The 'Marvel'ous Event Marketing Tease
Full disclosure, I’m a huge Marvel (Disney) fan for several reasons. One of my biggest "fan boy" reasons is their marketing style. Just in case you’re thinking, “I’m NOT a comic book fan, this isn’t for me!” Today’s suggestion has nothing to do with comic books. It has everything to do with how you market your event. And movies are events.
The "we have to tell everyone everything at once" approach = BAD!
Far too many event organizers want to tell everyone everything about their event. They insist on doing so, all at once. This marketing approach is prevalent in the air show world. You hear things like, “we want everyone to know all our great acts, right from the get-go!” On the surface, this seems perfectly logical. But it works against marketing your event.
What?!?!? Why? Because once you release the best information out about your event, you lose your audience’s attention. If your best stuff is already out in public, then there isn’t much more to say. What can I do differently? Tease them!
Marvel Studios takes the exact opposite approach in marketing their movies. It’s not an "all at once!" approach. Marvel works hard NOT to give away the movie premise in their trailers. They even edit the movie trailers to conceal or confuse fans on significant plot points. One would think this strategy would really annoy their fans. It has the opposite effect. Their fan base absolutely loves it. Their fans become more rabid for any piece of additional information!
Marvel Studios has become so good at marketing movies, they can release a movie trailer WITH a movie trailer. “Here’s a sneak peek, tune in tomorrow for the official trailer.”
This drip sequence is done before a single movie ticket goes on sale. When tickets do go on sale, pre-sale revenue records are smashed!
Marvel Studios' “Avengers: Endgame” and “Captain Marvel” are the most recent trailer releases. At the time of this writing, the 30 second "Avengers: Endgame" Super Bowl trailer has already racked up 10+ million YouTube views in its first 24 hours.
You can use the same “Tease” strategy Marvel uses to market your event!
It’s called the “Value to Sell Sequence.” It starts by sending out 20 – 30 carefully crafted tidbits of information about your event. These tidbits are laser targeted marketing messages.
After all 20 – 30 messages are released, THEN and only then ... tickets go on sale. The result? Clients have generated $100,000. of ticket sales in 60 minutes and $220,000. of tickets sold in 24 hours. (These results aren’t meant to brag, but to drive home the point of doing things differently.)
Despite the insane t icket sale results above, most event organizers refuse to implement the tease strategy. Their response to the Value-to-Sell (Marvel Tease) strategy includes, “we can’t do that.” Or, “our customer is different.” And, “people want to know everything right now! We're NOT going to do that.”
I challenge you not to follow the herd. Please take the “Value-to-Sell" strategy from above and implement it. When executed correctly, you’ll be amazed at the results!
To Your Success,
Eugene
Want to get more info on promoting your event? Check out the articles below:
- P.T. Barnum on Advertising
- Online Marketing Like P.T. Barnum (Part I)
- Online Marketing Like P.T. Barnum (Part II)
- Why Well Planned Events Fail
- How to Get Them To Your Event
- Getting Them to Buy Tickets Early
- Turn Your Event Into an Experience
- Your Event Promotion and Marketing Strategy - Start Point
- When to Start Selling Tickets for Your Event
- The Truth About Your Advance Ticket Sales
P.S. - At the end of this month - February 2019, I'll be launching my paid print newsletter for those SERIOUS about marketing their event(s). The newsletter is going to be a monthly "How To" guide based on successful Platinum Client campaigns. There's no theoretical stuff or untested creative ideas ... just real world results! It will be shipped world-wide and best suited for event organizers who have well established events. Is that you?
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