Archive for March, 2010
Let’s Get Marginal
By Jim McCarthy
2 comments
There’s a very common analytical error that producers of live entertainment make. It’s the kind of mistake that comes straight from human nature, and so in a way, it’s hard to blame theatre producers specifically for making it. Most of them never claimed to be quant jocks. In fact, many of them actively protest that [...]
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Good Service is (Nearly) Free
By Jim McCarthy
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Ken Davenport wrote a spot-on piece today in the new Live Entertainment Marketing blog called, well, Entertainment Marketing. (I’ll tell you more about that in a second.) To summarize (though you should definitely go read the piece), Ken shows a picture that he took of a “guest services” desk at a movie theatre and asks [...]
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“How Do I Go Viral?”
By Jim McCarthy
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Yesterday, I spoke on a very interesting panel at the very first version of the Commercial Theatre Institute’s Intensive Production Workshop. I may have gotten the name slightly wrong, but the idea of the conference/workshop is that budding theatre producers learn the tricks of the trade at these, and this is their first time in [...]
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- Group Sales is Dead
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- Change is Only Dramatic to People Used to the Current Thing
- Audience-Oriented, It’s What’s For Dinner
- The Nutcracker is Bad for Ballet like Easter is Bad for Churches
- Awaiting the Great Pumpkin, er, Great Performance
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- The Rock Revolution, a View from 1967
- Will There Be an NFL Season? And What Does That Mean to You?
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- March 2011
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- Do Restaurateurs Hate Groupon and Yelp?
- Another Violent Tornado of Truth...
- What Do I Think of Groupon?
- How Do You Capitalize on "Winning"?
- Cause and Correlation and You've Still Got to Do Something People Want
- The ABA: Failing to Greatness
- The Thing About Cuts to Government Arts Programs Is...
- If We're Not Getting Better, We're Getting Ignored
- February 2011
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- 2010
- December 2010
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- Is Live Entertainment An Industry?
- How to Feel Good About Ditching Work Early Today...
- What Do You Mean, Price Gouging?
- You Can't Fault 'em For Not Being Optimistic...
- Dealwire: Goldstar's Affiliate Program
- Donating Money for a Tax Write-Off is Like Giving Away a Dollar to Save Fifty Cents
- Thinning the Herd? You Go First
- 3 Keys to Smart, Strategic Discounting
- Arrogance, Self-Delusion and Other Fine Qualities
- What Does It Mean, Halloween?
- "Rally" Shows the Value of a Live Event
- October 2010
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- Reward Me, Don't Pay Me
- Are You Waiting for the Great Pumpkin?
- Price and Convenience Don't Matter if I Don't Care
- What Is Magic Johnson Doing Indeed?
- It's All About Value
- Does Quality Matter to You? What the Heck is Quality Anyway?
- Closing the Barn Door BEFORE The Horses Leave
- Quick Draw: Do You Know the Difference Between Dynamic and Variable Pricing?
- Before You Start With Dynamic Pricing...
- How and Why People Share
- Monday Morning Ambush
- Emancipate Yourself from Mental Slavery (on Pricing)
- Dynamic Pricing Post Upcoming
- Number 3!
- Several Non-Opinions about Ticket Pricing
- Tips for Giving a Performance Review
- A Non-Profit Doesn't HAVE to Lose Money
- September 2010
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- You Can Choose Not to Be Affected by Market Forces...
- The Wisdom of the Soda Seller
- Make it For An Audience, or Don't Have the Nerve to Charge Money
- The 4% Rule
- Check Your Alignment
- Do You Refuse To Pander? Do You Think You'd Be Good at It If You Tried?
- Everybody's a Rock Star Somewhere, Part 2
- Everybody's a Rock Star Somewhere
- Unforced Error of the Almost Unbelievable Kind
- Is 'Holy Sh*t' the Best Theatre Can Do?
- Should NASCAR Pursue a Black Audience?
- Quick Draw! Why Customers Don't Cost You Anything
- 3 Things the NFL Can Teach the Rest of the Live Business
- What Makes a Renaissance Happen?
- Bob Dylan-Fundamentalist
- Quick Draw: Fixed and Variable Costs
- Is Theatre Oversupplied or Underdemanded?
- August 2010
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- Quick Draw-Average Price Per Ticket and Why You Shouldn't Use it
- Jet Blue's Steven Slater Is a Hero of Absolutely Nothing
- Problem Solving at Goldstar
- "Popular" is Not the Opposite of "Relevant"
- The Power of Earning Your Way
- Quick Draw: Revenue Per Seat
- Wave Goodbye to A "Magical" Product
- How Not To Wipe Out on a Jet Ski AND Save Your Arts/Entertainment Organization in One Easy Lesson
- Life, Liberty and the Right to a Printed Ticket?
- July 2010
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- How Gates Helped Us Build a Multi-Million Dollar Ticket Selling Business, Part 2
- Industry Tweeting @goldstarjim
- How Gates Helped Us Build a Multi-Million Dollar Ticket Selling Business, Part 1
- Group Sales is Dead, Part Two
- Plan Your Garden; Don't Just Complain about Weeds
- The Broker's Dilemma
- Lebron Passes Up the Opportunity for Greatness
- Online Comments are as Bad as Hitler
- June 2010
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- Group Sales is Dead
- Does Opera Need New Audience?
- Misunderstanding Sell Outs
- You Won't Find the Future By Polishing the Past
- The War of Attrition
- There's No Such Thing as the "Concert Business"
- "Discounting Silliness" Presentation Now Live
- EAMC Conference Presentation Online Tomorrow
- Write the CEO an Email, Get a Lawyer Letter
- The Agony of Defeat and How to Use It
- Get Ready for More Targeting Failure
- May 2010
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- Remember This The Next Time Someone Tells You a Video Went Viral...
- Will Broadway Lead or Be Led?
- Michael Kuchwara
- Two Ways of Looking at Premium Pricing
- What I Didn't Get A Chance to Say at the Conference
- How Dynamic Do You Want it?
- My Interview with Dave Barry
- How Not To Discount, A Recap
- How Not to Discount, Part 4
- How Not to Discount, Part 3
- How Not to Discount, Part 2
- How Not To Discount, Part 1
- The Future of Live Entertainment Looks Kinda Like A Cupcake Being Fired Out of a Cannon
- April 2010
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- Toby Goes to Medieval Times
- Half Price Cannibalization? Only If You Do it Wrong
- Because That's Where the Money (and Value) Is
- Live Nation-Ticketmaster Story in the NYT
- Boston Ballet Comments on the Charm Bracelet
- More Merger Mayhem
- Apple Going into the Live Business
- Too Small to Meter, but Not Too Small to Matter
- A Sterling Idea
- Raise Your Hand if You Want More Ads
- What's Wrong with the Word Customer?
- Why Are Tickets More Expensive? Because It's All About Being There
- Delivering Happiness
- March 2010
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- Necessary But Not Sufficient
- Balancing Security and Freedom
- Actually, This is Not a Bad Idea
- 3 Keys to Pie-Growing
- Live Nation Layoffs and the Perils of Vertical Integration
- True Twitter Stories: Behind the Tweet
- (What's So Funny 'bout) Speaking Like a Human Being
- Yelp and the New New World of Feedback
- Anna Nicole The Opera
- Comcast to Buy Paciolan from Ticketmaster
- Let's Get Marginal
- Good Service is (Nearly) Free
- "How Do I Go Viral?"
- February 2010
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- More Pie Now!
- The Past Is Gone
- The Springsteen Refunds
- Membership Has Its Rewards
- Should You Be Selling "The Arts"?
- Shutting Down the Factory...not a Key to Success
- My Interview on Mixergy
- TED This Week and the 1 Year Anniversary of Live 2.0
- Know Your Customers or Just Think You Do
- The Truth Hurts, but Also Sets You Free
- "Every Marketing Program Begins with the Same Question..."
- To Be or Not To Be
- The Endless Struggle to Think Well of Yourself
- Three Things Theatres (or anyone) Must Do to Survive and Thrive
- January 2010
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- This is Why I Hate the News
- Frank Eliason Coming Up on Live 2.0 and What About Web 3.0?
- Why Philadelphia Orchestra May Need to File Bankruptcy
- Live Nation Ticketmaster Merger Approved
- Murder-Suicide Avoided in Cleveland
- Live Nation May Sell Buildings to AEG
- Why Yelp Needs $50 Million
- Pepsi Doesn't Think the Bowl's So Super
- "Exploiting" Opera is the First Step to Making People Care
- Inspiration from Martin Luther King Jr.
- The Very Bright Future of the Live Entertainment Business
- Change is Only Dramatic to People Used to the Current Thing
- What Live Entertainment Organizations Can Learn from the Leno Disaster
- Food IS Fun, not Food
- The Importance of Being Spiderman
- Seth Godin Unknowingly Backs Me Up
- Hear Me Now, Listen Later: Price Has Nothing to Do With Cost
- TM-Live Nation Merger Looks Close to 100%
- Audience-Oriented, It's What's For Dinner
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- 2009
- December 2009
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- Ticketmaster-Live Nation Merger Wrinkle
- The Nutty Thief Revealed...
- The Nutty Award Stolen
- No Hiding the Decline Here
- How NOT to Save Online Advertising
- The Wandering Tribe of Hopeful Advertising Dollars...
- 3 Steps to Saving Sunset Strip
- The Nutcracker is Bad for Ballet like Easter is Bad for Churches
- Why Ben and Jerry's Doesn't Sell Hardware
- November 2009
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- Part 2 of My Chat with Greg Sandow
- Greg Sandow-Thinking about the Future of Classical Music
- Video Chat with Greg Sandow Coming Up
- "More than a Blonde Wig and a Soldier's Outfit..."
- Comcast to the Rescue of TM-Live Nation?
- The Album is Dead. Long Live the Album
- NASCAR is Smarter Than You
- All Cake, No File, All Good
- Either Hilariously Great or Incredibly Dumb. Possibly Both.
- Don't Confuse Me With the Facts
- The Vapid Pyramid of Valueless Advertising
- AEG Considering New Ticketing Partner
- October 2009
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- Empty Seats? Or the End of the World?
- Awaiting the Great Pumpkin, er, Great Performance
- Puritans and Cake Without Icing
- Digital Dust in the Wind
- U2 and How Not to Milk It
- How to Sound Like a Social Media Genius
- How Your Organization Can Be As Awesome As Cirque Du Soleil
- It's a Real-Time Feedback World, So You Might As Well Like It!
- Safe is Dangerous
- How Not to Be Audience-Centered, 'Stealing from Little Girls' Edition
- Food is Now Entertainment-How Live 2.0 is That?
- Can We Stop Chasing Our (Long) Tails Now?
- Twitter: The Most Successful Website Ever that Only Kinda Works
- TM-Live Nation Merger Hits Some (Ultimately Irrelevant) Snags
- The Olympics: A 2-week Commercial or a Chance to Make an Army of Advocates
- How to Ruin a Good Thing
- Chicago Not Hosting the Olympics...
- What Are You Doing for Your Chief Zee?
- Save Money by Shutting Down?
- September 2009
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- Will You Nurture Fear or Dreams?
- Customer Experience: Our Upcoming Edition
- Leading the Culture
- Play Like a (Detroit) Tiger
- "Do I Look Lucky?
- "Slowly Strangling the Golden Goose"
- Ah, Zyrtec 5mg, thanks for dropping by!
- Take It From People Who Know What a Flop Is
- The Nacho Paradox
- Ken Davenport Chat, part 3
- Theo's Backpack and What It Means to You
- Ken Davenport Conversation, Part 2
- A Great Idea: Perform the Album
- My Chat with Ken Davenport, Part 1
- There Is No Concert Business
- 1 Step Strategy for Success: Be Awesome
- "It Can Be Hurt!"
- Pretendinitis in the NFL?
- Who Wants to Be a Live Entertainment Entrepreneur?
- August 2009
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- With Your Help, We Can Stop Pretendinitis
- Ticketmaster Tried to Cobble Together Anti-Live Nation Coalition
- If You Talked to Your Friends about Your Show the Way Your Copy Talks about Your Show...
- 10 Minutes to Understanding Live 2.0
- Don't Blast Me, Bro!
- Everyone's a Rock Star Somewhere
- Why the Closing of Opera Companies Has Nothing to Do with Money
- Not Selling Out-The Rockstar Edition
- Why Selling Out Is Less Important Than You Think
- Learn Three Marketing Strategies of Modern Circuses
- The (Financial) Results Are In...Is the Industry Healthy?
- Now That I've Got Your Attention...
- The Live 2.0 Manifesto
- Mariah Carey and Perhaps the Worst Idea Ever
- "Free" and the Insidious Influence of the Underpants Gnomes
- Is the Concert Business Imploding?
- The Long (But Not Necessarily So Valuable or Relevant) Tail
- My Problem with Chris Anderson's Work
- All about the LUV
- July 2009
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- Live 2.0 Edition 6: The Audience Edition
- Be the Jackie Chan of Live Entertainment
- What Live Entertainment Can Learn from Chic-Fil-A
- Only You Can Make You a Star
- Edition 6 is just days away...
- Egg Timer Update
- The Egg Timer Method
- Dr. No and the Courageous Deletions
- "Long Tail" Meet "New Rules"
- "The Long Tail" in Live Entertainment
- Lebron James and Nike Prove My Point
- Extendinitis
- What Would Mark Twain Say About Feedback
- Today's Reader to Critics: Show Me Something Special
- Audience: It's What You're There For
- Michael Again...But There's a Good Reason!
- June 2009
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- The Freeconomy: Believe it or Not?
- AEG's Michael Jackson Problem
- Live 2.0 Edition 5: Innovation Beats a Bad Economy
- Edition 5 Appearing Tomorrow!
- Center Theatre Group in LA Looking for Box Office Director
- Just Don't Think Pink
- A Little Clarity about Banana Splits
- The Banana Split Test
- In Ghostlier Demarcations, Keener Sounds
- The "Great Performance" and the "Better Mousetrap"
- Miley Cyrus "Controls" the Secondary Market
- Get Busy Living or Get Busy Dying
- Captured on Film: How to be a successful marketer
- If You Talked To People the Way Advertising Talked to People...
- 3 Ways to Do Paperless Ticketing for Live Shows
- How to Drive Young People Away from Your Venue in Droves
- Live Nation Extends "No Service Fee" Promotion
- 1 More Frame-Breaking Strategy for Theatres to Grow Audiences Faster
- 2 Frame-Breaking Strategies for Theatres to Build Audience Faster
- 3 Things Theatres Do that Are So 20th Century
- Why Live Nation is REALLY Killing Convenience Fees
- Anvil: Stuck in a 1.0 World
- May 2009
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- Best...Broadway Season...Ever...
- Goldstar Venue Relations Job Posting
- Are You Really a Permission Marketer?
- Customers Aren't Slaves - Stop Trying to "Own" Them
- 3 Ways You're Wrong about Live Entertainment-Part 3
- 3 Ways You're Wrong about Live Entertainment-Part 2
- 3 Ways You're Wrong about Live Entertainment-Part 1
- Live 2.0 Edition 4: The New Media Edition
- Edition 4 Out Tomorrow
- Bruce Springsteen and the Future of Entertainment
- Live 2.0 Now Available on Your Kindle
- Three Ways Theatres Can Use Twitter Right Now
- Awards or Sales? I'll Take Sales
- What's the Difference Between Roller Derby and the XFL?
- You know what customers love? Rules
- Live Nation Selling Boston Venues
- Get a New Rubber Band
- Like I Said, "Twitter Like You Mean it" (Or Don't)
- The New Media Edition...Coming Later In May
- April 2009
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- A Cirque Update
- We May Have Found the Limit...
- The Boo Birds Are Out...
- ...Annnnd It's Gone.
- Revenue Per Seat-The Master Marketing Metric
- Twitter's Secret Advantage Could be its Demographic...
- Pretendinitis
- Greg Sandow in Edition 4
- Why Lynda Carter Loves Performing Live
- Stubhub on the Selling Block?
- Live 2.0 Edition 3: Why We Love Live Entertainment
- Twitter Like You Mean It (Or Don't)
- "The Transforming Fire of Machines..."
- What's Your Multiplier?
- The "Why We Love It" Edition Comes Out This Week!
- Becoming Live 2.0: You Are Your Own Marketing Part 2
- Innovation? In Classical Music?
- March 2009
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- Sean Moriarty of Ticketmaster Resigns
- Becoming Live 2.0: You Are Your Marketing Part 1
- My iChat with Natasha Tsakos
- Economist Will Page Says Hello
- If you don't think of this as Live Entertainment, you need to catch up...
- Gene Vs. Bob on Video
- "Recordings Have Become Advertisements for Shows"
- The Market is Telling You Something
- "Live Has Officially Taken Over Recorded..."
- A Disrepectful (But Highly Entertaining) Exchange of Ideas...
- One...Million...Tickets! That's a Thriller
- Live 2.0 Edition 2: The Innovation Edition
- The Innovation Edition Out Tomorrow
- Preparing for a Zombie Invasion Makes Good Marketing
- AEG to TM and Live Nation: "What Are We, Chopped Liver?"
- No Doubt the Ticket's More Valuable
- Bringing "El Sistema" to the U.S.
- You're Going to Want to Hear Carmen
- CDs, like Real Estate, are a Great Value
- Who Said It? "If I Ran the NEA?"-- The Answer
- Bowling Alone-Why Live Entertainment is More Valuable Than Ever
- February 2009
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- "If I Ran the NEA..." Who Said it?
- Becoming Live 2.0: Develop a Niche Part 2
- Revising My Opinion on the LN-TM Merger
- Edition 2 Appears March 10th
- Advertising in Decline? You think?
- Becoming Live 2.0: Develop a Niche Part 1
- Frame-Breaker Paulus Manker Writes In
- As it Was with This, So Shall It be with Prices
- Becoming Live 2.0: The Secret Ingredient is Leadership
- The Best Terrible Idea I've Ever Heard
- Part of Why Traditional Marketing Doesn't Work Anymore...
- Live 2.0 at SXSW March 17th
- Who Wants to Be a Pontiac?
- Swapping in Chicago
- How to Become a Live 2.0 Organization: A Step by Step Guide
- Trevor O'Donnell Drops by to Talk Live 2.0
- Chat with Natasha Was Great; Video Quality, Way Less Great
- TV is an Excellent Way to Market Your Live Show
- Ichatting with Natasha Tsakos Today...
- Breaking the Frame
- Perhaps the Worst Use of Money Ever...
- A Presidents Day Tradition since 2010...
- You Are Your Marketing (Because Nothing Else Works)
- Innovation, with Mustard and Relish
- Anti-Valentine's Day: A Live 2.0 Phenomenon
- Funny How Supply and Demand Have Nothing to Do with it
- The Future is a Niche Market, Contd. (The 'But How?' Edition)
- Some reactions to the Launch of Live 2.0
- "You're Stupid! Give me Money!"
- Bye, Bye, Ticketmaster?
- Live 2.0 TED Presentation, Now Available!
- Live Entertainment and the Recovery
- I'm sorta in love with Natasha Tsakos
- I don't know Irving yet, but I'd like to...
- Life's a Pitch
- The Merger: Why?
- Ben Zander Challenges Me on Live 2.0
- Ticketnation? Live Master? The Biggies Talk Merger
- Live blogging TED all week
- Live 2.0 Edition 1
- The Unveiling is Nigh!
- January 2009
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- Live Nation Ticketing System Launches, Struggles, Fail Whales Sighted
- The Future is a Niche Market, Cirque-Comes-To-Santa-Monica edition
- So does that make this White Thursday?
- Stewart Copeland of The Police talks to Live 2.0
- How Not to Be a Live 2.0 Organization, MPAA Edition
- "In a World..." in a Theatre
- Today's NBA: The Sons of Meadowlark
- Lucha Va Voom: Live 2.0 to the Core
- Greg Sandow: Don't Fear the Internet Reaper
- Quality? Marketability? Yes, Please.
- Jenny Rogers of 'Wickets' Writes In
- Murder! Suicide! Oh, the Drama!
- How Many T-shirts Fit Through a Pipeline?
- Goldstar Suppliers, Welcome to the Conversation!
- The Purple Cow and the Jet That Doesn't Fly
- It's Time to Stop Trying to Save Advertising
- Barack Obama: First Live 2.0 President
- "The Conversation" is Alive and Well
- Steve Jobs: The Great Innovator
- Maybe I Should Be Writing This on My Commodore 64, too
- The Future is a Niche Market, contd. (or, I'll make you a deal on this boat anchor)
- Do you care what Verizon thinks?
- Music Makes a Bad Religion
- Is Broadway a Live 2.0 Industry?
- This is the Brooklyn Nets Century...or at least it should be!
- Ticketmaster Expects Prices to Drop in 2009
- What is the Right Price for Recorded Music?
- Leftsetz: Painfully Right Again
- Happy Black Tuesday!
- Grateful Dead Touring Again (but not because of money)
- David Bowie: Live 2.0 Prophet
- It's Official: The Ticketmaster-uber-alles Era is Over
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- 2008
- December 2008
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- The Rising Tide of Live 2.0
- Breaking News: Kirov Ballet Wins 2008 Nutty!
- A Steep Price to Pay for Content
- Arena Football, We Hardly Knew Ye
- The Future is a Niche Market, contd.
- Live 2.0: The Content Creation Story
- Look this up at beside-the-point.com
- The Perils of Being Live 1.0
- Panos Nails It-The Future is a Niche Market
- Will There Be a Baseball Recession?
- Tribune Files for Bankruptcy, Cubs Not Their Problem
- In a Live 2.0 World, You Are Your Marketing
- "All The Money is On the Road..."
- In a Live 2.0 World, it's About the Audience
- Live Titans Replace Recorded Giants
- YouTube Gets It
- Live 2.0 Launches at TED conference February 3rd
-
Topics
- Live 2.0
- Live Nation
- Ticketmaster
- Goldstar
- Cirque Du Soleil
- TED
- Broadway
- Bob Lefsetz
- Greg Sandow
- Seth Godin
- Popular
- marketing
- Live entertainment
- secondary market
- Chris Anderson
- Springsteen
- Bruce Springsteen
- classical music
- NFL
- Advertising
- discounting
- Stewart Copeland
- dynamic pricing
- AEG
- price gouging
- Tickets.com
- Wall Street Journal
- theatre
- TED-U
- Amazon
- revenue per seat
- Comcast
- Trevor O'Donnell
- Anne Midgette
- L.A. Times
- Pantages
- niche
- U2
- audience
- Great Performance Delusion
- The Police
- baseball