Lesson 9.3 –
The Ticket Sales Cycle
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© 2014 by Sports Career Consulting, LLC
Ticket Promotion & Sales
LESSON 9.3
Sports & Entertainment Marketing Goals
The ultimate goal of sports and
entertainment promotion according to
Mullin, Hardy and Sutton is to “increase
overall consumption of products or
services through increased awareness
and interest”
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© 2014 by Sports Career Consulting, LLC
Ticket Promotion & Sales
LESSON 9.3
Frequency Escalator
The basic concept of the
escalator is that sports and
entertainment marketers
focus not on getting new
fans to games, but rather
encourage those fans
already attending to attend
with more frequency
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The frequency escalator
is a marketing tool that
examines the attendance
levels of fans
© 2014 by Sports Career Consulting, LLC
Ticket Promotion & Sales
LESSON 9.3
The Frequency
Escalator
Heavy User
Medium User
Light User
Indirect User
Non User
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© 2014 by Sports Career Consulting, LLC
Ticket Promotion & Sales
LESSON 9.3
Frequency Escalator
The unaware consumer does not know a product
or service exists and therefore does not attend
games or events
The sports and entertainment marketer reaches this
group of consumers through advertising, publicity
and promotional items
Copyright
© 2014 by Sports Career Consulting, LLC
Ticket Promotion & Sales
LESSON 9.3
Frequency Escalator
The indirect user is aware of the product or
service, but does not directly participate by
attending events, but rather consumes via another
source (television, radio etc)
The sports and entertainment marketer goal with
indirect users is to do something to get them to act.
This group of consumers can be reached through
promotional tickets, individual/single game tickets,
theme nights and group nights
Copyright
© 2014 by Sports Career Consulting, LLC
Ticket Promotion & Sales
LESSON 9.3
Frequency Escalator
Light users attend games and events for
promotional giveaways, team performance
and social interaction
This group of consumers can be reached through
increased promotion and give-aways and creative
packaging strategies
Copyright
© 2014 by Sports Career Consulting, LLC
Ticket Promotion & Sales
LESSON 9.3
Frequency Escalator
Medium users attend less than half
the times possible
The keys to reaching this group include good
service, appealing to fan pride, creating team
affiliations, added benefits such as seat locations
and emphasis on the value of fan participation
Copyright
© 2014 by Sports Career Consulting, LLC
Ticket Promotion & Sales
LESSON 9.3
Frequency Escalator
Heavy users participate or attend more than half
the times possible and are the most important
group to an organization
Examples of heavy users include season ticket
holders, Tom Cruise fans that see each of his films
in the theater and purchase all of his DVDs and fans
of the Dave Matthews Band who see the concerts
each time they visit the fan’s city and purchase all
of their CDs
Copyright
© 2014 by Sports Career Consulting, LLC
Ticket Promotion & Sales
LESSON 9.3
Frequency Escalator
Descending the escalator occurs when
consumers downgrade or eliminate their
participation levels
Descending the escalator occurs when a
consumer has over purchased or
overcommitted
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© 2014 by Sports Career Consulting, LLC
Ticket Promotion & Sales
LESSON 9.3
Descending the Escalator
Is often a byproduct of fan disconnect or
discord with “their” team, event, or
favorite performers
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© 2014 by Sports Career Consulting, LLC
Ticket Promotion & Sales
LESSON 9.3
Descending the Escalator
The University of Colorado’s
experiment with Groupon to
heavily discount game tickets
as way to attract new fans to
the stadium provides an
example of how an
organization approaches the
frequency escalator concept
(the Buffaloes managed to
sell nearly 1,200 tickets in
less than 24 hours)
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© 2014 by Sports Career Consulting, LLC
Ticket Promotion & Sales
LESSON 9.3
Descending the Escalator
CU's marketing director Prema Khanna: "While we
would have liked to have sold more, we are happy
with the results. What it does for us is potentially
bring new people that may not otherwise go to a
Colorado football game. It's a way to introduce them
to our product, get them to a game...and then, who
knows? Maybe next year they buy a three-game
pack. The idea is to see if they go beyond this year."
Copyright
© 2014 by Sports Career Consulting, LLC
Ticket Promotion & Sales
LESSON 9.3
Blank Slide Available
for Teacher Edits
Copyright
© 2014 by Sports Career Consulting, LLC
LESSON 9.3 REVIEW (ANSWERS)
Ticket
Promotion &
Sales
1)Explain the concept of frequency
escalator
The basic concept of the escalator is
that sports and entertainment
marketers focus not on getting new fans
to games, but rather encourage those
fans already attending to attend with
more frequency with an increased level
of commitment
Copyright
© 2014 by Sports Career Consulting, LLC