ExtremeTix Meets Jerry Maguire
An article by 
Oct, 3, 2012
“This moment will be the moment of something real and fun and inspiring…and we will do it together. Who’s comin’ with me?”
—Tom Cruise in the 1996 film, “Jerry Maguire”
Who could forget the awkward, but deeply inspiring “exit speech” sports promoter Jerry Maguire delivered to bewildered co-workers on how clients should be treated–as he’s forced out from the corporate world of sports management in the awarding-winning film, “Jerry Maguire?”
That type of inspiration doesn’t strike often, so when you realize you’re becoming part of something that can empower an organization’s foundational approach to how departments collaborate—for the sake of its clients’ success—you feel the way many of us at ExtremeTix currently feel—inspired, excited and ready to hit the ground running!
Changes
We recently announced our company was making “organizational changes.” Gone are the days of lone sales representatives responsible for a regional territory of commerce. Welcome to the ExtremeTix team approach: Three separate Business Units (BUs) focused on a set of vertical entertainment markets, leveraging the power of teamwork to get ‘er done.
Experience
When I started to prepare a marketing breakdown of our sales team’s experience, I was blown away by my co-workers advanced level of expertise*: Industry veterans from the country’s largest arenas, venues and professional sporting organizations like the NFL, NBA and MLB. Not to mention a few good men from other leading ticketing companies.
“The key to this business is personal relationships.”
—Jerry Maguire’s mentor, the late great Dickie Fox
Our newly-minted BUs were formed to reflect each team member’s strength and experience. More importantly, new and current clients will be assisted by a unit of entertainment veterans who understand your customer demographics—providing a laser sharp focus on the best fit for your needs. Throw in access to marketing and promotions strategists and we’re presenting the best service model in the industry, hands down.
Every ExtremeTix employee is excited about what the future holds—and can literally see the results manifest on a daily basis.
*Being with the company less than six months is no excuse for lack of internal awareness of my colleagues’ jaw-dropping experience.
Let There Be Light!
The view many ExtremeTix employees are greeted with each morning: Productivity be thy name!
Before our company moved offices, I couldn’t help but notice a lot of doors seemed to be closed, thus blocking out any external light the folks in sales and marketing might be affected by. O.K., so maybe it was just my own pet peeve. Most corporate, creative minds yearn for a cube with a view—as it appeals to breaking through emotional barriers—or in my case, writer’s block.
Walking into our new offices still gives me a small thrill. There is a feeling of openness that spreads throughout the internal, circular structure as Houston’s skyline presents its palette of tall buildings and horrific traffic jams. The best part? We can literally see storms approaching from the north, south east and western skies. Weather.com has nothing on us!
I’ve also noticed that most of the doors stay open throughout the day. Could it be me—or is there a deeper meaning behind this growing concept of openness? Or, to use my favorite buzzword of the month: transparency…
My internal marketing radar feels good juju in the air.
ExtremeTix Kicks Off College Football Season Across the Country
Ready? O.K.!
ExtremeTix clients had their box offices open, gates prepped and were ready for some college football as fans across the country poured into many of our university clients’ opening weekends to enjoy some game day fun.
Check out what our friends at Central Connecticut State University and Grand Valley State University were doing over the weekend. If your school uses ExtremeTix, we’d love to see some of your game day photos, too!
Box Office Camaraderie Never Looked So Blue!
Helping the Lakers at the Box Office
Think Groupon Is Good For Business? Think Before You Deal…
As summer rolls into the school year, many consumers are sifting through email pitches from daily deal sites enticing them to try massage parlors, salons and restaurants of every stripe, often for pennies on the dollar. As cheap as these deals seem to buyers, are they very effective for the retailers or event organizers? Let’s take a look…
Look carefully at the fine print with any daily deal for your event - you may be giving away more than just a ticketing deal!
Often times, daily deals purveyors require at least a 50% discount from standard fees or ticket prices to even do a deal; a $20 ticket would cost the buyer only $10. Of that $10, the daily deal site typically gets 60% of that, leaving you, event marketers, just $4 of that $20 ticket. Was it worth $16 to bring that ticket buyer into your event? Will that ticket buyer ever come back to event and willingly pay more than $4? Research shows they won’t and that’s why event organizers need to tread cautiously when even thinking about using any daily deal site.
Research from faculty at Cornell and MIT indicates that daily deal customers who provide public reviews of the merchants they’ve used as part of daily deals, typically give ratings 10% lower than those of their peers. Is that something you want happening to your event brand? Lose money and let the brand take the hit?
Recent anecdotal research from NPR indicates daily deal customers tend not to spend as much as retailers had hoped. And now there’s news that Groupon is bullying and threaten lawsuits against small businesses that try to get out of their contracts. The moral of the story is to look at how much each marketing channel costs for your event and determine what makes the most sense for your event at that point in time. We also encourage you to tap into the event experts at ExtremeTix – we’ve seen every type of conceivable event and worked favorable deals with Groupon and other daily deal sites on behalf of clients, so anything is possible. Just ask!
[Groupon Kitty Image: Groupon site]
How’s My Driving?
That’s what was staring at me from the back of the van that cut me off and very nearly caused a major accident on Highway 59 north last night. It was not the first time this has happened to me, and previously I actually have called the number and like a responsible motorist reported in glorious detail all the facts pertaining to and about the heinous wrongdoing that had been perpetrated against me. The person receiving my feedback seemed unmoved and made me question whether anybody really cared. It was a very nice sign on the back of the truck though…
Feedback is great - it's the gift of getting better in what you do
Feedback is a gift. When somebody gives you feedback you have some options. They are a) to listen, evaluate, accept and adopt, b) listen evaluate and take no action, and finally c) don’t listen. When somebody gives me a gift I always say thank you. As such when somebody gives me feedback, I say thank-you and then very seriously consider whether or not a change is merited. It is a great gift.
At ExtremeTix we all appreciate feedback. We really think we do a good job, we strive for flawless execution, but we are always open to suggestions as to how we can improve. We constantly evaluate our products and services with a view to improve. Being unencumbered with any delusions about being perfect helps a lot! We want to be the best and who better than our clients, employees and shareholders is better positioned to provide a little feedback. We’ll thank you.
Sneak peek at new ExtremeTix purchase path
We all know that selling advanced online tickets is your best insurance against weather or any other problem that might affect your event on the big day. And that’s why ExtremeTix has been so focused on helping our clients sell more tickets online since our start back in 1999 – we’ve been doing it well with the best security in the industry and we’re happy to announce it’s getting better!
Starting tomorrow, ExtremeTix will introduce the evolution of the online ticket-buying experience that encompasses the best of the web coupled with client and buyer feedback to produce one of the easiest ticket-buying experiences available. Prospective ticket buyers will get more information earlier in the ticket-buying process and see exactly what’s coming next so they’re more likely to stick with their purchases.
Buying tickets online just got easier with ExtremeTix
In addition, these prospective buyers will have full access to social sharing tools at multiple points in the purchase process so they can share their intent to attend client events as well as share their ticket purchases with friends across more than two dozen social media platforms. Your ticket buyers become your best salespeople with the help of ExtremeTix.
What do you need to do? Nothing really, but if you’re curious about how you can get a sneak peek at the new purchase path for your event, please touch base with your account manager. And keep an eye on this space for more exciting announcements from ExtremeTix.
Did You Know?
Someone famous* once said, Knowledge is Power—and the folks at ExtremeTix agree 110 percent. We’re happy to announce our newest editorial endeavor designed to unlock unique possibilities for your events while delivering snippets of event-branded love: Did You Know?
Not only do we know and love events, but we’re passionate about our approach: from strategizing the best fit for clients’ social media needs to ensuring those same clients get the most from their relationship with ExtremeTix.
Ultimately—we hope to impart tips, tricks and honest-to-blog tools designed to make your job easier and your event—triumphant!
Want a sneak peak? Check it out.
*Sir Francis Bacon, English Lawyer and Philosopher, 1561 – 1626
When Extreme Weather Strikes, ExtremeTix Employees Step Up Their Games
In the eye of the storm, with hail and debris clouding their fifth-floor view of downtown Houston, ExtremeTix Equipment Manager Kate Scaife was worried—not about the electricity flickering off and on, or by a final deafening boom that alerted her team the power had little chance of returning. She had a 6:30 p.m. deadline looming. With the elevator out of commission, she grappled for a plan that could provide only one outcome: Get their boxes to the loading dock before the Fed-Ex pick-up.
ExtremeTix takes great care with equipment to make sure it gets where it's needed when it's needed
“We try and send our equipment days ahead of schedule, just to be safe. Having our scanners onsite can sometimes make the difference between a successful event and a failure. In this industry, there’s no room for failure,” Scaife lamented to me in a matter-of-fact tone.
As Scaife prepared the dolly, expertly stacking the boxes that weighed between 14 and 27 pounds apiece, fellow employees Shelesa Stanfield, Amanda Richey and Christina Suazo left the darkness of their offices and rolled up their sleeves—ready and willing to tackle the physical challenge awaiting them. Without hesitating, I followed–deciding this had “blog worthy” written all over it. We were like the poor man’s version of “The Avengers”–Mother Nature had nothing on us!
“Don’t forget to include Mikey,” Kate reminded me when I told her my idea for the blog. Uh–no worries there. Who can forget a dude whose shoulders could easily double for an NFL defensive lineman?
I was blown away by their dedication and physical agility as they CAREFULLY maneuvered their way down the first flight of 26 individual stairs.
As they approached the fourth floor landing, the electricity returned to everyone’s relief. Unfortunately, re-powering the elevator wasn’t in the cards and 6:30 was fast approaching.
The distinctly broad Botello set the dolly in place, grabbing three boxes off the top before starting down the remaining stairs. His co-workers followed and I retired my camera to join in, transporting the boxes to their rightful spot three floors below—meeting our deadline with 5 minutes to spare!
“If that poor driver had to risk life and limb to make the pick-up, who were we to skimp on muscle?” Scaife laughed. “It was truly a team effort. But that’s just how we roll. Pun intended.” Well said, Ms. Scaife. Well said.
Video of the scramble to get the equipment out the door (hit the “play” button at the jump).
Google+ For Events? You Betcha!
For all the event organizers out there on a budget, Google just launched a neat little feature on Google+ that basically allows you (and your brand pages) to create events for both the public and Google+ members. It’s about time Google+ opened up to events marketing and this initial version is pretty darn good. It’s too bad news about it is getting lost in all the other Google i/o hoopla.
The Sarasota Blues and Music Fest invited the public to the festival with Google+ events
If you have a Gmail account, you can easily sign up for a Google+ account and then create a brand page for your event. Once you’ve got a brand page, it’s really easy to create an event. Click on “Events” in the left menu to spawn the details window and basically fill in the blanks – date, place, time, description, YouTube URL and even ticket link (be sure to use a sales reference code specific to Google+…). And remember to select the right “cinegraph” (that 16×9 animated image tied to each event – can’t upload your own yet, but they have a wide variety to choose from) before sending out the invitation to the event.
Once the event starts, the Google+ Event page enters something called Party Mode, where you or any of the attendees can take and share picutures of the event. Those images are uploaded to the event page where you can select to run a slideshow of all the images that have been uploaded while your event is still in progress. Did live blogging just get replaced or is the new UGC (user generated content), or rather, AGC (attendee generated content)? Whatever this is called, it’s a great tool that all event organizers can (and should) tap into for every one of their events.
Movin’ On Up
“Change is necessary in life — to keep us moving…to keep us growing…to keep us interested…”
~ Dr. Dennis O’Grady
We're growing - and moving - in the right direction!
We couldn’t agree more! And come June 30th, the ExtremeTix family is expanding—literally…
Amid product enhancements, system upgrades and an impending website overhaul comes the need for more talented folks to help develop and maintain the supply and demand “demand and supply” model ExtremeTix has been facilitating for our growing client base.
Technology isn’t the only group expanding—marketing pros have been brought in to help our clients extend the reach of their events, find ancillary opportunities for buzz along with exploring a host of relevant social media platforms for engaging with fans.* And the accounting staff is growing to handle the millions of transactions we’re increasingly conducting all year round.
Providing the most secure ticketing platform in the industry is what this company was founded on, but sharing our event expertise with a personal touch is what sets ExtremeTix apart from the competition—and a key factor in our decision to relocate. We’re an entertainment company that simply needs more space to generate industry-changing ideas.
Our new digs will provide ample space for internal collaboration with more common areas and meeting rooms as well as an equipment room that will be the envy of the local Fed-Ex crew (it’s huge and organized oh-so-well). The new location will also provide more wall space for us to share mementos from all of our client events, so we’re making the ask now – can we get a copy of your event posters? We’ll display them!
Be on the lookout for a distinctive postcard formalizing our announcement with new address. Who are we kidding? ExtremeTix is always one step ahead—and we want you to be, too. Here’s the NEW address:
ExtremeTix’s New Company Office
(drum roll, please)
7600 West Tidwell, Suite 806
Houston, Texas 77040
1-832-251-0888
If you’re ever in Houston (or Texas for that matter), you have an open invitation to stop on by for a visit. We’ll give you the grand tour and maybe even show off that state of the art equipment room.
*Facebook is GREAT, but there are dozens of social media platforms that might be better fits for your event. Just ask us about them!
