Goldstar
The value is in the mailing list.
Let me make this simple. It doesn’t matter what the price of the event is if nobody knows about it.
So I’m having dinner with a promoter last night. And he’s telling me about this gig, multiple nights, tens of thousands of seats, and that he made a deal with Goldstar up front. Not when he was desperate, not when tickets were not selling, but as part of his overall marketing/sales plan.
But doesn’t Goldstar cheapen the experience? Of both the performer and the viewer?
This is where we get back to the question of properly pricing your event. We’ve got a plethora of overpriced shows paid for by promoters who need to fill their buildings. Prices go up, demand falters and somehow it’s the public’s fault. So what do we do?
Reasonable people would say to lower the price.
Still, in the modern world, it’s hard to get the word out.
So this promoter asks me, have I heard of PaleyFest?
I had to admit I had no clue. Was it William Paley? Or the writer Grace Paley? Did I even hear him right, did he really say "Paley"?
Now this gentleman is not unsophisticated. He’s the picture of worldly. But he too had no clue what PaleyFest was.
But from the weekly Goldstar e-mail, the company he just made a deal with, he bought a ticket to PaleyFest at the Wilshire Theatre.
And what was playing?
Jimmy Fallon.
Turns out PaleyFest is all about revealing the inner workings of TV shows to the public. And in this case, it was Jimmy Fallon and his band of merrymakers. For ten bucks on Goldstar. General admission.
My friend got a good seat and was mesmerized, as Fallon and his troops told their story, Fallon evidencing what a great comedian he is, to my friend’s taste anyway.
Now this guy’s hooked. Not only did he go to the show, he became a fan, he records Fallon every night.
Think about this.
Goldstar is reaching people no one else can. Yes, the enticement is a discount. But if you’re on the list, you’re also looking to go out. And you’ll take a chance. No one takes a chance for a hundred bucks at the shed. You want a guarantee that the band will play all their hits and sound just like the record. Improvisation is out. New material is out. You’re in for too much money. But if you’re in for less, you’re open to something new.
So let’s dial back.
If you advertise on TV, you still won’t reach everybody. Check the shares. Cable channels can have 100,000 people watching. And in a country of 300 million, a network hit reaches somewhere between 10 and 20 million. People fall through the cracks.
Concomitantly, it’s not about mainstream entertainment. Your niche act can carve out a profitable business. If it can find an audience.
That’s what Goldstar does.
Now I’m not on the payroll. And I still think tickets should be priced right from the get-go. But the dude who runs the company is right. He’s targeting people who wouldn’t go to the show anyway, who wouldn’t know about it. Are there some schnorrers, just looking for a deal? Sure. Then again, these are not hard core fans. Hard core fans need to be up close and personal, they want the best seats. These are people just interested in being inside the building.
Everything is changing. We no longer live in a top down society. There are a zillion fiefdoms. How do you connect them?
You have to know who your audience is. You have to gain their trust. You can’t spam them. They have to feel like they’re getting a benefit.
In other words, e-mail me every day telling me to buy and I’m out.
E-mail me once a week and I buy infrequently and I’m staying in.
With it so hard to reach people marketers are banging the heads of those whose attention they’ve got. And this repetition pisses people off. Like Hollywood hype. Is Rob Lowe EVERYWHERE this week? If they want to sell something, it’s a scorched earth policy, making me want to withhold my money just to mess with them. You don’t want this relationship with your audience, you want TRUST!
