"Sign up and enter to win FREE tickets to INSERT SHOW NAME HERE!"
All of you, right?
How many of you have DONE the above?
Almost all of you, right? I know my hand is up. I'm not chucking any rocks at anyone, don't you worry.
I've got news for everyone . . . giving away free tickets in a contest just doesn't cut it anymore.
Why do we give them away? Because they are cheap and easy to get. Guess what? The consumer knows. (Oh, and by the way, if the consumer really wants tickets to your show, he or she is going to buy them!)
If you want to increase sign-up conversions, give them something else that might be a little more out of reach. Try a weekend getaway for two, free dinners, a $100 gift certificate to FAO Schwarz, or . . . for the right show . . . cash.
Give them anything that has a higher perceived value than a voucher for a pair of tickets that won't be available on prime nights anyway. They know how to get tickets (and most likely at a discount). Give them something they don't know how to get, and they'll give you something in return…
Their email address.
And that just might be worth a few bucks after all.
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3 Responses to Win tickets. Win cash. What do you prefer?
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Here in the radio world, we have spent a great deal of money doing focus groups on this particular subject. Believe it or not, $100 in cash ranks higher than plane tickets or $10,000 in cash when you ask listeners what they would like to win.
For most of the people in our survey, $10,000 is such a large amount, that they automatically assume they’ll never win, so they won’t try. In the case of flyaways to see concerts, half of the listeners either hate to fly, or can’t get the time off work to go, so they don’t bother.
We just did an on-air contest at my radio station where listeners had to accumulate as much cash as they could before the buzzer went off. Each contestant had the opportunity to win up to $1000. 80 Percent of them stopped once they got around $350. Nobody wanted to risk playing beyond that amount. Here in Cali, where the state is broke and people are struggling, $350 pays a couple of bills, buys some groceries, etc. It’s an amount that means a lot to people.
One other contest that works well for us here is called “Pick Your Pampering”. Listeners sign up on the website and tell us what the one luxury item they would like to buy for themselves, but can’t afford. So the radio station buys it for them. Coach bags, Ipods, Ipads, smartphones, designer shoes— they are all the things listeners are asking for because they don’t have an extra $500 laying around to buy it themselves. It drives listening and the radio station gets “kindness” points for doing something nice for average people.
Give them what money can’t buy. Stars & backstage. Every in-the-know theatregoer knows that an autograph Playbill can be easily achieved by a visit to the stagedoor. Most theatre lovers would die to go backstage or onstage. Back when RENT was open, getting to sign the “Rent Wall” was seen as supreme royalty.
It’s normally used as a BC/EFA (or other charity) bid/auction, but people would definitely pay to have *insert star’s name* give them a backstage tour after a show.
Rachel’s idea is a good one. They can buy the tickets, but if they are fans of said show, getting a backstage pass or to go to dinner or a party is something they cannot buy. Free tickets is fine, especially for people who refuse to shell out $100 a pop for them. But I agree with your post – more ingenuity is needed today.