Learning Opportunities - Part 1

After a very busy week here is the first part of multi-post update.

Situation Interactive: http://www.situationinteractive.com/

This company is a web based marketing company for the entertainment industry (Sports, Culturals, Theatre, etc…) They are the driving force behind Hair’s website – http://www.haironbroadway.com and Billy Elliot’s http://www.billyelliotbroadway.com/ Both are great websites for creating that vital connection to the audience (hence the interactive part of the company’s name). Also both of the sites have designs that are modern, organized, and are user friendly.
Side Note: Be sure to check out http://www.wearebillyelliot.com/ - Just listen to the actors, kid wranglers, Director, Techies, etc… Their stories make me want to go see the show again which means that it is doing its job. I have a soft spot for watching people’s dreams come true and that was one of the main reasons I wanted to be a Producer in the first place.
Anyways about once a month Situation Inactive hosts panel discussions for their clients. The topic that I was invited to attend was Customers. They had a Theatre Producer, Sports marketer, and Cultural non-profit marketer. I got invited because the Producer that was speaking was Ken Davenport and people at my job know I’m a fan of his work.

Another side note: Regardless of the industry that you work in if you are invited to a Panel discussion, seminar, or conference that has nothing to do with your line of work - go anyways. You never know what you can pick up from the speakers and use for your job. That’s why blogs are so great…I find out so much blog posts and comments.
As brief as possible here is what I learned… If you don’t understand my short hand or have any questions feel free to let me know.

Getting new and returning customers – Customer goes to a show and then nothing happens - What if there was some kind of next day follow-up.
Example: Buying a suitcase and the very next day receiving a follow-up e-mail with a 25% off coupon
Social Media – planting ads that’ll circle around back to the website that you want them to be on.
Example: 13 The Musical – Ken planted ads on the sites that his target market would be hanging out on and led them back to the website that they designed for 13 to interact and talk about theatre. – Word of mouth is and will always be the #1 ticket seller – The question now becomes how you keep the conversation about the show going.

How much is too much communication? – Markets should be segmented and email information should be targeted toward your clients. This is so when they receive emails from you the customer will want to read them because it’ll be relevant to their needs. Speak to your customers in their voice

Customers that will pay for premium tickets don’t care about the price they just want the experience of being in a great seat at a show. There is more that they can gain from these customers.

You’ll have customers that will purchase a package on a sports site these that product because they are familiar with it. Sports marketers from time to time they will send out an additive offer but mostly will only email the person when the product they purchased is about to go on sale again.

Customer relationships – When you establish a relationship with a client it’s like a friendship - giving relevant content to the customers helps to foster that relationship. Giving their email information away breaks that trust and makes people angry because for some reason an Inbox is a very sensitive thing.

Added value – They talked about Ken Davenport’s blog post about Airline on American Airlines you can go up to get you confirmation and upgrade your seat to first class for $350.00. At that point you’re like ok… that’s not bad and you don’t even think about the $800.00 you already spent on the ticket. Can they do this at theatres? Hey you want to give me $20.00 to upgrade your seat from the Balcony. Even Hotels? $100.00 to upgrade to a suite?

Show Concierge – basically an extra Usher at shows to talk to people – knowledgeable about NYC restaurants, Attractions, the next show you should see. Face to Face interaction.

Playbill is successful because that’s what they walk out of the show with. It serves as a reminder of the experience. Also Soundtracks, signed material these things can extend the experience and keep people talking about it.

Asking questions to customers engages them in a way that gets them thinking and talking. Which can keep them coming back - What do you think about??

Unique experiences – added value for customers – Post Game, Roundabout talkbacks, Behind the Scene Tours.

Cultural events have a lot of things to say – meaning a lot of information to pass along. The best is insider information because it brings people inside the experience. Example: Interviews

They talked a lot about collecting data – Getting email address is priority - Placing business cards in fish bowls seems to be the best way.

Last three points:

Build size of email list
Accept the way things are but find ways to work around them
Segment – Market - Target