different sources that day.
Times are changing rapidly and I think this move by The Capital Times is just the start of what is yet to come. If this is a good thing or a bad thing, I'm not sure.
Read On
Mon, April 28, 2008
Slick website. Sexy ad units. Entertainment brands sure do love to talk – but how well do they listen? That’s the question we all should be focusing on.
The Internet age is about listening. Every click, forward, reply, IM and text message a consumer sends is defining your brand. A new study helps illustrate this stating that, “74 percent of respondents choose companies or brands based on customer service experiences shared by other Web users on the Internet. Eighty-one percent of those polled said they believe blogs, online rating systems and discussion forums give consumers 'a greater voice' in customer service. However, only 33 percent of respondents felt that companies take customers' opinions seriously.”
For entertainment brands, I think the one area that needs to be better focused on is that we aren’t selling just what’s on stage – we are selling an experience. We are selling an experience that begins at the ticket buying experience all of the way through to the ‘thank you’ message that is sent when they return home. And, it’s safe to say, that consumers want to be heard throughout that entire process.
Entertainment brands can’t expect to really control what consumers post about your production on blogs, message boards and social media outlets. But, there is enough research that will show that if you proactively offer to give them a voice along with making their overall experience with the production a good one, it will help offset any complaints they might have with what’s on stage. This might be as simple as a survey after the production or by allowing consumers to post reviews on your website. There are many ways to ‘listen’ – it’s making the commitment to doing it and wanting to hear what consumers have to say that makes it worthwhile doing.
If people’s experience before going into the theatre and after the theatre are enjoyable, you would have to believe this pays dividends in consumer feedback. What more can you do?
Read On
Sun, April 27, 2008
The most common question I've been getting as of late is "who other than the under-30 crowd uses Facebook?" Well, I would venture to say not as many as Facebook would like. That probably explains their active pursuit towards making it more ‘adult friendly’.
The one thing I’ve always loved about Facebook was their technology and how inviting they made it. It’s no surprise to me that they continue to grow and more and more people become connected. I’m still not sure how they ultimately monetize the eyeballs – but that’s a different topic for a different day. I was happy to come across the following article from Fortune Magazine where they are reporting updates in how Facebook is improving the one issue that older demographics have complained about – privacy controls. The one thing that has always annoyed me about Facebook was the privacy controls. {A sneeze somehow makes it on my profile}. I would say it’s certainly a generational thing that older demographics are more protective of what they publicize about themselves. No, I don’t want to share my 4am photos from the night of the Tony Awards! And, no, I don’t want to see inappropriate photos from others I see in my daily work environment! TMI!
Anyway, read on. It’s an interesting read that also touches on their continued plans of reaching international audiences which, by the way, is 60% of their current user base. Who knew?
Read On
Sat, April 26, 2008
So, you walk up to your bus stop, scan your phone and through GPS it tells you how far the next bus is from picking you up.
This is the concept being tested at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. The idea, I think is brilliant. It’s useful and should be easy to use. So, why hasn’t this been a runaway success? Well, for many of the same reasons many mobile campaigns are facing challenges. Not because consumers don’t want to interact with services via mobile device – it’s because there are unnecessary boundaries in the way. First, in this case, there is a software issue. To get the bar code scanner on your phone you need to download software for it. This is a big ‘no-no’ if they expect masses to use this service. Second, is the lack of understanding of cost. There is a cost to using the service and, for many, people aren’t sure what that actual cost will be. There is too much of a risk.
Both of these hurdles to using the program come down to key issues I have with the phone carriers. Data plans are both too expensive and often too confusing for consumer to know what you are paying for. Second, a streamlined software/reader will need to be put in place if we ever expect to use the mobile phone as an effective device to reading bar codes.
It’s a shame. I think consumers are starving for ways to make their life easier and would be more than happy to use their mobile phone. There are just a few unnecessary boundaries which I am optimistic will get out of the way soon enough.
If you have a select group of people (like subscription theater’s, etc.), you might be able to get your patrons to download software for their phone if you could create applications that make their experience a better one. It will be a challenge though. For now, we are bypassing the ‘scanning’ by having consumers ‘text in’ for services which seems to have work well so far.
Read more about Case Western case study here.
Read On
Fri, April 25, 2008
Here’s some helpful information about a prime Broadway demographic – Babyboomers. I’ll keep it simple and bullet point some key quotes directly from the story. Here’s what you need to know:
- 72 percent of those aged 50 to 64 use the Internet today.
- Boomers represent the largest population of "super Net vets"; 72 percent of boomers have been online five or more years, and 53 percent of online boomers are women.
- Though their top online activities predominantly mirrored those of non-boomers, boomers exceeded non-boomers in their degree of online research of products and services.
- Boomers tend to respond better to online sweepstakes. When it comes to online communications, boomers are very email reliant and use less instant messaging and chat.
- Boomers respond to special offers but not gimmicks. They've got money, but they'll wait for a deal rather than be as impulsive as their younger counterparts.
- Boomers are brand conscious and brand loyal, but don't just "sell them." Figure out ways to show the brand attributes and engage boomers.
So, they do a lot of research, are brand loyal, have become more email reliant and respond to offers - not gimmicks. Seems easy enough to remember.
Read on.
Read On
Thu, February 28, 2008
This past month we were involved in the launch of a new program on Broadway aimed to target students with our friends at Columbia University and Telecharge. The idea was simple. Shows want to reach younger audiences. Universities want to offer their students discount access to Broadway shows. Students want access to discount tickets that helps fit their schedules and their budget. They want to be able to buy online and in advance. Well, in this new program all of these stars aligned. Columbia University students can now log on to the school's intranet and have access to order tickets from a range of shows on Broadway.
In just three weeks after a soft launch, approximately 400 tickets were sold to Columbia University students. At first glance, not huge numbers. But, when you consider that this is only for Columbia students and it’s only three weeks old… then, this all of sudden looks great.
Now, imagine a 25% growth in the program over the course of the year and imagine if five more universities join on to the program – we are potentially looking at 1,000+ tickets weekly sold to college students for Broadway shows. Ok, this is ambitious… but the initial sales figures we are seeing makes me believe that this is an achievable goal if we (the industry) want to make it a reality.
This is not a money maker in the short-term for anyone really but long-term, you have to believe it’s building new audiences for both theatre and live entertainment.
I’ll keep you posted over the coming months on the progress of the program. It’s just so great to see the goodwill among so many people in the industry… from the ticketing/technology customization that was done to the producers of so many great shows offering specially student priced tickets… all of which was put together so quickly.
It’s nice to see a plan come together and gives me great optimism moving forward on supporting this initiative. I’ll take any optimism I can get. :)
Wed, February 27, 2008
A few weeks ago, I received a letter from Sears saying I was rejected for their store credit card. Problem was, I never applied for one. Well, sure enough, I just found out that I have been a victim of identity theft. Diamond Hut, JC Penny, Radio Shack – you name it, my identity was on a shopping spree in NJ over the past few months. How they stole my identity is still being investigated but it goes to a very central issue in the online space right now – e-commerce security.
While we have seen online ticket buying skyrocket to over 70% in some markets, there is still a large portion of tickets sold through offline channels. Some buy offline to avoid online fees, some simply prefer to order by phone to talk with a representative but I believe there is still a significant portion of the population not buying tickets online due to fear of identity theft (or simply the entire e-commerce process).
The data we’ve read at our offices, shows that higher-income audiences tend to not be as concerned about online theft than lower-income families but overall, I think it’s fair to say that the data shows it’s still a major issue for all groups.
Consider these findings from a study entitled, “Online Shopping: Internet users like the convenience but worry about the security of their financial information.”:
Two-thirds (66%) of online Americans have at one time bought a product online. If online Americans did not have such high levels of concern about sending personal or credit card information over the internet, the report estimates that the share of internet users buying products online could be as much as 3 percentage points higher, or 69%.
The report also finds that low-income Americans are most likely to express concerns about providing credit card or personal information online and least likely to see possible time-savings or convenience in e-commerce. Among internet users in homes with annual incomes below $25,000 annually, 44% strongly agree that they don’t like sending credit card information online, twice the share (22%) that strongly agrees that online shopping is convenient For upper-income Americans (those in households with annual incomes above $100,000), the numbers reverse, with one quarter (25%) saying they strongly agree that they don’t like sending credit card information over the internet for online transactions, while 36% strongly agree that online shopping is convenient.
Why should we care? I think this illustrates a key point to evaluating your online presence – that there are a large portion of people researching online and purchasing offline. You need to look beyond just using the Internet as a vehicle to immediately sell tickets and begin actively trying to engage, support and educate consumers who may be interested in researching online but wanting to purchase their tickets in an offline channel. I would venture to say that this market is much larger than you would probably expect.
Read the research here.
Wed, February 27, 2008
With the value of the dollar plummeting and with international audiences pouring in to the US, how and where we talk to international audiences is becoming more and more of a critical issue. With that said, we welcome Facebook’s new venture into helping this cause.
Facebook has just introduced a version of the site for Spanish-language speakers (2.8 million active users live in Latin America or Spain), which will serve as the first of several languages beyond English speaking that will be included in the Facebook community. According to the story, “Sixty percent of Facebook's roughly 64 million users live outside of the United States. Britain alone has 8 million active Facebook users. Canada is third most active with 7 million users and Turkey has surged to become the fourth most active Facebook nation and its biggest non-English market. Rounding out the top ten Facebook markets are Australia, France, Sweden, Norway, Columbia, and South Africa.”
This doesn’t necessarily mean to go ‘advertise’ on Facebook – it means you should try and find ways how this may help you connect with your audiences through this channel in a meaningful way. This means exploring the idea of creating a community with dialogue along with content and connections to your brand that consumers can actually relate to. Have actors communicate with fans in-language, post content in-language – each production should evaluate and try and see what their audience wants.
No matter what you do - don’t hard-sell in a social network (would you hard-sell your friends?).
For entertainment marketers trying to target international tourists, there are still many obstacles that need to be addressed – particularly, adopting the ticketing systems to be translated into different languages and to better integrate with international currencies – but, it’s clear that it’s a ‘MUST DO’ for the live entertainment industry to try and figure out.
Read On
Mon, February 25, 2008
2007 will go down as the year women tipped the scale to become the majority with more than 50% of online users. That’s fantastic news for theater marketers! Here is a great breakdown of ‘what women want’ online from an article recently published in Advertising age. The results may surprise you.
For example, 54% of women shopped online in the first half of 2007 and guess what they bought? Travel ranked first (who knew!). Or, that 45 million moms go online daily and spend an average of 85 minutes there.
From researching parenting tips to preferences watching online video, this story offers some interesting insight and statistics to a very important market segment we are all most often targeting.
Read On
Sun, February 24, 2008
Here's an interesting new initiative coming out of Las Vegas. Based on a similar model to Facebook and MySpace, "MyVegas gives tourists a virtual meeting place where they and their friends can choose a hotel, buy tickets to events and interact with other visitors. But unlike other social networking sites, MyVegas actually encourages its members to pretend to be something or someone they are not."
Create a phony name like "D-Money McBlackJack", upload a profile picture and interact with other members under your imaginary identity. According to the agency behind the project, "The inspiration behind this is that people have their real personality, and their Vegas personality. Traditional social networks push a bit more true-to-life representation of who you are. But MyVegas is all about representing who you want to be when you go to Vegas."
I get what they are aiming for but I'm torn on whether or not this has staying power.
As a trip planning tool - I think this could be very successful. It gives people a way to engage and organize their party in a fun, vegas-like way. But, as a true social networking site for connecting travelers in the market, I'm a huge skeptic for one basic reason - social networking is built on true connections in a real community. The whole premise of this campaign is the complete opposite - fake identities which create a fake community, no? Maybe I'm wrong - we'll have to wait and see. I do love the progressive thinking with this campaign. Even if it doesn't work, they will learn more about the Las Vegas traveler which is often a moving target.
Would love to hear what you think - email me.
Read On
Tue, February 12, 2008
As many of you know, on April 15th 2007 Ian Bennett, the beloved Creative Director for Situation Marketing tragically died in a vehicular accident at the age of 26. Ian was the first full-time employee of Situation Marketing, an amazing creative talent and a friend who remains close to many hearts.
In memory of Ian, a scholarship fund called the Ian Bennett/Situation Cares Memorial Fund has been established. Through this fund, each year a high school student who shares Ian’s passion for the arts will be awarded $1,000 to help support their passion through higher education.
To learn more about the fund, you can check out http://www.SituationCares.org. It's a really basic site for now but, for those of you who didn't know Ian, you can read a letter that I think best described him.
For those that knew Ian or those that simply want to support this great new initiative, we invite you to contribute to the fund by clicking below and then selecting the Ian Bennett/Situation Cares Memorial Fund.
To those of you that have already submitted money in the past towards Ian's scholarship, that money is being transferred into this new fund.
I appreciate you all for your support for this great new initiative.
Click here to support the fund.
Wed, January 16, 2008
That's right - 2008 will be the year that research comes front and center to marketing discussions. As I know there are many skeptics in the industry on the typical use of the word “research”, let’s start with the basic definition (yes, I know this sounds goofy but I think we need to start with a central definition). According to Dictionary.com, ‘research’ is defined as “the diligent and systematic inquiry or investigation into a subject in order to discover or revise facts, theories, applications, etc.” I think it’s fair to say based on that definition that live entertainment – particularly Broadway and the Las Vegas market – is screaming out for research.
I’m not just talking focus groups or surveys (which are important) – I’m talking concerted efforts to make research a function that is both relevant and actionable in the way we market and advertise shows. I’m talking putting in processes that begin before you start performances which continue throughout the life of the show that is embedded in the concept of forever trying to keep a pulse as to why and how people are both learning and purchasing tickets to your production.
For a moment – let’s put the concept of ‘branding’ aside. Is your TV flight lighting up the phones or online interest? Is your online advertising actually driving sales? Are the email blasts and direct mail pieces really hitting the consumers you think they are? Does advertising in print on Friday’s really drive sales into the weekend?
I believe many of these answers are on the way in 2008. One-time usage offer codes, trackable phone numbers, mapping of TV flights and affiliate tracking will soon become a reality.
Aside from the marketing and advertising, I think 2008 will also bring great improvements in the way customer service is delivered to patrons. Consumers want to be heard. They want to post reviews, get instant answers to questions and are consistently seeking out an improved customer service experience. They want suggestions and recommendations after they purchase their tickets and want to be thanked after they leave the show. They want to be treated like customers who pay over $200 an order would expect to and technology will enable productions to effectively do so in 2008.
A happy consumer builds audiences, drives revenue and gives productions a viable research channel. Cheers to 2008!
So, that’s my prediction – let’s hope it’s right. :)
On that note – here is a great ‘how-to’ article on some simple tips to effectively gather customer feedback. You would be surprised at how simple it is.
Read On
Tue, January 15, 2008
So, tonight a group of friends will come together at your show for a ‘girls night out’.
One of those folks will share video footage they shot on their mobile device from that night out with a friend… that friend will add an MP3 file soundtrack of the evening - then passes it to another friend… this friend edits the footage by adding some photographs and passes it on to another friend… this is a prime example of the fundamental concept of how circular entertainment works. And, yes, it’s happening tonight at your show.
Sound at all familiar? If not, it probably will soon as a result of a global study into the future of entertainment, predicts that up to a quarter of the entertainment consumed by people by 2012 will have been created, edited and shared within their peer circle rather than coming out of traditional media groups.
What does this mean for productions? It means that you need to create and provide content that can be made accessible for consumers to create this entertainment - video, photos, mp3’s, etc. Give them an mp3 to put over their photo slide shows. Give them video content to mash-up with their own video. Whatever you do – don’t think you can’t stop it from happening with the hopes of control your brand identity. It’s a counter-productive exercise.
Read more here – it’s quite interesting.
Read On
Mon, January 14, 2008
Here’s a striking piece of data that symbolizes how quickly the mobile device is becoming a viable marketing channel. Before you read this tidbit of information – consider the iPhone only makes up 2% of smartphones worldwide!
According to the NY Times, “on Christmas, traffic to Google from iPhones surged, surpassing incoming traffic from any other type of mobile device, according to internal Google data made available to The New York Times. A few days later, iPhone traffic to Google fell below that of devices powered by the Nokia-backed Symbian operating system but remained higher than traffic from any other type of cellphone. The data is striking because the iPhone, an Apple product, accounts for just 2 percent of smartphones worldwide, according to IDC, a market research firm. Phones powered by Symbian make up 63 percent of the worldwide smartphone market, while those powered by Microsoft’s Windows Mobile have 11 percent and those running the BlackBerry system have 10 percent.”
To us – this is not just about the iPhone. It’s about mobile usage overall. It’s the simple point that if you give consumers a mobile device and platform that is easy to use and easy to surf the web – they will use it. I believe there are a variety of new phones that will step up to the plate with some exciting new technologies. We, as an industry, have to be ready to embrace it. I, for one, am looking forward to it!
Read On
Sun, January 13, 2008
Keep it dead simple, make it personal and give people a reason to pass it on. Those are three simple rules which many industry folks are sticking to when creating viral marketing campaigns. Makes total sense to me. The following article is a great read on viral marketing and highlights some great examples of what has worked and what has not. From the smashing success of ‘Elf Yourself’ and ‘Simpsonize Me’ to the not-so-successful ‘Action Hero’ campaign by Verizon and the ‘Pet Moustache’ campaign by Burger King, you can see some of the clear distinctions in what worked versus what fell flat.
Happy reading.
Read On
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