Outdoor Events & Advance Ticket Sales

What?!? How could creativity have a downside?

Almost every time an event organizer has a new event, or recurring annual event, they feel compelled to create all new advertising and marketing.

This can involve everything from posters, radio ads, television ads, online banner ads, billboards, collateral materials, to redesigning event websites. And everything in between.

On the surface, the above approach seems perfectly logical.

I'm here to tell you, that the need to create something new approach, is most likely an enormous waste of your time and money! "Eugene, you're a heretic! How could you say something so mean?!"

Because creating something new, could hurt your ability to sell tickets to your event!

How is that possible?

You won't know for sure if you don't hold all your marketing and advertising ruthlessly accountable.

That means knowing the marketing effectiveness of at least your most prominent marketing and advertising assets: banner ads, your website, email marketing campaigns, social media posts, etc.

In marketing, specifically direct-response marketing, it's called a control. A control is a piece of advertising or marketing strategy that has a measurable result. e.g., You have a banner ad for your event that gets a .05% click-through rate each year it's run. That's your banner ad control.

When you create a new advertising or marketing piece, you test that new creative against an existing control. The goal is to beat the control and keep testing. There is a lot more too it than the rough description above but hopefully, you get the idea.

My challenge to you is to establish a control and run it for as long as possible. The cost and time to measure the effectiveness of your advertising and marketing controls will dwarf that of creating something new.

Until your controls fail to perform, why spend time and money to create something new? This isn't art class! Figuring out what advertising and marketing works (or if it actually works) is infinitely more important than creating something new. It will also make you more money, every time!

Most of my clients have been running the same advertising and marketing controls for years. And guess what? Not a single customer has ever complained about the same advertising and marketing being used, year after year. The result has been millions of dollars of ticket sales.

The suggestions above are guaranteed to boil the blood of most ad agencies and graphix designers. It's your money, and you should protect it like a valuable investment!

That said, if a designer or ad agencies can beat an existing control, they should be well compensated!

I'm tough on the creative types, but I'm also very fair. The best graphic designers will take you up on a control challenge. Because they know how to use design to drive ticket sales. The rest will run for the hills. Focus on finding those who understand the importance of results over art and you'll be set.

Additional Event Promotion Resources:

• A "Must Follow" Event Advertising Strategy
• The Importance of Market Research in Planning Your Event
• Get Great Ideas from an Event Marketing Field Trip
• The Experience Must EXCEED that of Your Event Marketing
• Horrid Event Marketing Mistake: Confusing Art with Results
• A Black Friday Marketing Idea for Event Promoters
• Event Marketing from the Magazine Rack