Finals Location and Media Impact

[Minimaster]

Well, I did happen to see that CBS story playing in our student center on the TV's on MTV U.

[Galen]

How many NASCAR events are held in New York, Chicago or Los Angeles? Yet, somehow, they get media coverage anyway.

New York hosts the end-of-season awards banquet. Not quite a race, even though they've taken a few show cars and driven them around on city streets the week of the banquet.

Chicago, there's a race in Joliet (part of the "greater Chicagoland area")

LA, well, there's a race in Fontana, does that count?

[audiodb]

And - if you did spend big bucks, what would be your Return on Investment? If you are spending 6 figures or more, how many extra tickets would you have to sell just to cover your advertising costs? $100,000 spent would need an extra 2,500 people to buy a ticket (assuming an average ticket price of $40) to break even. $500,000 spent would need 12,500 tickets sold. I don't see 12,500 people who have never previously heard of drum corps spending $40 each to come to Finals just because they caught a couple of DCI ads on cable (or through any other media outlet). (And, where would they sit? Most stadiums do not have a spare 12,500 concert-side seats available to sell.)

I had that same thought. Keep reading, though, and you see that filling the end-zone seats at finals is not the primary objective of these ideas.

[Jeff Ream]

Of course, Drum Corp has changed and WILL change. But does it need to change like the current Black Comedy Movie "Thank You for Smoking"?

i.e "Thank you for Drumming" (the way Pepsi wants you to)

"Thank you for Marching" ( the way Nike wants you to)

Sponsors are important, and it is unrealistic to assume they will have NO say. Gambling has been taken over by State Lotteries and Tribal Nations, so Bingo is a gonner for all practical purposes; so sponsor dollars are more critical than ever. But at what level - national, regional, or local? Of course the answer is ALL THREE, plus in the many non-geographic INTEREST markets made possible by the internet.

It makes no sense to invest in one big national TV spot the night before a show only 3-7% of the viewers could drive to the next day. Market fragmentation is here to stay. And televised Drum Corp shows must remain a means, not an end. Watching Drum Corps on TV -- compared to the real thing -- is something like eating a picture of a pizza.

Another important item seemingly ignored so far in this thread is the difference in DCI control over shows they Sponsor and the MANY other shows. The local "Tour Event Partners" are still a critical necessity on the tour to get the corps an adequate pay-check, but these shows should know their local markets better than DCI possibly could.

DCI has been providing increasingly effective support for these Show Promoters (many of whom are NOT "Home Shows".) But a lot of the ideas being proposed here imply much tighter control of each individual Show Market than actually exists. I suspect DCI would be the first to agree that trying to take over the details of local marketing of every show on the tour would lead to the classic decrease in Quality that comes with an all too rapid growth in Quantity of responsibility. It would be nonsense to dump all this on DCI.

A lot of good ideas here, but -- simple execution of them? -- NOT! Every activity in every age has a "critical mass," above which and below which you do not want to stray too far. Seeking that level -- not "World Domination" is the best goal.

Do any of us want Drum Corps to become such a "Pop Culture" trend that it morphs into a FAD that only one decade will be remembered by?

I don't think so.

P.S. If you haven't gathered it by now - It's about the TOUR, NOT FINALS.

right...but if they are televising finals, why do all summer what you wont do for tv? i dont see sponsors dictating changes to the NFL, but we have heard some tv networks wanted DCi to change A LOT in order to broadcast it

[Jeff Ream]

Regarding 'selling out', isn't it better to have costs of tours subsidized rather than having situations where corps become inactive (troopers) or fold (vk, freelancers, suncoast, bridgemen, 27, Sky Ryders, and so on...) because of financial issues? How many more kids would participate if there were no tour fees?

About putting eggs in one basket with a branded tour partner, not a big deal... anchor sponsors can be replaced. How many bowl games have swapped the brand sponsor? Rock tours?

Also, with a branded tour, it doesn't mean that there are not additional sub-branded sponsors. Check out all of the other brands sponsoring the Vans Warped Tour, for example. They are all additional brands that want access to that target market.

Regarding pitching before transportation consolidation... the first step would be to prepare the financial model, then get the member corps to buy into this concept. The next step would be to pitch the concept to agencies with details of miles covered (% in daylight), cities covered, show attendance numbers and demographics, additional performance demographics (clinics, etc.) to give an clear definition of the opportunity.

There really is a significant opportunity for consolidated logistics (at the very least, the ability to reduce costs), if it is organized properly. This does need to be done by an external, seperately managed, for-profit company (that can be owned by DCI).

The whole point is to get corps out of the business of fundraising to support their operations and tour, and freeing up their energy and attention to focus on the other aspects of their organizations.

i dont see sports changing the rules of play for a sponsor