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Old 05-09-2010, 12:28 PM   #213
Dark_Knight
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Re: The Official Creed Press/TV Thread

New Billboard article...

http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/searc..._id=1004087865

Quote:
May 08, 2010

RAY WADDELL

Creed is back—again.

After reuniting last year for its first tour since 2002, this time Creed is coming out of the box for a 2010 tour with a "20-10" promotion that encourages fans to buy early.

The first 2,010 reserved seats for each show are $20 all-in, meaning fans pay a flat rate without any added service charges. The remaining seats will be priced at either $20 or $10, plus applicable ticketing fees. The tour will play mostly Live Nation sheds, beginning July 28 at Jiffy Lube Live in Bristow, Va., and running through Sept. 4 at Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in Houston.

The first group of shows went up last weekend and the rest were to go on sale throughout May. The concept was to come out of the gate with a pricing-oriented awareness driver and attach it to the entire tour, which now stands at 26 dates.

"We all felt that we needed a driver for this band, because the band is so good live, but we were having some issues connecting with the consumer from when the band was at its peak back in 2002 to last summer," Agency Group agent Ken Fermaglich says. "Live Nation, specifically [senior VP of tour marketing and promotion] Joey Scoleri, had the idea to create this 20-10 concept—a play on the year and the ticket price."

Fermaglich says Creed was built by a blue-collar audience, "so in light of the things going on in the economy right now, this just seems like a very logical concept to go to the consumer with, and it feels like we're going to see some very good results."

Creed's 2009 Full Circle tour generated plenty of buzz last summer, but not the kind that either the band or its handlers were looking for. Ticket sales for the band's tour fell short of expectations, with some industry observers throwing around words like "disaster" to describe the band's return to the road (Billboard, July 25, 2009).

In retrospect, such talk seems like an exaggeration, but the results were plainly disappointing. The 38 Creed shows reported to Billboard Boxscore took in $8,288,964, with attendance at 272,685, for a per-show average of $218,130 and 7,175 in attendance. Considering most of the venues on the route topped 15,000 in capacity, that means Creed played to less than 50% of the house on average.

Fermaglich admits that the Full Circle tour did have "some ticket sales issues" and concedes that the Boxscore average was "a fair assessment" of the tour's financial returns. "You had your shows that did 5,000 and you had your shows that did 10,000-12,000," he says. "We're going to do better [this summer]."

Logic dictates that if Full Circle had been a total disaster, all involved wouldn't be lining up to do it again. "That's exactly right," Fermaglich says, noting that the Full Circle trek picked up momentum when Live Nation implemented a promotion under which fans attending shows could buy discounted tickets to upcoming dates on the tour.

Fermaglich says the practice worked well for Creed in several markets. "Last summer we didn't really market that—it just happened spur of the moment at some venues on some shows," he says. "This summer we're actually marketing the fact that that's the price point."

Initial on-sales for this year's 20-10 promotion have been "very healthy," Fermaglich says, including for the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, N.J., and the Jones Beach Theater in Wantagh, N.Y. "Those two shows were really good—2,500 each on the on-sale, which to me is a very healthy start with some discounted price points," he says.

The setup of last year's tour was hampered by the fact that Creed was in the studio finishing its 2009 album "Full Circle" and timing was a bit of a moving target.

"We're much better set up this time around, and we have a band very willing to do a whole lot of press and promotion to support the tour," Fermaglich says, noting that Creed performed April 23 on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno."

"The next part of this campaign is more shows going on sale locally, but also continuing to attack it from a national perspective [delivering] the message to the consumer of what we're doing and how we're doing it," he says.

Skillet will open for Creed on several shows, with other support acts to be announced.
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