Star Performer
Whether people are purchasing season tickets for the opera or the Knicks, they are putting out the same discretionary entertainment dollars for a leisure activity, observed Gregg Emmer, vice president, chief marketing officer for Batavia, Ohio-based Kaeser & Blair. This is one reason he tends to group sporting events in with the entertainment industry. Another factor is the rigid scheduling demands he and his colleagues experience when providing merchandise for occasions such as auto races, as well as for bands and singers on tours.
“Entertainers on tour and race car drivers following a show circuit both provide a logistical challenge—their souvenirs and promotional merchandise must travel from one venue to another just ahead of the [show]. It will essentially be 85 percent to 90 percent of what is needed for a particular venue so it sells out and there is nothing left over to transport,” explained Emmer. The upshot is, distributors have to consider the logistical issues when providing a quote. “These people are looking for [distributors] willing to work on tight schedules to make sure the goods arrive where, when and in the quantities they are supposed to,” he added.
Once established, people in the entertainment industry tend to value relationships with reliable vendors, so it can be difficult for new distributors to break into the market. “It’s important to get to know the people at ground zero,” stressed Emmer. “Distributors I know who do merchandise for a couple of racing teams just happen to know one of the racing team owners on a personal basis—the relationship is not with the various tracks, but with the actual team,” he continued. “The same is true with performers. You have to have access to—and proximity to—their headquarters and the staff there, such as publicists and other people who make the decisions. They have their arrangements in place months and months before the events start. This holds true throughout the entire entertainment industry.”
A distributor able to gain access to the headquarters for a chain of clubs can go on to establish a national program for supplying promotional products. “Even if it’s a stand-alone club and a major entity in your marketplace, it may be a nice account for some apparel, coffee mugs and bumper stickers,” said Emmer.
Of course, there are not the constantly changing venue issues when dealing with casinos, but Emmer noted the casino decision makers are not always where the properties sit. However, tracking down the right office can usually be accomplished by making a few phone calls.
“There are any number of different entities within casinos that use promotional materials. The most common are the players clubs that issue cards players insert in the machines which track their activity in the property,” he commented. “There is usually some sort of gift or premium associated with signing up for the card, such as discount dinner tickets or show tickets. More often than not, the card also comes with a promotional item like a retractable badge holder or a coiled wristband to make it more convenient to use the card.”
Although e-mail has supplanted some of the direct mailings, Emmer noted casinos still run quite a few mail campaigns, particularly when offering discount rooms and food comps. For one direct mail campaign enticing recipients to travel to the Las Vegas casinos, Kaeser & Blair supplied inflatable neck pillows. “You can come up with some very clever ideas. Casinos also like to use premium room gifts and other incentives for high-rollers. We’ve done everything from keychains to flat-screen TVs,” he said.
Well Rehearsed
Serving the entertainment industry is not an area of business for the faint of heart, cautioned Emmer. It takes a lot of knowledge and a lot of background, and those for whom promotional products are an ancillary profit center will be hard pressed to find success.
“My gut feeling is, it’s an almost impossible market for a part-time promotional products vendor to handle properly,” he said. “The demands they put on [distributors] are extreme, and the profit margins are actually very narrow—they’ll cut your throat for a nickel. [The entertainment industry] is a tough nut to crack. It takes daily focus and isn’t for someone who is doing it as an add-on to [his or her] print broker [business].”
The best bet for part-time promotional products distributors interested in the entertainment market is to keep their focus very local. This will at least increase their chances of having the proper time and ability to go face-to-face with the people actually putting the events together. “To jump on the Internet and try to find clients three and four states away or across the country ... you’ll never pull it off,” asserted Emmer.
To make the most of local opportunities, he suggested “mining data from the newspaper archive at the local library,” going back 15 or 16 months to discover cyclical events. “The people who handle these things don’t change. If you read that Mary Jones was the one heading up the summer concerts in the park series, chances are Mary Jones is doing it again this year. If she isn’t, she’ll certainly knows who is. Fourteen to 15 months has always been my sweet spot for looking back; you’ll be at the right time in the cycle for what is coming up to get your offers out there. If you wait to start reading about [an event] in the daily papers, it is too late; the event will already be organized,” he commented.
Emmer went on to say a good clearing house for learning about outdoor venues in warmer weather is the public safety and law enforcement department. “These are the people who need advance notice to find out about closing side streets, staffing for traffic control and off-premises liquor licenses,” he shared.
Experienced event planners know how to make things happen and typically have reasonable expectations for turnaround times on their orders. But, distributors working with clients on a local level can encounter a lack of understanding for what it takes to put an adventure or function together, and can find themselves scrambling to supply last minute orders within tight deadlines.
“This is what you might find with a church group or civic organization—things can fall through the cracks. Everything seems under control until they realize they forgot to order the wristbands people are supposed to receive when they walk in. We’ll get a call [requesting] 5,000 wristbands by next Thursday,” recounted Emmer.
He also pointed out distributors specializing in print are most often reacting to a customer request for specific products and services. “For promotional marketing specialists, it’s more of a proactive approach, rather than client-instigated sales,” Emmer said. “You have to really know your clients and how to create a market.” Particularly now, as the weather begins to cool, various sporting events and theater season begin to heat up. It’s the perfect time for distributors to let the good times roll. PPR
Variety Show
As theater season gears up in Philadelphia, there is no denying the power of electronic media for disseminating information about upcoming performances.
But, a venue’s advertiser-friendly home page can often have visitors weeding through information about restaurants in the theater district, the best deals on parking and local hot spots, well before they find show dates and ticket prices.
To capture the imagination—and the money—of theater lovers, venues such as the Philadelphia-based Mann Music Center, the Academy of Music and Kimmel Center rely on beautifully illustrated, commercially printed brochures delivered directly to their targeted markets. To focus recipients’ attention solely on a dramatic marketing piece that draws them in and entertains as they page through to convenient ticket-ordering instructions—well, that’s show biz.
- People:
- Gregg Emmer
- Places:
- Batavia, Ohio