It’s time to review marketing efforts in the live event ticketing sphere. Interesting things were happening in live event marketing in 2019’s first quarter, from an assessment of MLB star power to utilizing GIFs to increase festival visibility to being more “chill.” Read all about what’s been happening in industry communications below.

Star Power? You Better Double-Check

Think you know which stars will bring in attendees? Think again.

Mike Trout, center fielder for the Los Angeles Angels, has the largest contract in North American professional team sports history. However, according to a marketing research firm called The Q Scores Company, Trout has a familiarity score of 22. That means that only 22 percent of Americans know who he is, in comparison to Tom Brady’s score of 79 and LeBron James’ 74. Experts speculate this lack of familiarity with players, which spans across the MLB, could account for baseball’s marketing issues. But according to TIME, the MLB is trying to increase Trout’s star power: On March 28 — Opening Day — he appeared front and center in a new MLB video ad, which has already garnered just under 50,000 views. Videos can spread like wildfire, and having the face you want to market at the focal point can create the familiarity you're looking to generate around a star or influencer.

This just goes to show that you can’t assume the stars with the most money in the bank are the most bankable. It’s critical to do your research to conduct effective marketing campaigns that get fans through the turnstiles.

Are You Using GIFs to Market?

A GIF — or, graphic interchange format — is a moving image (think a very brief looped video), which many social media users love to insert into conversations or comment threads to show a range of emotions, humor or commentary. Organizations are starting to realize the unique power of GIFs.

According to the Journal Sentinel, a search for “dancing” or “party” might pull up a GIF from Summerfest’s Giphy channel (Giphy being a hosting platform for a wide variety of GIFs). This channel currently has more than 40 GIFs that people can use to express enthusiasm, flair and so much more. Evidently Sarah Smith Pancheri, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Milwaukee World Festival, Inc., said their festival saw the success of other brands using GIFs and started up a channel in the hopes of increasing engagement. Summerfest’s views on Giphy have already surpassed 1 million.

GIFs can bring excitement to your festival, fair or whatever you may be heading up — perhaps this summer. It may sound out of the box, but you might just expand your visibility tenfold.

For Younger Audiences, Try Being More ‘Chill’ With Your Marketing

Get this: Broadway show “Be More Chill” raked in $300,000 in ticket sales on the first day of its Off-Broadway run with zero marketing costs, according to AM New York.

Planting the seed of a show on social media can work wonders, as seen through the marketing strategy of “Be More Chill.” For this musical, marketing teams got the word out via social channels like Tumblr, Instagram, Reddit, Spotify and YouTube. Essentially, they went to where the target demographic for the show was and let things grow organically. Young fans started to generate Tumblr posts about the characters, Spotify playlists and Reddit discussions. After this organic start, the teams offered some discounted tickets and digital lotteries to help teens who don’t have as expendable of income as their adult theatergoing counterparts. They even set up a “chill” online karaoke contest.

The lesson? Market to your target demographic and know where to strategically plant seeds.

Stay tuned for more “Marketing Maneuvers” throughout the rest of the year, and check out the December 2018 edition for more recent interesting efforts.

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