Expose Yourself Like Madonna
PLAINVILLE, Conn., Feb. 21, 2012 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- The moment that Madonna was announced as the halftime performer for Super Bowl XVLI, I told everyone that Madonna would go out on tour in 2012. And, as announced the day after the Super Bowl, Madonna is launching her first world tour since her Sticky & Sweet Tour in 2009. How did I know she'd go on tour? The last time the halftime performer that was not either on tour or going on tour was Prince in 2007. Every single artist, from The Who, The Black Eyed Peas, and The Rolling Stones, all took advantage of the publicity bump that comes from being part of a worldwide television event. A watershed event like the Super Bowl is a great platform to sell additional tickets or re-start stalled ticket sales. On a smaller scale, a bump in visibility can fuel growth of a startup.
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In terms of visibility, Madonna's halftime show it about as big as it gets. With over 110 million viewers, nearly 1 in 3 people in the US were watching the game and more people were watching Madonna's halftime show than the game itself. Almost 4 years since her last album and 3 years since her last tour! wrapped up, it's the perfect moment to catapult Madonna into the headlines.
But, Madonna is a worldwide superstar; mention just her first name and people around the globe know who you are talking about. How could she possibly need additional exposure? The answer is simple: to sell tickets. Without the Super Bowl, she'd sell tickets, but this kind of exposure will be necessary to capture the prices for this tour. Using Boston's TD Garden as an example, the majority of the Floor, Loge, and Club levels will be priced between $170 and $355 per ticket before fees, and the Balcony level will range from $45 to $90 per ticket before fees. These prices closely match the ticket prices in 2008-09. While her 2008 tour was on top of the secondary market, the average ticket price was only $306. For a concert in which the majority of lower level seats were between $150 and $300 face value, that doesn't represent much of a premium. When the premium over face value is small, it means that marketplace demand wasn't much beyond the asking price, and possibly even less.
It's pretty easy to draw the conclusion that the world's most watched television event will help sell tickets, but not everyone can perform at halftime of the Super Bowl. It doesn't have to be this large of an event to benefit a small business. In 2010, EasySeat was ranked #176 on the Inc 500 list of fastest growing private companies in America. Being part of theInc 500 is the closestequivalent to playing Super Bowl halftime that you can find as a small, private startup. Realizing that EasySeat had a big mome! nt, I de cided to try to capitalize on it by trying to sell the company. In the midst of the Great Recession, it was a stand-out moment that could be used as additional leverage over and above our great financial performance. The moment never led to a sale because the additional publicity fueled additional growth that made selling the company a far less attractive option for me.
The stage doesn't need to be as large as the Super Bowl or even the Inc 500. In 1999, when running my first business, an exterior painting business, we were featured in the Patriot News . This one article was the single biggest source of new sales leads for the year. The lesson embedded here is that anyone, even cultural icons like Madonna, can use additional exposure to achieve business goals. Additional visibility can be used to fuel growth, increase sales, or penetrate new markets. The only thing not to forget is that attention can be fleeting. Madonna's 2012 World Tour was announced less than 24 hours after her Super Bowl performance; I started seeking potential acquirers before the Inc 500 list hit newsstands; incremental sales from the article in the Patriot News were confined to one year. Find your moment in the sun, and capitalize on it quickly because the sun sets at the same speed it rises.
Media Contact: Rae Asselin EasySeat, LLC, 860-268-1825, social@easyseat.net
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