Finals Location and Media Impact

[mobrien]

If DCI was in Chicago, it could be a major event locally, but only if DCI came up with corporate sponsorship dollars that would afford a major ad blitz (and it's a lot more expensive to advertise here than it is in Madison or Denver or Indianapolis.)

I'd take my real world producing and arts marketing experience (20 years worth) and argue that the move to Indy COULD be an excellent opportunity to build a solid marketing position

Why? Because an event like DCI in Indy becomes a bigger story for the local and regional press than it would in a major market like Chicago or NY, where there's a lot more competition for media coverage. The 'big fish in a smaller pond' scenario.

When you're working in a secondary market, you're not having to fight as hard to be noticed, especially if you're bringing in a product that has the implications of 'world class' as opposed to 'locally grown.' A show I directed in Pittsburgh a few years ago featured a once-famous tv star who'd won several Emmy awards, and it was huge news in the local papers. Working on another project with the same actor in Chicago the year before, it was only of passing interest to the local press that he was in town in a show. The scale of "what's interesting" slides as you approach the biggest markets, and drum corps, I'm afraid, isn't as cool or attractive to many media producers as we'd all like to think it is. To them, it's slightly louder marching band.

Let's also keep in mind that as previously mentioned, they're selling a season of drum corps, not just the Finals week. By that standard, the current marketing strategy seems to be paying off, particularly when you consider that the number of parents/relatives/friends of the marchers are necessarily much smaller than they were 25 years ago (because there are so many fewer corps).

DCI's goal is to do the best job they can managing tours for the existing corps, not necessarily the growth of the activity (though they'd no doubt like to see it grow). Any real growth would be bottom-up, by increasing the base number of participants, and THAT, I suspect, would require a concerted effort to create more locally-based competition units that focused on kids in the 12-16 year old range (before they're old enough to march in a DCI corps).

[Matt_S]

Or have the Amazing Race include contestants trying to weave their way through a maze of drill.

[jeffro21]

Priority should be placed on putting finals in NY metro area, LA and Chicago, period. It doesn't matter if stadium costs and lodging are more expensive initially, as potential exposure (if properly organized) will more than make up for it.

In addition to making sure that the seats are FULL of media, advertising and marketing execs, as well as television producers should be in attendance (no way they would ever go to WI, IN, MS, AL, or ANY state that actually has live cows).

I assure you, Illinois has many, many, many live cows. (Several of which have been tipped by me and my cohorts) :P

But to the topic, these are good, thought-out ideas, but they aren't really applicable to the drum corps world in the way they are to other worlds simply because the drum corps community is V E R Y hesitant to change. Everyone wants the activity to stay the way that it was when he/she experienced it. Everyone has his or her own opinion on whether that's for better or worse, but in the end I don't see how making changes this substantial to the image of drum corps could lead to increased fans. If anything, I think it would just add to the dissension that is already overwhelming the activity and cause more people to leave.

[drumcat]

I think Danielray is really looking at this with his expertise in marketing, his way of changing the activity can be through what he knows best.

In reality, a lot of change happens that way. However, I think what most of us, myself included, have a hard time with about these ideas is that this doesn't seem to move in what we all seem to consider the "mission" of drum corps.

I had the idea long ago that one of the best ways drum corps could become more serious is to get its scores published. Even if it's in the stat page at the bottom corner of page 12 in the sports section, it'd be cool -- just like it was cool getting the score of your high school baseball team. Does it help much? Probably not. But it would make your sport/hobby more legitimate to more people. Same here. If you could point to the ad campaign, the sponsors, etc., then ya, you made an impact. It's the value of the return that's debatable.

[audiodb]

For example, ALL shows should be unified under a primary sponsored TOUR brand (not DCI brand... DCI is the sub-brand)...

EX: 2006 PEPSI HARDCORPS TOUR

EVERY single show should have this sponsorship and promotion. EVERY single truck for each corps should be uniformly painted (actually not painted, but wrapped), with the sponsored tour branding and the individual corp logo at a particular spot. Every single bus should have similar boards.

Corps should be making money everytime they travel down the road, not spending it.

Well, that would be nice. But I have to echo the concern about "selling out" the activity, as well as caution about putting all our eggs in one basket. I like that DCI has several major sponsors; should one drop their sponsorship, DCI won't instantly fold. The "Pepsi Hardcorps Tour", however, would live or die at the whim of one marketing manager.

At the same time, loads of packaged foods companies are on the offensive to reverse any perception of being unhealthy (to avoid potential law suits) and are spending millions of dollars on this.

KraftFoods, Masterfoods, Unilever, etc. would love to be able to showcase thousands of healthy, extremely active and talented kids that lived for months only on foods produced by their company.

Now I love this idea. But why wait? Can't this idea be pitched before the great consolidation of drum corps bussing takes place?

[MikeD]

Now I love this idea. But why wait? Can't this idea be pitched before the great consolidation of drum corps bussing takes place?

Each bass drum could be a different sponsor...with logo on the head...

Bass #1: Now sponsored by Preparation H!

Print this baby right on the head!

[MaxwellNotes]

I know this isnt exactly the point, but Im not sure moving this event closer to a media hub is the answer to the marketing issues involved with DCI. The fact is, that 30 years ago it was the second biggest youth activity, next to baseball. Now there are hundreds of activities that are more popular and "media worthy".

[BOBSMYTH]

The premise of being in a major media market is to get major media exposure of our activity to large numbers of people who have never heard of our drum corps activity.

In order to get the major market media's attention, you would have to do something newsworthy. That right there would be difficult. You can't just let them know that we're coming to town and expect significant coverage.

But - let's say that somehow, you can get some coverage. In order to get the attention of the target audience (let alone cause them to take action - like buy a ticket), you would have to have a very large number of "impressions" through the use of that media.

The crux of the problem, IMO, is that being in a major media market, DCI cannot breakthrough all of the other events, news and general advertising that are already happening in that market before we get there. When DCI was at the University of Maryland, the general public in Washington, DC did not know we were there. Drum corps as an activity and the DCI Championships as an event are not interesting enough to the general public or to the news editors making the decisions to cause large amounts of media coverage.

However, there is one way to break through - $,$$$,$$$ for advertising. Buy your own media. But, you better invest big bucks. In a major market, even a 6 figure budget may not get you the kind of exposure you are looking for. You might as well save your money and spend $0.

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.)

So... whether due to the apathy of the free media or the prohibitive expense of the paid media you have (a different set of) problems in a major market.

I believe that is the reason DCI has stayed away from doing just what the original post suggests.

Compare what you might get in NY against the wall to wall, favorable coverage that you can count on in Madison.

[danielray]

Well, that would be nice. But I have to echo the concern about "selling out" the activity, as well as caution about putting all our eggs in one basket. I like that DCI has several major sponsors; should one drop their sponsorship, DCI won't instantly fold. The "Pepsi Hardcorps Tour", however, would live or die at the whim of one marketing manager.

Now I love this idea. But why wait? Can't this idea be pitched before the great consolidation of drum corps bussing takes place?

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.

[danielray]

The premise of being in a major media market is to get major media exposure of our activity to large numbers of people who have never heard of our drum corps activity.

The main point is not to have finals in these locations to get more people to attend a single event... but to get a specific group of people (journalists and ad execs), probably less than 100 people total, that would not otherwise be interested in attending if it was not extremely convenient for them.

It is important to have it in a place where these people can attend and be exposed to this, as it can bring in $$$ to cover costs of operations and increase targeted media exposure (again, it is not broadcast news... broadcast news doesn't hit the target market).

Edited April 12, 2006 by danielray