Sean Kelly’s Post

I've just come back from an exciting trip to London, I was attending the excellent Theatre Conference 2024 presented by Society of London Theatre & UK Theatre. Here are my three takeaways: 1) Each time I come to London the food options just get better and better. 🍤 2) When the sun shines London is beautiful but when it does not it often felt cold and wet. ☀ 3) This year, compared to last there has been a big shift in interest in dynamic pricing. At the 2022 edition of the conference many were wary of dynamic pricing, treating it as a more of the theoretical, very few were interested in trying it, and even fewer had actually implement it. Skip to this year, many inventory holders were actively seeking us out to dive deeper into what needed to be considered when applying dynamic pricing and its benefits. We signed up a few new clients that were brand new to dynamic pricing and even had a few meetings with clients that are actively using dynamic pricing and that were looking to switch to a provider that is more aligned to their specialist needs. The dynamic pricing market is maturing on the buy side for sure. 📶

Marketers! We need your voice...

We have a question for you: We create an 2-day event that happens for one weekend in the summer, once per year. We've talked to people who know about the summer festival, but don't feel a sense of urgency to purchase tickets early, or wait until the week of to see what the weather will be like, or see if they get any better offers that weekend before committing and purchasing tickets. This problem isn't contained to just us, this is very common with smaller events in the arts and culture sector, with events doing the majority of their sales the week of. So we ask, how do you create a sense of urgency in people for something happening 7+ months away in a culture where everything is targeted towards instant results and gratification? Curious for your thoughts.

🚨 Calling all arts leaders! 🚨 If you’ve ever grappled with questions like “How much should we charge for tickets?” or “should we offer comps?” this conversation is for you. I’ll be talking all things tickets 🎟 with Sean Kelly, visionary founder of Vatic, on April 24. Sean is the 👑 master when it comes to dynamic pricing. And despite what you may have experienced with Uber and surge pricing, dynamic pricing is NOT just about raising prices. 💡 It's about understanding perceptions of value — determining what a night out at your organization is WORTH to the ticket buyer. Because for every ticket purchase, there are trade-offs being made. And if you're not aware of them, your arts organization is potentially undervaluing 💰 (or OVERvaluing) your offerings. Sean will help you understand when you can safely raise prices—and when dropping prices can actually yield a BETTER result. 👀 🚀 Don't miss this opportunity to learn from a true industry trailblazer. Save your spot now and, as always, bring your burning questions for the Q&A session. Join us for a lunchtime chat on April 24 at 12pm EST/9am PST. 👉 AMHoF membership is required for this class, but you can sign up for a free 30-day trial here: https://buff.ly/4awqEsf. #artsmarketing #artsmanagement #audiencedevelopment

"NOT A BAD SEAT IN THE HOUSE" 🤷♀️ When speaking with arts professionals you'll often hear this phrase. They are understandably proud of their venues. 🎉 But just because there isn't a BAD seat in the house. Doesn't mean there are not preferences. Seats are not a commodity. They aren't corn. 🌽 Patrons have remarkably personal views of what qualifies as a good seat. And those preferences represent untapped revenue for your arts org. 💵💷💶 Patrons will often value individual seats more highly than folks internal to an organization. Internal folks know all about sight lines and acoustics. Patrons just know where they want to sit. That's why Vatic offers low cost venue rescaling as a benefit to our dynamic pricing customers. We don't think it should cost tens of thousands of dollars to optimize your pricing zones. And we want you to rescale every three years... So that you are consistently evolving the scale of the venue to align with changing buying patterns. 🧠

How did Fred Again do it? I watched Fred Again fill the Los Angeles Coliseum last night—announced less than a week ago! The crowd was so packed we couldn’t reach our seats. We found an empty spot and settled in. How did he manage this? Huge names such as Jennifer Lopez canceled tours and the Black Keys downgraded venues. While most artists face “revenge spending” hangover, Fred Again thrived. Is it all inflation driven macro trends driving ticketing to unsustainable levels? Is he another “Taylor Swift” level outlier phenomenon? Are old metrics like total streaming numbers, social media followers and earned media outdated predictors of ticket sales? Are agents now focusing on recent streaming numbers and social media engagement to predict ticket sales and book venues? Tools like Jeff Ponchick Mogul exist for aggregated royalty optimization. Is there a similar unified dashboard that track multi-platform fan sentiment and optimize touring and merchandise forecasting? Ccing the experts here who might know better: Rob Abelow Rob Bonstein Alex Pall Drew Thurlow Mike Warner Dan Runcie Charles Gadsdon

Learn more about the pricing work that my colleague Jennifer Sowinski Nemeth did (along with the whole JCA Arts Marketing Team) to help PAC NYC prepare for its inaugural season!

Key take aways from meeting 30+ companies in Las Vegas: ♦️ Data Centers continue to experience robust growth, driven by strong demand and constrained supply ♣️ Storage REITs have faced headwinds this year due to record-low apartment turnover and a stagnant housing market ♥️ Skilled nursing (SNF) and senior housing operating (SHOP) REIT management teams struck a confident tone in our meetings ♠️ Office REITs have performed well this year, benefiting from strong leasing, rent growth, and share price gains Reach out if you want to find out more about REITs.

Real estate sector takeaways from our meetings and asset tours in Las Vegas last week. Interesting to see Vegas evolve, hear about improving supply fundamentals, and how investors think Trump 2.0 could affect real estate.

HFG Talks is back at High Note and next Wednesday (May 8th) and we'll be unpacking the subtleties and realities of the artist-manager relationship. Featuring insights from Lorrae McKenna (Good Morning, RVG), Will Evans (Mild Life), and Jim McKinnon (Allday, Mallrat), we'll venture into the expansive realm of artist management and try to demystify its complexities... How do you foster and sustain trust within the artist-manager dynamic? What qualities do you prioritize when considering an artist for management? In navigating the ever-changing landscape of the music industry, how do you ensure financial stability for both the artist and management? And why do certain managers choose to step away from the industry altogether? We'll delve into these questions and more! Stick around after for chats with the HFG team, panelists or to hang at High Note - we loved putting names to faces last time and wanna keep up the IRL hangs 🤝 Free Entry, RSVP Here: https://lnkd.in/gcWcrr6S