Q&A #7 – Marketing Challenge, Quick Hacks & Cold Turkey

First question comes from Aaron LeValley, a former podcast guest from the L.A. Kings. He wrote this in via Sports Geek Nation Slack. His question is Gen X and boomers are the ones driving most of the ticket revenue in sports, while millennials and Gen Z are the future. How do you find the best ways of balancing your marketing spend and technology development to meet the needs of your customers? The next five years versus the next 20 years? Thank you very much, Aaron. Super interesting question. Again, tough question to get answers out and keep might keep these episodes under 10 minutes, but I will do my best. I think this is a this is a problem and a lot of tactic and technique and also product. So I think from a tactic point of view, I think there are different platforms and different methods of communication that you can communicate with these different groups. So if I'm talking about it from a Digital to Dollars point of view, this is around, you know, distribution. So this is if you want to be tackling millennials and Gen Z, you will be tackling them on the platforms that they are on and trying these new platforms and trying to make those connections. So that's the bit of going to the channels where they are and making sure you are talking to them. But as you sort of said, the Gen X boomers are driving the most declining revenue. So it's not about going all in on these new platforms. Like, I'm not saying go and drive your new campaign completely and exclusively on Tick Tock, because that's over indexing on what millennials and Gen Z are doing. I think the other part, which is more important than the techniques and platforms is the development of product. And so by that I mean ticketing products, experience product that will appeal to millennials and Gen Z. So I think that's where the development will come from. The Gen X and the boomers are quite happy being season ticket holders, buying a full season ticket, turning up to a game 41 times, 72 times 11 times or whatever. However many home games you might have, whereas the millennial Gen Z market are very much on demand. I'll decide at decided last minute those kind of things. So one, they'll want a ticketing product that fits in there on demand. I want it now or I only want to do it every now and again type of mentality. But then also they want an experience that sort of is also aligned with what they want to do. They might not want to be sitting in a seat for 40 minutes, 90 minutes, three hours. They would much prefer to be watching a game from a bar and taken in as in the experience. So that's why we're seeing stadiums change ticketing options, change people, stadiums that are building our bars. People can be watching the game from. So I think that's where the balance comes. So it's not just all on the market. It is on the product development. It is on the stadium development. It is on the overall strategy that you're trying to drive. But it's something you can't ignore. You can't just keep expecting that the next generation will except consume and take up the product that Gen X and boomers have been taking up. So I think that's going to be ever evolving. The good thing about digital, it is able to be tracked and you are able to build on it. I think they have the same need and for identity and be feeling part of a try. But I think that goes away. They've just they've just got more options. So you've got to be very nimble and creative in building out that tribe. And it will be something that, Lou, will be a challenge over the next 15 to 20 years.

But I do think that's where the industry will will evolve. So I don't think it's all gonna be on the marketers or the technology marketers. I think it's it's a combination of a lot of things. But I do think that developing a product that appeals to them and then delivering into them on the platforms that they want will be the key things. But I look forward actually chatting about this, Aaron. Next time we catch up for beer, whether it's in your part of the world or mine.