This post is for both sharing how the world of venue marketing works, in addition to sharing techniques and strategies that I found performed best.
Introduction
If you are an artist setting out on a tour, or a marketer who is working directly with a venue marketing team to promote a show, it is sometimes helpful to understand the world of venue marketing. Having continued communication between the promoter of a show and the venue marketing team provides a smooth on sale and closing (the few days leading up to the date of the show). Overall, venue marketers oversee a budget allocated towards a specific show. They also oversee the marketing opportunities that are maintained internally. They know their market best so they usually have a good idea of what to spend and where, based on the demographic of the show. For example, Disney On Ice is a family show, so working with local family blogs and libraries would be a great way to reach parents most likely to buy tickets. Below lists all of the free marketing opportunities a venue marketer may utilize to promote an upcoming show.
Venue Digital Signage
This is the simplest option because it requires no cost to the show. For example, a venue may have external LED screens, a marque, or printed posters. Additionally, a venue most likely has internal signage (printed or LED screens).
External signage/marque: this signage is great for promoting a show to the general public. This form of marketing may involve adding an upcoming show to printed posters (usually located in “shadow boxes”), on LED signs, or on a marquee. Because this space is limited, the venue may include only a handful of the shows that are closest to “playing off” (occurring). Sometimes, a venue may rotate posters or signage based on the demographic or genre of show that is occurring that night. This requires a little extra effort, but can be used to really pinpoint the audience that may be most likely to purchase tickets to the show.
Internal signage: this signage is great for promoting similar genre shows to the audience in the building at that time. For example, a venue may wish to promote a REO Speedwagon show to an audience seeing a Journey or Styx show. There is a lot of assumption that leads to this type of targeted marketing, so sometimes promoting a schedule of upcoming events versus individual events may yield better results. Types of signage that may be created include standees or floor banners (since they are portable and can be placed in areas where most people congregate), table top tents on bar counters or on restaurant tables (when applicable), shadow boxes (backlit boxes that house larger printed posters), and TV or LED screens.
Venue Email Lists
Most venues have their own email lists that they build using both ticket purchaser data and those who have subscribed to their email list. I won’t go into the technical details about the software that is used, but these lists are extremely valuable because they can be highly targeted based on geographic location or previous purchases. Further, there is no cost for using this type of marketing because it is something the building maintains and utilizes in-house. An email cadence is usually set up by the venue, which includes an email sent promoting the presale, a follow-up email promoting the on-sale, a general newsletter promoting the venue’s upcoming calendar, and any available offers/discounts. The latter is sometimes used to take advantage of a holiday (i.e. “Black Friday Ticket Offer”) or used as a final attempt to sell a large amount of tickets if a show isn’t selling well. Further, these lists are used to send day-of-show “What To Know” emails to those who have purchased tickets (see below for details regarding day-of-show information). These emails can also be used to promote upcoming shows by listing a handful of events at the bottom or throughout.
Venue Social Media Channels
This is another valuable piece of real estate; however, it should be used sparingly to promote individual shows. A lot of venues are trying to find the balance between using their socials to “sell” and using them to “connect.” If you are scrolling on Instagram, you wouldn’t want to continue seeing sales pitches for tickets from the same account. You would likely want to see a variety of content; therefore, speaking strictly from a venue marketer perspective, try to be creative on how you subliminally promote your upcoming events, while providing value (comedic, news, etc.) to your followers. A few types of campaigns include:
– Scavenger hunts: because your followers most likely live within the surrounding area, hiding a pair of tickets somewhere and sharing clues via your socials is a great way to create buzz and provide an interactive experience. You could work closely with a local establishment that would hold onto the tickets until someone “finds” them. You could also work closely with this establishment to provide the winner a “package” (i.e. dinner and a show). There are many ways to be creative while providing some love to any local businesses that have supported the venue in the past.
– Posts that elicit a response: this is a great way to encourage follower engagement. For example, to promote an upcoming show, you could ask your followers a trivia question alongside a photo of the artist (provided by the artist’s team) or anything related to the question. This could include asking how many hours your followers think it will take for the stage to be built, asking how many GRAMMYS an artist has won, etc. A few days later, you could return to the post to provide the answer, or you could post the answer as another in-feed post or via Stories. Further, you could turn this trivia question into a ticket giveaway and provide a pair of tickets to a winner chosen at random or the winner that comments the correct answer first.
– Day-of-show details: a lot of venues use social media to share pertinent day-of-show details. For example, when doors open, anything unique to the show (i.e. items that are usually allowed into the venue that are not allowed into the venue for this specific show), exciting partnerships that an upcoming show will be bringing (i.e. a “green” initiative that encourages fans to bring their own refillable water bottle to the show), etc. I find myself visiting a venue’s Instagram account or Facebook page to find out when the show will start, in addition to the set times (everyone loves knowing the latter!).
Artists’ Social Media Channels
Now, turning to the other side: the artists’ social media channels. Many artists and artists’ teams rely heavily on the venue’s social media channels to promote their upcoming shows. However, there are times when the artists themselves don’t post at all about their upcoming tour. In addition to venues and promoters working together, artists must also support their tour. Throughout the tour, artists could post their “journey” that includes local places they’ve visited, photos of excited fans at their show, etc. This way, it continues to build the excitement surrounding the tour, while not always appearing to be a sales pitch for tickets. At the end of the day, everyone who follows an artists is a fan of that artist. Conversely, everyone who follows a venue isn’t always a fan of the artist/show being promoted.
Venue Loyalty Programs
I am writing this section not based on experience, but as a suggestion. Since there is a high cost associated with this type of program (building the infrastructure to maintain a separate databased of members), it may not make the most sense. However, tracking customers’ actions, such as the concessions they buy and the shows they see, is invaluable. If you are able to provide a customer with a free soda after purchasing five sodas or free parking after purchasing ten tickets, it will further reinforce your relationship with that customer and will most likely strengthen the customer’s relationship with your venue.
Local Partnerships
Because a venue is usually situated in a large town or city, there are many available opportunities to build relationships with local establishments. I covered this briefly above; however, in general, these partnerships can really help secure a wide radius of physical marketing. For example, providing local hotels and restaurants with current marketing materials can help further promote your venue’s schedule of upcoming events. These materials may include: posters for bulletin boards or windows, brochures, flyers, etc. In return for these establishments distributing or displaying these materials, you could provide their staff with free tickets every now and again. One thing to remember is that they don’t HAVE to promote your events; therefore, any additional incentive you can provide will make them more willing to continue to advertise your upcoming shows.
– Local radio stations: I decided to create a separate section for radio stations because it varies based on the size of venue and the calendar of upcoming events. For example, a large arena or stadium may easily develop relationships with local radio station DJs due to the size of the events and caliber of artists these venues draw. Alternatively, smaller clubs may not be able to establish deep-rooted relationships with radio station DJs; however, they could always start with reaching out and offering to provide tickets for an on-air giveaway. The latter may have a cost associated; whereas, larger venues that spend a large annual budget on radio advertisements, may not necessarily incur a cost due to the support it provides the station. Overall, the importance of radio advertising is still apparent and it would behoove you to generate these relationships for additional promotion.
– Local blogs and influencers: this is different to physical establishments because the owners of these blogs are usually grouped into the “press list” that contains people who are approved to attend and review the show (when applicable). As mentioned at the very beginning of this article, if you have an upcoming family show, reaching out to local bloggers that maintain websites that list local upcoming events would be a great way to promote the show. This may include cold outreach, asking whether they would like to attend and review the show for free, or receive a pair of tickets to give away to a lucky fan. A majority of these blogs also maintain their own social media channels and email lists, so a giveaway would be a great opportunity to tap into both their social media audience and their email subscribers.
Press List
As mentioned above, the press list can include local bloggers. Additionally, it can include local media (TV, news, and radio stations). This is usually the case for larger venues that host high profile concerts in which the community wants to report. Overall, a venue continues to build its press list and secures local outreach via email based on the upcoming event. Like with the local blogger outreach, an invitation to attend and review the show is shared via email. The recipient will then respond if they would like to attend, including the attendee’s respective name and contact phone number. Once a list of interested media partners is complied, it is sent to the artist’s publicist who reviews and approves the included outlets. There are times when the publicist refuses one or many outlets. This is either based on a maximum number of outlets usually approved to cover their specific shows, or based on the outlet’s specialty or size of following. For example, a hard rock blog will most likely not be approved to attend and review a Maroon 5 concert. Further, localized/smaller blogs may not always be approved to cover larger artists’ shows because these publicists may only be willing to approve national outlets, such as Billboard.
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