Ticketing Ideas

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Ticketing Ideas

• Presented by
• Dan Migala, Publisher
• The Migala Report
• Dan_at_migalareport.com
• 312-932-4002

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• It's alright to be Goliath, but always act like
  David.
• Phil Knight, Chairman, Nike

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Ticket sales

• Proven unique ticket sales ideas
• Dallas Stars
• Anaheim Angels
• Kansas City Royals
• Chicago Bulls
• Toronto Blue Jays
• Detroit Fury
• Columbus Crew
• Tampa Bay Lightning
• Jacksonville Jaguars
• Do Not Call
• New Orleans Saints
• Renewal ideas

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• If something is too good to be true, it probably
  is.
• My dad (and probably yours!)
• Sometimes something that seems too good to be
  true turns out to be fact.
• - Dallas Stars fans

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New Opportunities

• Dallas Stars campaign
• Create new Stars fans
• Increase ticket sales
• Develop marketing database
• Do it on the cheap

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New Opportunities

• Dallas Stars campaign
• E-mail chain letter sent from employees to at
  least 10 friends/family members
• Letter gave fans free tickets at eight-games this
  fall on first-come, first-served basis
• Incentives for employees whose original e-mails
  triggered the most responses receive prizes

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New Opportunities

• Dallas Stars campaign
• Results
• 48,000 registrants
• Not everyone will get free tickets but everyone
  will get discounts
• Community goodwill
• Ticket cost is minimal compared to cost of
  creating marketing database

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New opportunities

• Dallas Stars campaign
• I dont know of any other team thats done this
  viral e-mail campaign. It is obvious that we not
  only discovered something interesting here but a
  very effective sales tool.
• Bryan Perez, EVP Marketing, Dallas Stars

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Knock, knock

• Anaheim Angels
• Sell ticket booklets door-to-door with coupons
  and tickets
• Booklet contains two clubs tickets and 15 buy one
  get one free tickets for 25
• Paired fast food restaurant with the offer
• Goal was 5,000 booklets
• Sold 10,000 booklets sold

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Knock, knock

• Anaheim Angels
• Most of these fans would never have purchased
  club-level tickets and this is a great way to
  reach them one-on-one. In todays market you need
  to be aggressive and this is like having an
  outside sales department because it is that
  effective.
• Steve Shiffman, Director of Ticket Sales, Anaheim
  Angels

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Happy meal

• Kansas City Royals
• Kids Eat Free on Sundays
• Discontinued family discount ticket packs
• Averaged 1,500 child tickets per Sunday in 2002
• Full priced child tickets with voucher for free
  food
• Averaged 5,000 concessionaire vouchers redeemed

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Happy meal

• Kansas City Royals
• Its all about communicating a consistent
  message to fans. We have so many games and so
  many offers on what is available that our
  expectation is that it will be very effective to
  brand Sundays as kid days.
• Kim Hillix, Director of Promotions, Kansas City
  Royals

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Cause marketing

• Chicago Bulls
• Charitable tie-in program for tickets to be sold
  to charity at 50 discount
• Minimum of 100 tickets must be reserved by
  charity
• Purchase up to 2,000 tickets per organization
• Sold 8,000 tickets to date this year
• Sell them on limited basis to lower-demand games

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Cause marketing

• Chicago Bulls
• As a fund-raising vehicle, it is a very
  effective programs because the groups can sell
  candy bars and make 50 cents each or they can
  sell Bulls tickets and make up to 21 each. For
  us, it helps generate ticket sales and further
  our stance in the community.
• Keith Brown, Senior Director of Sales, Chicago
  Bulls

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Make it easy

• Toronto Blue Jays
• Direct withdrawal from payroll for tickets on
  group discount basis
• Sold 900 new multi-game accounts in 2003
• Tested the program on 20 companies and converted
  at least 10 percent of their employees

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Make it easy

• I think every team should look to something like
  this because it makes sense for all parties. The
  payroll deduction makes a huge difference in our
  plans to participation in this program because it
  makes it not only makes it easier for our
  employees to participate, but it allows us
  something unique to offer them in a tough
  economy.
• Jim Ouellette, GM, Trail Mobile Canada

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Everyones a salesman

• Tampa Bay Lightning
• Sold an additional 2 million in tickets from
  non-sales staff
• Increased ticket sales by 28 percent
• Pulled back on complimentary tickets for staff
  and encouraged all staff to sell tickets to
  friends, colleagues, co-workers.

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Everyones a salesman

• The days of any team employees thinking of
  themselves as a non-sales person are over.
  Everyone needs to increase ticket sales and who
  better than our employees who live and breathe
  Lightning hockey and can talk confidentially and
  sincerely about it in the community.
• Michael Yormark, Former CMO, Tampa Bay Lightning

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Listen, listen, listen

• Jacksonville Jaguars
• Listened to their customers and created
  customized payment plan after losing 10,000
  season ticket holders
• Followed cable billing system that allows
  budget-strapped fans to get season tickets for
  20 per month
• Signed 5,000 new accounts

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Listen, listen, listen

• Jacksonville Jaguars
• Consumers are already trained to buy washing
  machines on monthly payment plans and those are
  purchases that are comparative investments to
  season tickets on a price-level and family
  decision standpoint. It only makes sense that
  consumers would do the same when they made the
  decision to purchase season tickets.
• Dan Connell, SVP Sales/Marketing, Jacksonville
  Jaguars

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School of thought

• Detroit Fury
• Sold 5,000 tickets through tug-of-war campaigns
  with area high school football games
• Schools sold 100 tickets to qualify to enter
  halftime contests
• 14 tickets and school receives 5

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School of thought

• Detroit Fury
• Our players have so much more interest in
  selling tickets to a game to see them compete at
  halftime because it is something that they
  believe in a lot more than selling baked goods.
• Al Farcazza, Coach, Brother Rice High School

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Stay up late

• Be a night owl
• Selling tickets on the Web is all about
  conveniences. You have to target people during
  their quiet time and subliminally it make sense
  to do this at night when theres no distractions
  and they can do it from their computer.
• -Steve Gliner, VP/GM, Hudson Valley Renegades

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Stay up late

• Be a night owl
• Hudson Valley Renegades
• 33 of online tickets sold between midnight and
  600 a.m.
• Reading Phillies
• 14,000 tickets sold online between midnight and
  600 a.m.

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Stay up late

• Time of day is not something that a lot of
  marketers think of. Its very savvy and
  intelligent marketing to try to grow sales
  overnight.
• John Myers, Vice President of eTix

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Renewals

• Columbus Crew
• Penalty renewal offer
• Tie the gameday experience to the renewal
• Renewal rates were higher and earlier as a result

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Renewals

• Columbus Crew
• You have to be creative if you are going to get
  their attention. Theres always going to be a few
  customers who could slip through the cracks that
  offers like this can catch.
• Jim Smith, President, Columbus Crew

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Renewals

• Charleston RiverDogs
• Season ticket holder concierge
• Staff member continually loops through calls to
  check in with season ticket holders to service
  their extra needs
• ex having the mascot come to their seats,
  getting an extra giveaway item, etc.

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Renewals

• Charleston RiverDogs
• Season tickets are all about relationships. When
  we make it a one-one relationship, theres
  another person they depend on that increases
  their renewal potential.
• Mike Veeck, President, Charleston RiverDogs

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Renewals

• Miami Heat
• Buddy Program
• Executives assigned about 20 season ticket
  holders to contact throughout the year
• Each staff member is assigned to teams and teams
  compete in renewal competitions and are rewarded
  with cash
• Directly contributed to a 25 percent higher
  renewal rate

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Renewals

• There is nothing more important than our season
  ticket holders and it has brought our entire
  organization together to humanize this, both
  internally and externally, to the importance of
  them. While at the same time, it has shown to our
  season ticket holders that there are faces behind
  their tickets and when you can call someone you
  know and get something done. That says a lot to
  the season ticket holders and they have clearly
  responded at renewal time.
• Michael McCullough, EVP Marketing, Miami Heat

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Do Not Call List

• Quick ticketing checklist to make sure your team
  is in compliance with the Federal Governments Do
  Not Call Registry

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Do Not Call List

• Who you can call
• Customers who have purchased something (ticket,
  merchandise, etc.) in the past 18 months
• Fans who have registered for a sweepstakes in the
  past three months

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Do Not Call List

• Who you cannot call
• Registered Do Not Call members who are not
  customers
• Customers who have requested to be removed off of
  your list

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Do Not Call List

• Data collection becomes more important than ever

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Do Not Call List

• New Orleans Saints
• Use high school football players to collect
  gameday attendee information
• Offer sweepstakes for trip to the Pro Bowl

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Do Not Call List

• New Orleans Saints
• Asked questions like
• Preferred seat location
• Ticket usage (business, personal, etc.)
• Generated 25,000 names (68,000 capacity) from
  first 2003 home game

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Do Not Call List

• Our sales people now have something to talk
  about when they call and their permission to
  call. The percentages that which we have
  increased our chances for a sale are
  immeasurable. -Mike Stanfield, Dir. Ticket
  Sales, New Orleans Saints

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Do Not Call List

• You do have my permission to call me for in-depth
  report on the new opportunities created by the
• Do Not Call List
• 312-932-4002
• Dan_at_migalareport.com
• www.migalareport.com

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More brainstorming ideas

• Midwest League Police ticketsIndiana
  University Season ticket holder shirtsSavannah
  Sand Gnats Apartment ticket salesReading
  Phillies Third shift gameToledo Mud Hens 48
  hour rule University of Virginia Val-Pak season
  ticket mailingLos Angeles Clippers Cruise
  tie-ins