Seth Godin: "Why we prefer live"

Recently read on Seth Godin's blog:

There are at least three reasons why someone might pay five or ten or a hundred times more to see a concert than the CD costs (not to mention the value difference: you can listen to the download again and again but the live gig is gone forever):

• There are people around you, fellow travelers, magnetic energy, shared joy.
• Something might go wrong. The artist is like a tightrope walker, taking big chances and the drama it creates is engrossing.
• You might be surprised. Something new and wonderful might happen and it might jar you awake.

And yet, people in the 'live' business--restaurants, people doing presentations, the concierge at the hotel--often work hard to avoid getting anywhere near any of the three.

On music, baseball, and branding

Here's a really interesting blog post about music and branding in baseball: "What My First Kiss Taught Me About Branding". Some highlights:

During my time in baseball, I was responsible for the audio in the park. I was the guy who played all the music before and during the game, all the sound effects and cheers in between. A common practice was labeling certain events with audio. While with the Padres, the at-bat song for a player was all the rage; it was a brand builder for a player. In 1998 we introduced “Hells Bells” as the music when closer Trevor Hoffman entered the game. Within a matter of months, it became one of the most recognizable sports/audio branding moments. It led to a slew of other closers utilizing a song to come into a game, including Joe Nathan, closer for the Minnesota Twins, using “Stand Up and Shout” from the film Rock Star.

I made sure that every single time the Padres (and in later years the River Cats) hit a home run, the exact same song was played as the batter rounded the bases: Land Of 1,000 Dances by Wilson Pickett.

...There are certain moments in our lives that have a very specific soundtrack. Like a visual brand, the audio identifies the event. Every time you hear that song, or that sound effect, nostalgia hits you like a kick in the shin, reminding you of everything about that event.

...There are several parts of a game that have a soundtrack: foul balls, cheers, player intros. . .and home runs. The reason a home run has a single audio identifier is to associate the audio with something great. This has two benefits to it. First, the crowd associates the song with the event. So whether you’re in the stands, at the concession, or in the restroom, when you hear the song, you know exactly what has happened. Second, the song becomes nostalgic outside the sporting event. To this day, I cannot hear Land of 1,000 Dances or Hell’s Bells without mentally drifting back to warm summer nights at the ballpark. I make sure I have something cold on those warm summer nights. Then I drift. . . To this day, eight years since I have worked a Padres baseball game, I can still recount the events of a game based on audio alone...

Read the entire post...

Statistics, attendance, marketing and the Cleveland Indians

From Bloomberg.com:

Using statistical analysis of ticket purchases to understand the preferences and price limits of their fans, the [Cleveland] Indians learned that fireworks after a game draw an additional 4,000 fans; every one-degree temperature drop below 70 Fahrenheit costs them 300; and when the New York Yankees come to town, attendance jumps 11,000.

The Major League Baseball club is at the forefront of using statistical analysis to design pricing. The team says its plan will increase ticket revenue 5 percent this season...

“The goal was to do a better job figuring out what people were willing to pay for their product,” said Vince Gennaro, 57, a Purchase, New York-based consultant who managed the research project. “Where could we add value to convince them to make the purchase or decrease the price where demand is lower?”

...

Gennaro, author of “Diamond Dollar$: The Economics of Winning in Baseball,” analyzed three years of Indians sales data. He correlated factors like attendance, no-shows and walk-up sales with weather, promotions, the team’s record and the school calendar to determine what isolated events contributed to purchases.

He then asked more than 200 people in focus groups to rate their preferences. Would they rather watch the Indians play the Kansas City Royals during the warm days of July or the Boston Red Sox on cold, windy day in April? Would a bobblehead-doll promotion matter?

Lastly, the team researched the secondary ticket market to see which games drew more than face value.

...

The Indians’ research revealed that when children are on summer break, attendance increases 1,200; if rain is in the forecast, it falls 2,200; a bobblehead-doll giveaway brings in 4,700 people; and any promotion involving centerfielder Grady Sizemore, an All-Star three of his five seasons, increases attendance by 6,600.

...

The Indians came up with a four-tiered ticket plan that lowered prices to fill empty seats and increased prices when demand was high.

Promotions, like giveaways and fireworks, and season-ticket campaigns were then designed to increase what fans in each of the pricing plans were demanding most.

The biggest discounts are during weekday games in April and May, when the weather can get cold and rainy, children are in school and other sports are still in season. Ticket prices for seats in the park’s lower bowl were cut by as much as 50 percent.

Read the entire article...

(via GameOps.com)

Blackhawks get a new theme song

The Chicago Blackhawks have a new theme song, written by Al Jourgensen of Ministry. You can listen to the track on MySpace.

(I still prefer "Here Come The Hawks".)

"Last fall, as the buzz began to build around the new, young Blackhawks team, Jourgensen decided he wanted to add to the momentum. In his studios rehearsing for their farewell tour, Al picked up on a guitar riff that hadn’t made his final album and started building what would become “Keys to the City,” a sports rock anthem that he presented as a gift to the Wirtz family and the Chicago Blackhawks in December of 2007. The Blackhawks have since embraced the song as a great opportunity to reach out to a new generation of Blackhawks fans; a worthy companion to the team’s official theme song, “Here Come The Hawks.”

...

Keys to the City
Though containing trademark intensity and guitar riffs, “Keys to the City” is less a traditional Ministry song, but more a classic sports anthem in structure. Built around a drum/bass line that recalls Garry Glitter’s “Rock n’ Roll Pt 2,” the song is a rallying cry for Blackhawk fans. Name checking the past Hawk greats like Hull, Mikita, Esposito and Savard, the song celebrates the resurgence of the Blackhawks and the quest to bring home the Stanley Cup to Chicago. It is already popular among the young Blackhawks players upon which the team is building its future championships.

Keys To The City

A song for the Chicago Blackhawks

Written By: Al Jourgensen, Josh Bradford, Paul Raven
Performed by: Ministry & Co-Conspirators
2007 13th Planet Music, Inc. P 2007 13th Planet Records, Inc.

Let’s Go Black Hawks! 3X
Want to Rock Want to Rock Want to Rock! 3X

Verse One
If you’re a Black Hawk you skate with pride
So many legends have played for our side
Mikita! Hull! Esposito! Savard!
To name a few, that’s why we play so hard
Want to Rock Want to Rock Want to Rock 3X

CHORUS ONE
We’re gonna get the Keys To The City
Gonna give it all in every game
We’re gonna get the Keys To The City
I want to hear you scream our name

“Let’s Go! Black Hawks!”
“Let’s Go! Black Hawks!”

Verse Two
Our players bleed Red, White and Black
We play for the Crest, and not the name on the back
The best fans in the NHL
United Center – it’s time to raise hell!
Want to Rock Want to Rock Want to Rock 3X

CHORUS TWO
We’re gonna get the Keys To The City
Win the Cup and have a big parade!
We’ll bring the Cup back home to Chicago
Show them all how real hockey is played……real hockey is played

“Let’s Go! Black Hawks!” Fighta Fighta Fighta
“Let’s Go! Black Hawks!” Skate-a Skate-a Skate-a
“Let’s Go Black Hawks!” Oh What A Team 2X

CHORUS ONE
CHORUS TWO – 3X

(via CC / The Daily Swarm)

Ads on jersey, ads on rinkboards & more

Interesting article today in the Toronto Star about in-arena advertising in the National Hockey League: Is this the NHL's new look? Some highlights:

• "...several NHL goalies have asked the league and its players union to consider starting a so-called Goaltender's Club. Revenue-generating initiatives for the club could include placing a corporate logo on the jerseys of the league's 60-odd goalies... on-uniform ads might generate upwards of $30 million a season for the NHL."
  
  
• "One proposal shows Roloson's blue and orange team jersey with a small Rexall logo above the Oilers symbol. The drugstore chain's symbol could also be "sublimated (dyed right into the fabric) on a portion of the sleeve." A second proposal depicts Brodeur's Red Devils jersey. The team's NJ on the chest is positioned above a large tag for the bank UBS and adjacent to an RBC logo. Bank Morgan Stanley's symbol could be featured on the goalie's sleeves and shoulders. A third proposal shows Detroit goalie Hasek's red jersey, again with the Red Wings' logo front and centre above the larger symbol of insurance company AIG. The company's logo could also be displayed on the sleeves and on the bottom of the jersey's back. The presentation also suggests goalies be allowed to choose the jersey's colour and depicts Hasek's in black, blue, green and white styles."

• "(Ritch) Winter has already been involved with one effort to narrow the gap between uniforms and ads. When he represented goalie Grant Fuhr, then with the Edmonton Oilers, Winter reached an agreement for Fuhr to receive $50,000 from soft-drink maker Pepsi in exchange for wearing a pair of pads that had been fashioned to resemble a blue, red and white Pepsi can in the 1989 All-Star Game. Former NHL president John Ziegler scotched that effort."

• "The introduction of ads on arena rink boards in the late 1970s was a turning point for the NHL's ties to corporate North America, say several sports-sponsorship experts. Some 55 years after the six hockey teams banded together to create the NHL, in 1972 The Gillette Co. wanted to build awareness for its new, twin-blade razor, the Trac 2. Gillette agreed to pay about $10,000 to place a five-metre-wide ad on the boards at centre ice in the Moscow arena where Paul Henderson and Team Canada would make history against their Soviet rivals. "

• "It wasn't long before NHL owners were debating whether they should follow suit. The Minnesota North Stars were the first franchise to debut rink board ads. The team sold eight pairs at $3,000 a pair. Throughout the 1980s, more ads on rink boards began to sprout in NHL arenas."
  

• "Not everyone embraced the idea. In 1980, CBS televised a hockey game at Madison Square Garden in New York and refused to show any of the rink-board ads. Whenever players skated near the ads, the camera focused on the players' skates, gambling the puck would appear in the picture."
  

• "There are also subtle ways to spur revenue. A year ago, the NHL ordered rink-board ads, which sell for as much as $600,000 a pair for a season, to be reduced in width from 3.6 to 3.2 metres, so the league could squeeze more ads in rinks, says Toronto sports marketer Bob Stellick, a former Maple Leafs marketing executive."

• "To be sure, the NHL is far from the first league to face challenges and criticism as it builds closer ties to its corporate supporters. In 1998, organizers of the Rose Bowl began selling naming rights to the historic college football game when it struck a deal with AT&T. And NASCAR has turned itself into a marketing juggernaut thanks to its racing teams' seamless ties to team sponsors.

• "Even on-uniform ads have become more commonplace. On Jan. 24, 1976, at a soccer stadium in the middle-class English city of Kettering, an otherwise unremarkable band of players trudged onto the field straight into history books. Wearing red tops with long white sleeves and lettering that read "Kettering Tyres" across the front, the Kettering Town Poppies became the first in British soccer history to compete in a pro game wearing jerseys emblazoned with a sponsor's logo."

• Read the entire article...
  

Forbes magazine on America's top sports mascots

Check out this article from Forbes about mascots and sports marketing. Some highlights:

• "What started out as a gimmick to entertain fans during breaks in the action has become an ultra-important component for major- and minor-league sports teams looking to market at the grass roots by nabbing new fans at increasingly earlier ages."

• "According to market researcher The Marketing Arm, original, modern mascots like the Chicken and the Philadelphia Phillies' Phillie Phanatic score the most recognition and resonance with fans ... Other mascots that scored highly on The Marketing Arm's Davie-Brown Index are Mr. Met (New York Mets), the Racing Sausages (Milwaukee Brewers) and Sourdough Sam (San Francisco 49ers). A common theme among the most popular: All are kid-friendly."

• "Rare nowadays is the vicious-looking tiger, or the fierce, non-politically-correct "Indian" wielding a tomahawk. Mean and scary is out, warm and fuzzy is in--all the better to warm youngsters' hearts. Bring a second-grader to a football or baseball game, and there's little chance he'll understand what's going on down on the field. But that muppet-like dinosaur or blue horse roaming the stands will draw his attention immediately. It's what will stay in his memory long after the game is over, all but ensuring an upbeat first impression. Presto: a fan for life."

• In addition to helping secure kids' allegiances, clubs utilize mascots to keep their images up in the local community. The Dallas Cowboys' Rowdy (a cowboy guy) and Chicago Bulls' Benny, both of whom made the Davie-Brown most-recognized list, are just two of the many mascots who represent teams at local hospitals, store openings and other assorted events."
  

(via GameOps.com)