Cory Shakarian, VP, Legends Global Sales; Dave Brown, Exec. VP and GM, American Airlines Center, Dallas; Martin Thorson, VP, Sports, Entertainment, Convention and Gaming, Sodexo Leisure; moderator Gregory Hoss, principal, David Schwarz Architects; and Jay Lenhardt of CSL International spoke about creating a friction-free experience for fans at IAVM's Arena Management Conference. (VT Photo)
REPORTING FROM LONG BEACH, CALIF. – From food service providers to technology companies, speakers with the International Association of Venue Managers at the annual Arena Management Conference here, Sept.14-16, focused on easing friction. One of the recurring themes when it came to ease of experience was communication.
Potential customers and partners can only benefit from overcommunication of needs and goals. It starts at the beginning with an organization or venue’s brand.
Greg Economou’s resume might be long and winding, but his message is very straightforward: live your brand. Economou joined Dick Clark Productions just more than a year ago as EVP and chief revenue officer, before which he served as Exec.VP of revenue performance at the Madison Square Garden Company. He also spent time as Exec.VP and chief Marketing officer at Bobcats Sports and Entertainment in Charlotte, N.C., and as Sr.VP, Marketing and Communications for the National Basketball Association.
The brand expert said that what a company wants to stand for should dictate how its employees think and how they act.
His main tips for defining the values and brand of an organization: “Be real, be relevant, be scalable.”
Leadership by example and holding staff accountable is key. When he worked in Charlotte, Economou initiated a major overhaul. Every 30 days he held an evaluation and anyone who didn’t make the cut from a values perspective — embodying passion, integrity, teamwork and work ethic — was let go.
“Within a year, we had the largest ticket sales increase in the NBA,” said Economou. By releasing staff that didn’t fit the values of the company, Economou removed a friction point that buoyed the success of the organization.
After the brand has been solidified, organizations need to look at removing friction from ticket purchase to return home. Dave Brown, Exec.VP & GM at American Airlines Center in Dallas, said that it’s important to make the fan experience as easy as possible because there is so much competition for people’s discretionary dollars.
“We keep hearing, ‘I don’t come to games any more because of whatever friction there is in the experience,’ whether that’s traffic, construction, issues getting into the building with ticket scanners or long lines,” said Brown. “Everyone’s focusing on the driveway-to-driveway experience — it all ties together.”
When it comes to premium spaces, all-inclusive ticket packages are one way to remove some friction points.
“Everything I’ve been involved in in the last few years is all-inclusive,” said Cory Shakarian, VP, Legends Global Sales. “Really, it’s an increased perceived value for the customer, so we can get a nice uptick when we do an all-inclusive experience.”
Brown said that it’s important to keep quality high-end and consistent when doing all-inclusive offers. American Airlines Center provides a buffet and action station at a cost to concessionaire Levy Restauarants of about $50 per person, which he estimated retails for closer to $75 per person.
“You have to spend a little to make it right,” Brown said, adding that the option provides smaller companies the opportunity to entertain while removing those friction points. “Parking, food and beverage, everything is right there for them — they just waltz right in and don’t even have a credit card because they don’t have to spend a dime.”
Greg Economou, Exec. VP and chief revenue officer for Dick Clark Productions, spoke about the importance of defining and communicating brands and values. (VT Photo)
Legends created a premium outdoor amenity space at L.A. Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, home of University of Southern California’s USC Trojan football. The stadium is nearly 90 years old, so the USC and Legends team came together to discuss what they could create before any major renovations took place.
Legends has built temporary suites at one end zone on the field. The experience is enhanced by a new tailgate experience that incorporates chef action stations, dessert carts and shading.
“The idea of monetizing spaces just outside of your venue or area is very interesting,” said Shakarian. “Something was missing at USC — a very high-end tailgate experience that we’ve been able to create as part of that field package.”
He mentioned that the Baltimore Ravens have created a similar premium tailgate with 35 spots outside M&T Bank Stadium that have generated around $2.5 million in extra revenue.
Another important place to remove friction is in the mobile experience.
At the Global Spectrum-managed Chaifetz Arena in St. Louis, Mo., general manager Jim Wynkoop said that his facility embraced mobile technology when they realized that’s how fans were accessing their information. Through a bit of analytics research, he found that around 45- to 50-percent of traffic to the venue website was coming from a phone or a tablet every week.
“Obviously we needed to do something to optimize that experience of people coming to our website,” said Wynkoop. Over the summer, Chaifetz Arena launched a mobile optimized version of its website. “Down the road, we would love to be able to do an app, but we want to be able to do it the right way.”
Jim Cheshire of AVAI Mobile Solutions said that apps are a good way to ease some of those friction areas because you can communicate with your fans more effectively. For instance, Javits Center in New York used geofence technology to inform fans that, while one entrance during its International Auto Show event may have a 10-minute wait to enter the facility, a neighboring entrance had no line.
“It eases frictions because we can have clients notify their fans that there may be a construction problem” or anything else that would impede the experience, Cheshire added.
In the future, Wynkoop said that venues will look into mobile purchasing technology, whether for concessions or seat upgrades.
“The easier it is to spend money in your venue, the more people are going to spend,” he said. “The point is to make it faster, easier, and have less friction.”
International Association of Venue Managers’ Arena Management Conference drew about 215 registrants this year. They will meet at the Ballpark Hilton in St. Louis Sept. 20-22 next year.
Interviewed for this story: Dave Brown, (214) 665-4240; Jim Cheshire, (512) 301-9445; Greg Economou, (310) 255-4600; Cory Shakarian, (626) 577-3242; Jim Wynkoop, (314) 977-5001