You take a bunch of ads in the usual publications and wait for the people to book.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s how Vail Resorts ran its business, until this year, when they pulled 80% of their print budget.<\/p>\n
Wow.<\/p>\n
I don’t follow "Ad Age".\u00c2\u00a0 And I don’t think any of the people who e-mailed me this video are skiers.\u00c2\u00a0 But I wrote about Rob Katz’s Twitter response<\/a> to my frustration buying a Vail Resorts Mountain Meal Card and these "Ad Age" readers were primed, they now had a sensitivity to this executive, and when they watched this clip they forwarded it to me.<\/p>\n And that, my friend, is how you break an act today.<\/p>\n We don’t find out through the usual channels.\u00c2\u00a0 We may even miss your marketing message.\u00c2\u00a0 But someone who knows what we like, what we’re interested in, hips us to information, to music, and we check it out.<\/p>\n I already cruise enough sites, I’m not bookmarking "Ad Age".\u00c2\u00a0 But it’s on my network’s list, and I’m the beneficiary of their surfing.<\/p>\n Traditionally, ski guests booked their trips four to six months in advance.\u00c2\u00a0 Last year, it was frequently two to three weeks in advance.\u00c2\u00a0 If you blew your marketing budget months ahead of time, you were screwed.<\/p>\n In other words, the old print game no longer worked.\u00c2\u00a0 People now buy on impulse, when they have the desire.\u00c2\u00a0 They may be hunting for bargains, or maybe you get a plethora of snow and everybody wants to come at the same time and the price goes up!<\/p>\n So, all departments of your company must work together, and execute a constantly changing plan in real time.<\/p>\n Kind of like when the label rush releases an album when it leaks.<\/p>\n But more interesting are the plans set in stone based on singles breaking.\u00c2\u00a0 Then the single stiffs and…\u00c2\u00a0 There’s got to be a better way.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe you sit with a bunch of tracks in the can, and when a single hits you rush release an album that very week.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe you dribble out tracks and when you finally have a hit you package three or four at a discount price immediately.\u00c2\u00a0 You play by the consumer’s rules, not by the retailers’ rules.<\/p>\n That’s how media companies get screwed up, by worrying first and foremost about placating their old school partners.\u00c2\u00a0 Should you really worry about pre-orders when record retail is dying and only star product gets stocked anyway?\u00c2\u00a0 Shouldn’t you be driving digital sales?\u00c2\u00a0 Won’t physical take care of itself?<\/p>\n But most striking is Rob Katz’s riff on ski porn.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s those shots of expert skiers carving powder, hucking cliffs, that even makes it into commercials for other winter products.\u00c2\u00a0 This is what sells ski vacations most.\u00c2\u00a0 And this is what the Web is best for.<\/p>\n So, rather than spend old money on print, the indie radio promotion for a dying format, Vail goes directly to its consumers and puts a plethora of video on its site.<\/p>\n Unlike the record labels, who are constantly trying to withhold their product from the Web, Vail is using the low cost of the Internet to push the info people want.<\/p>\n But forget the ancient labels, what about the touring business?<\/p>\n Michael Rapino famously says 40% of tickets go unsold.<\/p>\n In other words, just like the family that has a condo is definitely going to the mountains, just like a superstar will sell out, the upside is in those who haven’t decided to come, to the ski resort, to the concert.<\/p>\n Ticketing sites should be a plethora of information.\u00c2\u00a0 You should be able to upload pix and videos of your good time at the show.\u00c2\u00a0 So surfers will want to partake, will want to be part of the good times.<\/p>\n Every show should have a video clip of the act in concert.\u00c2\u00a0 The DVD that the agency creates to close talent buyers should be available to the consumer, the end buyer.\u00c2\u00a0 Every venue should have videos of their buildings the same way you can go for a virtual tour of Vail Mountain on the ski resort’s site.\u00c2\u00a0 There should be testimonials.\u00c2\u00a0 Pix of guys winking at girls, vice versa.<\/p>\n In other words, the Web allows us to sell our product by demonstrating it, at a very low cost, but in the music business, too often the rights holders refuse.\u00c2\u00a0 And ticketing companies are so busy working out deals with acts and promoters, finagling kickbacks, that they don’t realize their true job is to sell tickets.\u00c2\u00a0 How do you make people want to come?<\/p>\n By music business standards, the "New York Times" Website would consist of a subscription form for the print edition, and nothing more.<\/p>\n Watch this video.\u00c2\u00a0 Rob Katz runs a billion dollar business.\u00c2\u00a0 And you might say you can’t steal a lift ticket online, but Vail competes against dozens and dozens of ski resorts, with nothing in common other than snow.\u00c2\u00a0 If a customer goes to Steamboat, Vail misses out, not only on lift tickets, but lodging, dining, equipment rental\/purchase, a whole eco-system.<\/p>\n Furthermore, first class ski resorts are now experimenting with discounting.\u00c2\u00a0 Not for desirable days, but when the resort is empty.\u00c2\u00a0 They’ve signed up with Liftopia<\/a>.\u00c2\u00a0 Live Nation gives tickets away at the last minute, ski resorts try to book some of that revenue during the sales window, in advance.<\/p>\n Then again, ongoing marketing is a joke in the live business.<\/p>\n Take an ad, sell the tickets.\u00c2\u00a0 After that?\u00c2\u00a0 More print ads, or nothing at all.<\/p>\n But is the public paying attention to print?<\/p>\n Where’s the Twitter feed for tickets?\u00c2\u00a0 Where are the deals?<\/p>\n Acts and promoters believe they’re entitled to the cash, and are stunned when not enough people show up.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, you’ve got to have something desirable, something good.\u00c2\u00a0 But first, you’ve got to make people aware of it.\u00c2\u00a0 Second, you’ve got to price it properly.\u00c2\u00a0 Third, the offer has to be made when the customer is ready to make a decision.\u00c2\u00a0 Which now, more than ever, is at the very last minute.<\/p>\n\n