Outdoor Events & Advance Ticket Sales

Monday's technology issues at the Iowa Caucuses reaffirms the following case study ...

(if you're a non-US reader, please do a quick US news search on "2020 Iowa Caucus" – you won't be able to miss it!)

Years ago, I was attempting to get a beer festival client to change over to an online ticketing system. At the time they utilized a half-online ticketing system.

What's a half-online ticketing system?

It's where you take payment online and then get one of your employees to manually snail mail hard stock tickets. The person manually fulfilling thousands of ticket orders was my client's General Manager.

When asked, the General Manager had indicated that manually fulfilling ticket orders added 30 hours of work to their already busy schedule.

So, with the General Manager's time in mind and a few other factors, I strongly recommended that the client change to a full online ticket solution. That's where tickets are purchased online and printed at home or work by the consumer.

The client was apprehensive about making a change. They wanted me to guarantee them there wouldn't be any issues with online ticketing. My guarantee to the client was this …

"I guarantee you that something is going to go wrong. That said, I also guarantee you when it goes wrong, I will be onsite to handle any issues promptly."

Sure enough, a significant issue arose onsite while scanning event attendees into the beer festival.

What happened?

A few hundred printed tickets had the same barcode. That meant that the first person scanned into the event without issue. After that, hundreds of "ticket already scanned" warning messages appeared on the ticket scanners.

Initially, the ticketing company insisted such a situation was impossible.

One poor guy who had one of the first duplicate barcodes was almost denied entry and he did nothing wrong! Add on top of that thousands of excited event patrons waiting to be scanned into the event. With the duplicate bar code issue, entry into the event slowed significantly. It was a real kick in the head!

Ultimately, I made good on my promise to my client. We created a quick on-site solution (in less than 5 minutes) and made all the affected patrons happy!

Back to the case of the Iowa caucus. It started with a simple coding issue. Usually, not a problem. That is until you add in the backup plan failing. After the backup plan failed, apparently there wasn't a well thought out plan. Then the chaos started, followed by a media firestorm!

When it comes to technology, especially with critical cogs like your event ticketing, prepare for the worst! Have a backup plan for your backup plan. Especially with onsite ticketing issues.

Do you have contingencies in place for when your on-site ticketing system goes down?

Play through a variety of scenarios. Such scenarios can be an online-only ticketing issue, ticket scanning issues, or a combination of both.

Also, have you practiced all your contingency plans?

Practice execution of all your backup plans with your team members. It's not enough to have a great backup plan or series of backup plans. I've seen some of the most magnificent backup plans fail, not because they weren't great, but because of an inability to execute the plan.

Be prepared and practice!

Check out the links below:

• Event Marketing: Do You have an Online Champion for Your Event?
• A Great Customer Service Example
• Business Problems and Customer Service
• Your Event Web Site as a Customer Service Portal

Advertisers, ad agencies, ad sales reps and graphix designers don't want you to know the following ...

99% of them are terrified of direct response marketing (directly linking an advertisement or marketing piece to dollars in your bank account).

Why?

"Without data, you're just another person with an opinion." -W. Edwards Deming

If agencies or graphix designers are the ones doing the work and the results aren't where they need to be, quantifiable results hold them accountable. When you bother to measure: emotions, feelings, and opinions are judiciously set aside.

In many cases ad agencies and graphix designers don't want to measure the effectiveness of their advertising and marketing. This makes them very uncomfortable and it's to your advantage.

You need to have a system in place that ties in action to results. When you have data and results on your side, you can drive hard bargains with advertisers and marketers. It's the ultimate form of advertising negotiation.

Don't be afraid to ask agencies the questions and make them prove their worth. Using direct response marketing tools gives you that power!

When you know your numbers, you are in complete control of your advertising and marketing outcomes.

That means you can walk into a room and confidently state, "I know what advertising works and what doesn't, and exactly what I can afford to pay. Here's what I'm willing to invest in this and here is the expected result."

If you don't have your numbers down pat, get on it, and start negotiating the ad deals you deserve! And don't be shy in saying, "We only pay for results!"

Use direct response marketing for your event and only pay for results. Check out the links below:

• Simple Event Advertising Tracking with Google Analytics
• Measuring Advertising Effectiveness
• An Important Event Web Site Statistic for Promoters and Event Planners
• Did You Buy a Snickers Bar Yet?
• Hold Your Event Marketing Accountable!

During a recent telephone conversation, a friend shared some unfortunate news about his business. My friend had been banned from advertising on Facebook.

When I asked, "what happened?" His response was, "we have no idea. Facebook just banned us from using its ad platform. There was absolutely no warning or notice!"

Even Facebook ad experts were perplexed. In one expert's opinion (someone who manages up to $30K USD of daily Facebook ad spend), "I can't see anything in their ads that get close to violating Facebook's policies."

As context. My friend has been advertising on Facebook for years. Last year alone, he spent over 150,000 USD on Facebook ads. Additionally, his business' Facebook page has 100,000+ page likes. The company's customer service and product reviews are nothing short of exemplary.

What happened above isn't limited to Facebook. It's happened on Google and numerous other advertising platforms. Often with little to no warning.

Just last year, an event client had their Google Ads turned off after missing a single obscure email. It took months and over 10 hours on the phone to restore their ads.

Yes, I am trying to scare you with the above stories. My hope is that you never get your ads banned. With that stated, allow me to ask you the following question. Much like investing, "do you have a diversified advertising and marketing portfolio?"

If you and your team haven't given the above question a few minutes of discussion, please reconsider. Be ready to diversify on the fly!

Fortunately, my friend, who was banned from advertising on Facebook, had advertising contingencies in place. As a result, he's still looking at the possibility of a new gross online revenue record.

Here are some additional event promotion tips on Facebook and using social media:

• Do You Make These Social Media Mistakes with Your Event?
• Measuring Your Social Media Event Promotion Efforts
• How to Leverage Facebook and Your Event Marketing
• Beware of the "Social Media" Event SMACKDOWN!
• Social Media, Your Event Marketing, and "Insider Info" . . .
• Social Media Comments and Your Event
• The Downside of Promoting Your Event with Social Media

If you watched the Super Bowl on Sunday, there is no doubt that you caught some of the commercials. Some companies paid up to $5.6 MM USD for a 30-second spot.

With the above said, if you had USD 6 million to spend on a 30-second Super Bowl ad that reached over 100 million people in one shot, would you do it?

To the best of my knowledge, there are no single Super Bowl commercials that have lead to a company to fame and long term fortune. Specifically, direct revenue dollars generated from a single advertisement.

If you're aware of a one-shot super successful Super Bowl ad, feel free to let me know.

Here's the direct opposite of a single 30-second advertisement to the masses ...

Last year, an outdoor event spread their advertising and marketing efforts over 576 touchpoints. Most of those promotion efforts were in the form of online campaigns. Ultimately, those 576 touchpoints lead to $6MM of ticket revenue.

If you're going to spend your hard-earned ad dollars, break up how and where you spend those dollars and cents.

Years ago, I sent a struggling event organizer an overview of my marquee service. At the time, the organization ran a million-dollar-plus annual event and was almost bankrupt. To say that the future looked bleak was an understatement.

Here's an excerpt of marketing copy that evidently irritated my future client ...

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START OF MARKETING COPY EXCERPT
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Now I'm going to be candid with you. The "scammers" out there who promise people insane results annoy me to no end! The proven system you're about to learn IS NOT a magic pill. You WON'T become a millionaire overnight or sell out your event in 10 seconds. If you're looking for a last-minute miracle for your event - please look elsewhere.

Sorry to disappoint you ... but it's the truth. In short, you can get some extraordinary results, but you're going to have to work at it. But please remember, I'm here to help you each step of the way!

The system is specifically designed event organizers who want to be proactive and maximize their advance ticket sales, plus supercharge the effectiveness of their advertising campaign. What do I mean by pro-active?

In short, people who take the information they LEARN and put it into ACTION.

Again - Let me be VERY DIRECT here - if you or your team are NOT good at implementation and really good at second-guessing, this training IS NOT for you!

If you have a vendor, Board member, or team member who's going to second guess the recommendations and results of over $11,000,000 of event tickets sales, this program is NOT for your show. Some people would classify that as egotistical and I'm ok with that.

To be brutally honest, I have ZERO TOLERANCE for people with lots of opinions and ZERO experience or quantifiable results. That said, I'm happy to learn from people who have produced similar results.

Also, this isn't a magic bullet or some B.S. "get rich quick" scheme. What you will learn takes time and dedication. You'll need to stick with the course outline and take action steps. The good news is that I'm here to guide you on each step of the journey.

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END OF MARKETING COPY EXCERPT
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After reading through my materials and a few telephone calls, some people within the organization classified me as an "egotistical lecturous a-hole who talks too much." (At least one part of the previous description is spot on!)

I'm not sure if it was an act of desperation or reluctance, but the organization signed on as a client.

It is with great elation to report that the client has turned their fortunes around! They now have a robust six-figure reserve in their bank account. Yes, there is still work to be done and it's not all peaches and cream.

If there is one powerful (seemingly over simplistic) quote to sum up the client's journey, it is this:

"Watch what everyone else does – do the opposite. The majority is always wrong." -Earl Nightingale

To the client's credit, they embarked on a journey that involved radically changing the pricing, marketing, and advertising of their event. All things they were extremely reluctant to do when they were broke.

When faced with financial desperation, dare to be different! When it comes to marketing and advertising your event, look at what other event organizers are doing and "do the opposite!"