danielray Posted April 6, 2013 Share Posted April 6, 2013 I think you're just debating because I know you see this... If you get more people to shows doesn't that, in and of itself, increase the chances that a major sponsor will be interested? The activity simply doesn't generate enough eyeballs to attract big-dollar sponsorships. Your solution is correct, except you have it place wrong. It's step two, not step one. Get more people... yes, there is more sponsorship potential. But... you could get twice as many people to shows right now, as it is, by simply lowering the ticket prices or getting more school kids there through more coordinated bussing efforts. The money is in youth attendance, paid or not... doesn't much matter. There is much more money in a stadium full of kids that paid nothing to be there than a stadium of paying adults. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielray Posted April 6, 2013 Share Posted April 6, 2013 And how does this relate to drum corps being "edgy"? Edgy = less expensive? No, corporate non-related funding makes it less expensive. But you won't get that until you increase the number of eyeballs in the stands. Which was exactly, as you point out, a main focus of the 5-year plan. Current DCI ---> increase show attendance = increase eyeballs = greater chance for sponsorship. Equals lower fees. Kids' desire to only march one corps is a failing in DCI's marketing. They neglected to interview the kids in Oregon Crusaders and, instead focused all the attention on the winners. It's the Crusaders and OC that the vast majority of HS marchers relate to, not BD or Cadets current members. DCI needs to focus on marketing the kids' experience at all levels of corps. For all the talk among the top corps about not caring about where they place, they sure push hard for DCI to place all of its marketing emphasis on placement. If OC corps really wanted to grow into programs that would have the best talent... they would take a farming approach vs. hunting and gathering. Right now, too many corps out there have this hunting and gathering approach and are completely dependent on the quality of the school programs in the local area. If they started farming their own talent when the kids were 6-7 years old and figured out how to keep them, they'd have monster players down the road and a steady pipeline of talent. Why are Trooper, for example, focused on getting every single kid in Casper learning to march and play from the time they start elementary school? There is absolutely nothing else for kids to do there... should be a perfect opportunity for them to grow talent. Isn't that how they used to do it anyway? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garfield Posted April 6, 2013 Share Posted April 6, 2013 The plan was weak because it watered down all drum corps, rather than building it up. It presented ideas, but no tactical or actionable plan. Also, it was focused too much on getting more people to shows as a way to increase revenue. I see sponsorship as a way forward, as well as new lines of revenue that have absolutely nothing to do with drum corps. It is possible to generate the same amount of revenue returned to corps through other means in just a few years... by producing mainstream and corporate events and expanding sponsorship. This should be so obvious to these guys, that it baffles me that they aren't exploring it. I'll post the 5-year plan excerpts here if you tell me, specifically, what in the plan "watered down all corps". No tactical or actionable plan? Can you tell me the tactical and actionable parts of the Seven's plan? Heck, can you tell me the tactical and actionable parts of your plan, included answers to the "How" questions? DCI's 5-year plan was a framework to develop tactical and actionable plans (and it offered several specific actions in itself), and that's weak. But when another plan is presented as a framework, from those who admit they don't have all the answers, it gets lauded as something to which we should pay attention. Forget the G7 plan, tell me the actionable parts of your solution to DCI's revenue problems. And make it go beyond "Go find someone with money who needs a loss...". 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garfield Posted April 6, 2013 Share Posted April 6, 2013 (edited) Get more people... yes, there is more sponsorship potential. But... you could get twice as many people to shows right now, as it is, by simply lowering the ticket prices or getting more school kids there through more coordinated bussing efforts. The money is in youth attendance, paid or not... doesn't much matter. There is much more money in a stadium full of kids that paid nothing to be there than a stadium of paying adults. Sorry, friend, this is just baloney (except the part that "free" or "cheap" will draw more than expensive). The solution is not more kids in attendance, the solution is in more kids participating. Each one kid is worth two or three or five family-member paid tickets (the expensive ones). Your solution sells one ticket per interested kid, but mine produces factors of one more tickets, and more souvie sales, and more "fans". How many HS kids who are NOT in band go to BOA competitions? Are high school kids, who are not music kids, REALLY going to go to a marching band show as they would a pop music concert? Band is geeky. A few non band members will attend for fun but, likely, not because they enjoy marching band but, rather, because their friends are participating. Band may be new and exciting in Lithuania but, in the US, it's geeky and draws little attention except from the music department and the parents of marching members. It's NOT, and IMO will never be, a mainstream product no matter how cool you make it. But the parents will ALWAYS spend money to support what their kids are participating in, and bring the aunts, uncles, and grandparents all buying tickets. Yes, make it cheaper would always be good, but we constantly hear that the vast majority of fans in the stands are FMM's, or relatives of current MM's, or band geeks like me. There are a whole lot more of those out there to attract to the stadium if we just focus on them participating instead of attending. Edited April 6, 2013 by garfield 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielray Posted April 6, 2013 Share Posted April 6, 2013 I'll post the 5-year plan excerpts here if you tell me, specifically, what in the plan "watered down all corps". No tactical or actionable plan? Can you tell me the tactical and actionable parts of the Seven's plan? Heck, can you tell me the tactical and actionable parts of your plan, included answers to the "How" questions? DCI's 5-year plan was a framework to develop tactical and actionable plans (and it offered several specific actions in itself), and that's weak. But when another plan is presented as a framework, from those who admit they don't have all the answers, it gets lauded as something to which we should pay attention. Forget the G7 plan, tell me the actionable parts of your solution to DCI's revenue problems. And make it go beyond "Go find someone with money who needs a loss...". Why not a new thread... just for bizplan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garfield Posted April 6, 2013 Share Posted April 6, 2013 Why are Trooper, for example, focused on getting every single kid in Casper learning to march and play from the time they start elementary school? There is absolutely nothing else for kids to do there... should be a perfect opportunity for them to grow talent. Isn't that how they used to do it anyway? It wasn't long ago that you said the successful corps have found a way to spread their message across the globe. Now you're saying Troop should focus its attention locally. I partially agree with the latter, but I wish you pick one that is more important and stick with it. This flip-flopping is making my head hurt. :tongue:/> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garfield Posted April 6, 2013 Share Posted April 6, 2013 Get more people... yes, there is more sponsorship potential. But... you could get twice as many people to shows right now, as it is, by simply lowering the ticket prices or getting more school kids there through more coordinated bussing efforts. The money is in youth attendance, paid or not... doesn't much matter. There is much more money in a stadium full of kids that paid nothing to be there than a stadium of paying adults. In essence, you're saying a show sponsor, or DCI, should sponsor (read: pay for) busing HS kids to shows. Believe me, that's a non-starter because I've tried it. While it's true that band directors commonly use the "coordinate busing" as a reason to not bother promoting a show, when I've taken that away by arranging financing for a PRIVATE bus company to have buses at the HS, the band director simply finds some other reason to claim it's difficult to get kids to the show. I have arranged private bus transportation for every, single school band director to get kids to the show. The bus company charged a little the first year, then has made it free for several years, and it has not done squat to get band directors to arrange a group ticket purchase. Not a single taker. Usually, their answer is "In the summer the kids want to drive themselves" or "they'll arrange to get there if they buy a ticket". Lower ticket prices always is better for obvious reasons, except for those people who believe you get what you pay for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kickhaltsforlife Posted April 6, 2013 Share Posted April 6, 2013 How is more kids with zero money the solution? "I'm buying these expensive tickets for a marching band show???" That is a problem. Honestly... cutting prices would help a great deal. But while cutting those prices you need to get that revenue somewhere else. Where? Sponsorships... GREAT! Who the hell is going to sponsor DCI and/or it's member corps? Have people tried? I honestly don't know. I know Fred Morrison of the Crossmen is trying... he comes from the racing world.. where sponsorships is everything. Don't know if he has had much luck generating revenue this way. Saving money I'm sure it has helped. I do know the Crossmen are trying out advertising with I-texts to raise money for uniforms. I think figuring out to get more BITS regardless of age and also how to cut costs will help things out. We do need to concentrate some on the youth.. and try to keep them in. Especially those who marched. I know we all still talk.. but those who actually still follow and spend money is very little. And with less and less corps.. that is less and less members who stay on as fans and support the activity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielray Posted April 6, 2013 Share Posted April 6, 2013 Sorry, friend, this is just baloney (except the part that "free" or "cheap" will draw more than expensive). The solution is not more kids in attendance, the solution is in more kids participating. Each one kid is worth two or three or five family-member paid tickets (the expensive ones). Your solution sells one ticket per interested kid, but mine produces factors of one more tickets, and more souvie sales, and more "fans". How many HS kids who are NOT in band go to BOA competitions? Are high school kids, who are not music kids, REALLY going to go to a marching band show as they would a pop music concert? Band is geeky. A few non band members will attend for fun but, likely, not because they enjoy marching band but, rather, because their friends are participating. Band may be new and exciting in Lithuania but, in the US, it's geeky and draws little attention from the music department and the parents of marching members. It's NOT, and IMO will never be, a mainstream product no matter how cool you make it. But the parents will ALWAYS spend money to support what their kids are participating in, and bring the aunts, uncles, and grandparents all buying tickets. Yes, make it cheaper would always be good, but we constantly hear that the vast majority of fans in the stands are FMM's, or relatives of current MM's, or band geeks like me. There are a whole lot more of those out there to attract to the stadium if we just focus on them participating instead of attending. You need to lead with drumming. Drumming can actually become mainstream. Here is part of the problem though... some truth here... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hghWBUBhZrw Too many drum corps are trying to be too much the same. Are playing music that is from too narrow a source and are all moving in too similar a way. Needs to be much more variety. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielray Posted April 6, 2013 Share Posted April 6, 2013 It wasn't long ago that you said the successful corps have found a way to spread their message across the globe. Now you're saying Troop should focus its attention locally. I partially agree with the latter, but I wish you pick one that is more important and stick with it. This flip-flopping is making my head hurt. /> Not flip-flopping.... you're just not connecting the dots. :-) I am suggesting that Troopers could do well to start farming in addition to the recruiting they are doing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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