Entertainment Has Returned, Are You Maximizing It? Part 1

As entertainment returns to its full potential, and with the absence of entertainment over the past couple of years, sticking to the fundamentals and evaluating your processes against proven methods will help to ensure minor (or major) details are not missed or overlooked and your investment in entertainment generates the greatest possible return.

Let’s be honest, most casinos do not have the budget or venue capacity to book the latest entertainment sensation. They are limited by the number of seats and how much their budget allows for entertainment. There are several different approaches to entertainment, with each having its benefits. Some casinos are able to make money on entertainment as a stand-alone revenue source, while others view it as a loss leader and focus on the incremental lift on the casino slot floor. They are both correct and differ depending on the property. But for both, sticking to the fundamentals will help your entertainment be successful.

Booking the right act for your area and one that will appeal to the greatest number of guests in your database will help with the turnout. Are you in an area where country music (for example) is king or do other genres of music appeal to your customer base? You know who your customers are and if you are unsure if the performer you are booking will be the best fit, get the data. Ask the performers’ managers or talent booking agents for demographic information on past performances, most will have this information and be able to provide it so a well-informed decision can be made.

Once the contracts have been signed, it’s time to put together the marketing plan to promote the show. This will vary depending on the size of the show and the budget. If you are having a headlining performer in a venue that seats several thousand guests, you have a lot of seats to fill and your marketing plan needs to reflect it. To state the obvious, make sure your marketing efforts include Radio, Digital, Social, Print, Outdoor, Website, on-property advertising, and for larger shows if needed, some TV.

Radio ticket giveaways are a great way to get the word out and keep expenses low. Work with stations that are willing to trade ticket giveaways for air time. If the show is not sold out and needs same-day support, for a small fee, stations may be willing and available to host an onsite broadcast the day of the show for some last-minute ticket giveaways. Make sure to include digital ads targeting your guests as well as geofencing competitors’ events or other local events leading up to your show. Talk about the show on social media. If you do not talk about it, neither will others. Generate excitement leading up to the show by posting about it. Include interviews with the performers in the contract and post them on social media, and create ticket giveaways through Facebook and other social media platforms. Drive engagement by soliciting likes, tagging friends, comments, and shares. Generating fun, excitement and engagement is the goal. Make sure to include social media contests, and drawings; don’t forget to set a budget for boosted posts. Print ads are not quite a thing of the past yet, find ones that make sense for the show and are cost-effective. Include gorilla marketing in your print strategy. In smaller more rural areas this tactic can be more effective. Print flyers and take them to the two or three gas stations in the community and get permission to post them. This is a popular strategy for Hispanic shows and business owners are often willing to help promote the show by allowing you to put up a flyer or small poster in their window. If you want to ensure they let you advertise your next show, offer them a couple of tickets.

Building community relationships and partnerships with other businesses and organizations are very beneficial. Work with local Chambers of Commerce, business associations, and organizations. A lot of these have community calendars on their websites and email databases. If you are a member of these types of organizations and your membership includes eBlasts and advertising, take full advantage of it. Chambers are there to help you so let them, don’t forget about them.

In many areas, concerts are seasonal. To get the biggest bang for your advertising dollar, if all of your shows fall into a summer period, and you have all of your events lined up, creating a Summer Concert Series billboard to promote all your shows for the season can reduce the cost of changing out the graphics after each show.

Because of the cost of TV ads, unless it is a large performance with a significant investment, TV commercials for entertainment alone may not be a viable budget expense.

The devil is in the details and now that we have covered some of the bigger fundamentals, we will be reviewing some of the smaller fundamentals in part 2. We will be discussing incorporating entertainment into player development/casino host initiatives, and your player’s club; including it in all advertising across the property.