There is so much to be grateful for this Thanksgiving season. Personally, I’m celebrating my first holiday at home with my newly born son. Professionally, I have the most incredible staff around me and, at the same time, I have the most forward-thinking, open-minded client base I’ve ever had since forming Situation Interactive.
This past January, I posted a story on my views on what 2009 will bring in the live event marketing space where I said the following…
“There is a one major reason I see to be optimistic for what 2009 will bring – that is, there is a new sense of urgency that will bring action to key issues in our industry. This is the year that removes excuses, delays and reasons to put off big problems for later – with hardship comes a new found focus, a ‘sense of urgency’ for positive change.”
While the Broadway industry typically gets a bad rap for being resistant to change, you can consider me an optimist while I call that old adage one big stack of bologna. I’d like to profile just a sampling of initiatives that I thought reflected the spirit of positive change and innovation that stood out to me over this past year. While there were a ton of awesome campaigns, the following initiatives stood out to me as they reflected executions of change that I think will be here to stay for quite some time.
Broadway Goes Green
It’s amazing what you can accomplish when you mix passion with work ethic. I stand in awe at the progress of the Broadway Green Alliance. Aside from the actual mission of trying to make Broadway a greener place, I was equally impressed by the commitment of those that came together to make it actually happen. Susan Sampliner, Seth Greenleaf and many folks associated with the League should be very proud and we, as an industry, should try and find ways to duplicate this ability to take an idea or concept and execute it with passion. On Wednesday, December 9th from 11am – 1pm you can deposit your e-waste (broken cell phones, computers, printers, and dry batteries) in the center of Times Square (in front of the TKTS booth) to show your support for the Broadway Green Alliance’s one year anniversary.
Broadway Ticketing Embraces Mobile Outlets
Mobile devices clearly represent the future of live event marketing and ticketing. But, what many people don’t know – “the future” is actually now. Under the direction of Jennifer Tattenbaum at Telecharge.com, thousands of tickets were purchased on mobile devices this past year on the Telecharge mobile platform. No aggressive marketing, no major industry outreach – simply a smart mobile site and the proactive commitment by Telecharge to offer their consumers options in how they can transact with Broadway. Kudos to the folks at Telecharge. Take out your mobile device and visit www.Telecharge.com to check it out.
Variable Pricing Comes to Life in Box Offices
Sure, there is still a lot of work needed to better maximize the pricing structure for Broadway, but this past year pushed forward the discussion of true variable pricing. While this will be a topic of discussion that will evolve over the coming years, the folks at the Shubert’s really made the discussion a bit more concrete by placing digital screens in the lobby to allow for better variance in pricing of full-price tickets. Positive change has to happen somewhere, so I’m happy to see shows coming together with the theatre owners to come up with proactive solutions to maximize key revenue potential.
Audience Rewards Brings New Hope to Future Audience Development
There will always be tons of skeptics on any new industry-wide program for selling Broadway tickets, so when Audience Rewards was launched I can imagine a ton of eye rolling and the rumblings of “another one?” At its face value, Audience Rewards is a points exchange platform that allows consumers to use points to purchase Broadway and live event tickets. Well, this program is much different than anything you’ve seen before and you need to keep an eye on its development over the coming years. First, all three major theatre owners are on board with the program. Second, from my understanding, it’s a well-funded initiative with hundreds of thousands of dollars invested in making the project a success. Third, they have brought in an experience executive team that is outlining a much broader vision that can open this up well beyond just the selling of Broadway tickets. If done right, Audience Rewards will capitalize on maximizing national live event customer data to drive incremental sales, build brand loyalty with the overall Broadway category and create opportunities for enhanced glue with Broadway and the touring productions. It represents much, much more than simply buying Broadway tickets with rewards points.
Social Media Has Taken Flight
Name a show that doesn’t have some kind of presence on at least one of the main social networking platforms like Facebook or Twitter? Well, this past year most (if not all) major musical productions now have social media as a part of their overarching marketing plan. Kudos to guys like Ken Davenport who through BroadwaySpace.com has heavily promoted the idea of brands thinking more social or other agencies like Art Meets Commerce who continue to promote the importance of bringing content to where our consumers are. I see no slow down in this trend over the next three to five years although, if history has taught us anything, we can be sure the way the conversation is structured on how best to use social media is bound to change.
These are just a sampling of some ideas to me that illustrate the spirit of innovation and positive change that is in full-swing on Broadway and across the country by very talented people across all facets of the industry.
Do you have any examples of innovation or positive change from this past year that inspired you? How about change you hope to see this next year?
