The circus has left town. Leaving behind an abandoned trail of ticket stubs and empty beer cups, hazy recollections of celebrity sightings and behind-the-ropes parties, and everlasting memories of cold and the best damn slam dunk contest ever.
NBA All-Star 2016 won’t be the last big event to hit Toronto. This year alone we have the World Cup of Hockey, 104th Grey Cup, and IIHF World Junior Championship opening rounds to look forward to. They join an already amazing highlight reel of annual events like TIFF, Pride Toronto, and Caribana. But the magnitude of what we witnessed was somewhat unprecedented and educational.
Every cool venue in town was the site of some sort of official or unofficial NBA event. Restaurants, galleries, event spaces, hotels, and even a certain performance venue. Casa Loma held a Jordan party. An unindentified Bridal Path home was rented for LeBron & Drake’s bash. A championship boxer held court at a certain venue on King Street for his own private dance party.
Media of all sorts descended upon us. The massive and traditional TV networks, newspapers, magazines, and radio. As well as the global and agile digital and social networks. International social reach exceeded even the Super Bowl. It was like a mini Olympics impact-wise. The legacy of holding such an event is measured in exposure, economic, and excitement. There is, however, an important benefit for consideration. That is of key lessons learned for marketers.
It was a bit surprising to hear how many people were surprised about the impact of All-Star Weekend. One business leader told me they flat out missed the boat. Another asset holder realized they could have leveraged their property better. While I can’t claim any particular expertise to leveraging NBA All-Star events, we did have some great success, but there still is lots of learning to be taken from an event like this. Learning that can be applied to the next major event window.
Whether you are a brand or a charity, you should be planning ahead and examining what’s happening in your markets over the next two years. Yes two years. Whether you will be an official rights holder or not, the first step to success is planning ahead. But before we talk about planning, you may wonder if I’m advocating guerilla marketing. I’m not recommending ambush. I am personally, however, supportive of activities that contribute to the investors of an event.
Let me explain. Ambush is when Brand B, the non-rights holder of a major festival, runs a promotion entitled Win a Trip to the Big Party, in attempt to diminish the equity if Brand A’s official rights relationship. No, what I’m suggesting is that if Brand B decides to buy tickets, buy hosting packages, market to tourists to attend the festival, stage an adjunct event, or create B2B transactions, then I’m all for it. Why? Because their efforts help generate returns for the tourism boards, government agencies, and visitors associations that often underwrite so much of these events. Often to an amount much much larger than the sponsor. But I digress, and any more of this and Bill Cooper will be hanging me in effigy.
Back to the educational part of the NBA All-Star experience. We’ve all witnessed the opportunities such a big event brings. Now is the time to be looking ahead. Your number one success factor will be lead time. But future planning on its own isn’t enough, and sometimes time isn’t on your side. Then you need other resources. I will use the teachings of one of my early mentors for this one. He was a crusty old print broker who taught me every single day in the first five years of my career. One of his favourite messages was the time-money axis. In his own words, anything a client wanted could be done – they just took time and money. The less time you have, the more money you needed. He was right.
But in today’s marketing ecosystem, I think money has been equaled by clout, channel, access, and influence. So in your planning, you don’t have to be deterred if you have money and/or some combination of the newer ingredients for marketing success.
If you’re thinking about upcoming major events that you want to leverage, you need to plot a militaristic strategy. Take a thorough look at where the event will be held, where the primary hotels are, convention facilities, public spaces. Overlay on your map the most appropriate entertainment venues, dining attractions, and unique event spaces. Now overlay on it all the human consideration. Traffic. Transit. Pedestrians. Parking. By the time you’re done you should have a five-star general-worthy battle map.
Keep it handy.
Now look at the different groups you want to influence. VIPs? Celebrities? Government Oficials? Speakers? Entertainers? Visitors? Residents? Industry Leaders? Events have many layers. They are more complex than icebergs. The live audience is very different based on rank, importance, industry connections, and customer relationships. In overly simple terms, the public is outside the ropes, and the rest are inside. Perhaps your plan is to talk to several groups. Perhaps you want to flip the ropes around. Perhaps you’re not sure. If you’re a charity who has never before worked with a big event, it can be daunting. Even for a major brand who has lots of global experience, perhaps you’re the new brand manager and don’t want to appear nieve. This is where you need to network like mad. Read about such past events. Talk with suppliers, venues who hosted previous versions, maybe even event attendees. The internet can lead you through this web faster than you can imagine.
When you’re done, pull your map out again and give it a closer look. You may now want to make some revisions.
Now that you have an understanding of what could happen in your region and who will be involved, you still need to think about how you can get involved. What do you do if you feel your brand or organization is too small to play? Well there is an APP for that, but you can skip the APP Store – I will share the secret with you. It’s called leverage. Perhaps you have access to venues that outsiders won’t. Or volunteers. Or goodwill. Or media relations. I know of one charity who scored a pretty great cross-promo with the NBA, all due to their request of a middle man to set up a meeting.
If you feel you need to get more drastic, then take some risks. Rent every limo for the entire week. Book off the three best restaurants. Sound like a business blockade? No, it’s just being a first mover.
Is that too aggressive for you? Okay create a fundraiser and invite visiting celebrities to be a key part of it. Make sure they understand how important the cause is in that region. Position yourself as a local expert or a media channel or an information provider. All it takes is a little packaging of the expertise you already have.
The bottom line is the bottom line here. Major events can provide amazing impact for you brand, business, or cause. The sole reason that your tax dollars and resources are utilized to lure them in is to provide benefits to your organization, employees, customers, and suppliers. Lasting benefits. So there is no reason you shouldn’t take advantage of these opportunities.
Ready for tipoff?