Introspection in business encourages the sharing of best practices within an industry, and the National Arts Marketing Project is a prime example of this.

But benchmarking can be even more valuable - in other words, probing other industries to determine their best functional practices that inform one's own special needs. For example, how the customer service standards of Nordstrom's can influence auto dealership service protocols, how Disney's devotion to "exceeding expectations" has influenced many (but not all) hospitals' attitudes toward patients and employees and, close to you (the readers') home, how airlines' dynamic pricing has affected concerts/sports and now Broadway theatre ticket pricing.

Arts marketers can reap similar benefits by digging into its commonality with sports marketers, especially where newly defined market segments have led to innovative insights about customers, prospects, and improved marketing results selling a familiar perishable commodity - the unsold seat, and where new functional alignments and skill building is strengthening the productivity of all revenue generating efforts, notably ticket and sponsorship sales.

The ensuing discussion is built on pay-offs for sports industry experiences we have had in Major League Baseball(MLB) and the National Hockey League(NHL) and also the useful learning from three prominent trends in today's sports marketing world.

MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL

Drawing on our work with seven MLB clubs (and two in Minor League Baseball), we identified that at any given game 6-8 mutually exclusive attendee combinations account for 55-65% of attendance.

We also determined that each of these attendee combinations exhibit different behavior when it comes to how, when, where, relying on what media, by whom attendance decisions are made. In addition, people in each attendee combination voice different reasons for attending and different expectations. These are pretty valuable and eye opening insights.

When you immerse yourself in the makeup and dynamics of each combination, especially when you have an understanding of their rank order priority and how this may vary on different days/nights of the week or months of the year, directions regarding copy, media, pricing et al suggest themselves. For example, when an "empty nester" husband and wife 45+ attend by themselves, the message that motivates them is a very different one than the one that gets a mom and dad with their 13 & under children to attend, let alone a handful of 18-34 year old men.

Understanding these priority combinations makes our clients smarter and effective, ensuring that their marketing campaigns generate the best returns.

NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE TEAM
The start-up management team of what became the San Jose Sharks NHL club knew that it was launching in a region that while economically robust (a) had heavy competition for sports media attention from five long-established and respected major sports franchises in football, baseball and basketball; (b) was characterized by shallow hockey roots and (c) was burdened with a pro hockey vacuum of 15 years dating back to a nearby NHL team in Oakland (California Golden Seals) that had failed and moved elsewhere.

To develop relevant and credible for communicating with the media in ensuing months and prospective ticket buyers during their early years the club mapped through extensive marketing research an understanding of their early fan base that gave them empathy for its component parts and ensured that all management members were speaking the same language. 

Regional Patriots . . . prospects who intended to support the new team independent of their previous hockey affinity or familiarity because the team's newly bond-funded arena home's success would be directly influenced by the level of support for the team.

Hockey Hard Core . . .(a) the 25-40 year old adults taken to Seals games as children by their parents and who longed for the excitement they had experienced years earlier - we called  them "Seals Pups"; (b) transplants from other NHL markets, including Los Angeles, the  northeastern US quadrant (mainly New York, Chicago and Boston) and Canada who continued to follow the NHL closely despite the absence of a major network TV contract and (c) similar transplants whose enthusiasm for the NHL had eroded and dissipated over time and who were not familiar with the league's best teams, players and changes in the game.

Pro Sports Event Attenders . . . (a) "Locked Outs" - fans concerned about the scarcity of good seats if they waited until the team developed into a contender; (b) "Ground Floor Appreciators" - fans whose positive bent toward start-ups, risk-taking and being pioneers attracted them to the fledgling enterprise; (c) "Cross-Over Action Seekers" - fans whose love  of the danger, body contact and action of football (especially line play) and motor racing drew them to try hockey and (d) "Insatiables" - holders of season tickets for two or more of the other Bay Area pro sports teams who hungered for yet another team to support with their remaining energy and time.

How these segments viewed the franchise and pro sports in general was shared not only with marketing and sales personnel, but hockey and arena operations management so that all departments were consistent in their dealings with fans and the community.

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THREE HIGH IMPACT TRENDS

Among the best practices in sports marketing that have implications for arts marketing, these three are among the most relevant.

A. Re-conceiving ticket sales/service organization to increase effectiveness

• engaging specialized outside telesales companies to drive new ticket sales and retrieval of defectors (college/university athletic departments most noteworthy) and/or
• dividing sales and customer service functions into specialized functions, acknowledging different skills that are required for each, thereby stimulating sales results and elevating customer retention (now common in Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association and National Hockey League).

B. Embracing a "consultative " approach to sponsorship sales, i.e., (1) understanding prospects' profit economics, current marketing strategy (e.g., a particular target audience, new users, trial for a new product, traffic, local distribution ) or problems that "keep them awake at night" and (2) monitoring sponsorship category and company trends in the sports/entertainment world to:

• go beyond selling advertising inventory to helping prospect solve real marketing problems;
• deliver real "activated" benefits that are aligned with prospects' priorities;
• effect measurable outcomes that demonstrate a satisfactory return on investment(ROI) and
• identify new and/or fastest growing categories (e.g., tech, sustainability) and active companies within them.

C. Engaging 18-34 year olds through technology, i.e., location-based or check-in apps, to increase "friendliness" of the attendance experience

• Social media portals Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube offer extensive reach but not enough rich, real time engagement that allows users to connect with friends or community about where they are;
• Enlightened use of interactive technologies reflects on organization and its programming and -
• Adds value for users by connecting them to universe of offers, insights, connection with like-minded counterparts.

In summary, building and sustaining attendance is both science and "art". There is abundant cross-learning back-and-forth across the sports/entertainment and arts worlds, "joining them at the hip", that benefits from continuous updating as audiences and contributors mature, social media redefine decision making processes, sponsors ' expectations expand beyond awareness building and the combination of hardware advances and economic on-demand access make staying at home a threatening competitor.

 Preview image by Josh Hawley