Building Audiences

The first crucial step to having a successful event is selecting an attraction that fans want to see at a price and location they deem attractive. That seems pretty straightforward and no one would be in the concert business very long if they were not good at it.

Trying to forecast the constantly moving target of demand levels is a mixture of empirical science and the voodoo art of gut instinct concert promotion. As an industry, we spend most of our time figuring out what ticket buyers desire.

The flip side of that proposition is understanding what customers don’t like.

Consumer Reports has an interesting article on the subject in its January issue. It conducted a survey to try to find out what really bugs U.S. consumers the most.

E-mail spam, unreliable cell phone service, loud television commercials, waiting for repair people, incomprehensible bills, shrunken products and bad drivers all made the list. So did finding dog poop on your lawn and poor airline service.

Getting caught in voice-mail hell and not being able to get a real person on the phone is extremely frustrating but that was only the No. 2 most annoying thing customers identified.

So what bugs people more than all the above?

Unfortunately, it’s something that is a routine part of the concert promotion business.

It’s hidden fees.

The subject will be discussed in “All-In Ticketing: Why Can’t We Do The Math?,” a major panel session set for Feb. 17 at Pollstar Live!

Industry professionals are well aware of all the fees added to the base ticket price and why they exist. The problem is that the public does not understand why that $60 ticket costs them $75 by the time they pull out their credit cards, and they resent the hell out of it.

Outspoken industry analyst Bob Lefsetz will moderate a panel consisting of Peter Grosslight of William Morris Endeavor, Dan Weiner of Paradigm, Peter Luukko of Global Spectrum, Jim McCue of ArenaNetwork and David Butler of Ticketmaster. Invitations to join the panel are still out to Live Nation and several other key industry players.

The hidden fees that are added to concert tickets are a controversial subject that some feel they can’t discuss honestly in public.

The public, however, has no problem complaining about it and the concert industry ignores those concerns at its own peril.

Click here for more info on Pollstar Live!