Bill Geist's Zeitgeist

Teaching Our Children Life Lessons

Besides the life lessons imparted by my loving parents, I learned a lot about living from the Board games I played as a child.

I learned that children are expensive from the game of Life. I learned that things are often not as they appear on the surface from Clue. And, I learned to make good choices from Chutes and Ladders.

All three are identified as being among the Top 10 Board Games for kids by FamilyEducation.com. As is Monopoly.

But, is the new edition of the venerable board game, expected out next month, really what we want to teach our kids?

It's called Monopoly: Cheaters Edition...and, according to Fast Company, it "plays faster, zanier, and perhaps more apropos of the current socio-political climate. Most of all, it’s a version of Monopoly that properly reflects the impulses inside our own dark hearts." 

One of the available cheats encourages players to steal money from the bank. If one is clever enough to pull it off, they not only get to keep the money but receive bonus cash. To be sure, if you get caught, you have to wear a handcuff connected to the Board. But, still...

Call me old-fashioned...but is validating cheating something we want to teach our kids?

Just sayin...

The Yin and Yang of Live Radio

To have a locally loved icon voice a spot promoting your DMO's website sounds like a dream come true. And, depending how much of a sense of humor you have when it comes to double-entendres, maybe not so much.

Former St. Louis Baseball standout Mike Shannon now occupies the broadcast booth for Cardinals games. Described as "goofy" by the New York Post, the 79-year old sportscaster suggested that one could learn about "blow jobs" at explorestlouis.com. That is, if you took the comment out of context. The real quote:

“Yes sir, you go to explorestlouis.com, they’re going to tell you about a blow job. That’s right. Artisans will appreciate the local handmade works of art at the Third Degree Glass Factory. Glass-blowing demonstrated..."

If nothing else, the media attention to the "toss-off" quote was worth every penny.

Purposeful Attention to the Customer

Great companies make their customers feel great. Most companies, however, make their customers grit their teeth.

While they won't open at home this Sunday, the Atlanta Falcons are poised to delight their fans next weekend with something more than just a championship-calibre team and a brand new stadium. Fans will also find $2 sodas, $2 hot dogs and $5 beers.

Those aren't typos. Those are a purposefully thoughtful move on the part of really smart managers to remove as many irritants from the customer experience as possible (see the Skift interview here with Falcons' CEO Rick McKay). And, being gouged for $8 hot dogs and $12 beers is one of the biggest turn-offs for fans who have already paid a shit-ton for tickets to see grown men risk brain injury.

Will they make it up in volume and increased merchandise sales? Maybe...but that wasn't why the Falcons (who could have been expected to have the highest concession prices to help offset the costs of the new stadium) did it. They did it because they don't want fans gritting their teeth on the way home. They did it because they want their fans to love them even more than they already do.

Pivot to Wisconsin's new Sand Valley Golf Resort, featuring a physical plant so stunningly beautiful that this non-golfer might just take up the game. Like NFL game tickets, it certainly ain't cheap to play Sand Valley. And, the rooms at the Lodge aren't either. But, food prices at the concession stand and the on-site restaurant are beyond reasonable. Maybe even a bit lower than one would expect.

The GM there told me during my tour there a few weeks ago that this, too, was a thoughtful decision on the part of ownership and management. And, they've been getting compliments all summer on the level of customer care their golfers are getting...well beyond the opportunity to play one of America's truly great new courses.

It's something we all need to consider in our businesses...or as DMOs advise their partners: Are the few extra dollars we can extract from a price weary consumer worth their possible reaction to choose some other experience next time?

More Distractions?

TV ratings for the Rio Olympics are off over 20% from the London Games just four years ago...and, without the two Simones (Biles and Manuel), Katie and Michael, would likely be even farther off pace.

Of course, there are several factors at work here, given the change in the way we consume video content. In trying to explain away the precipitous decline, NBC Sports Group Chairman Mark Lazarus said there were "more distractions than usual" this year, including the Presidential election season.

Two thoughts...

1) There's a Presidential election season every time the Summer Olympics are staged, so your point is?

2) That this one is more distracting than past elections is on your head (along with the other networks that choreographed this year's choices).

Just sayin'...

Three Sides to Every Story

It's one of my favorite rock lyrics of all time:

"There's three sides to every story, baby. There's yours and there's mine and the cold hard truth." - Don Henley / The Long Way Home

That's kinda how I feel about our friend Chris Fair's defense of Golf in the release of Resonance Consulting's new research into whether the sport is dead. 

The research makes clear that a super majority of the one percenters of luxury travelers have an interest in golf when on vacation. And, that kind of money is nothing at which to sneeze. But, when the general population is asked whether golf is a motivation in choosing a destination, only 11% of the general population agrees.

So, there's yours. There's mine. And, the cold hard truth?

Visual depictions of golf in videos that we have tested in ten North American markets with DMOvizion universally score at the bottom of all images with all audiences...except avid golfers.

The takeaway: Golf is far from dead for a select number of destinations and DMOs. But, as a mass appeal strategy in videos and commercials, it fails every time with consumers.

Golf spots on the Golf Channel and during the Masters work. Golf spots on The Voice and The Blacklist? 

Not so much.

Capitalizing on the Final Four

While his team didn't make it through Friday night, we gotta hand it to Visit Syracuse's David Holder for taking the opportunity to issue an invitation to the President to hang in the 'Cuse. 

Well played, my friend.

An Unpopular Local Position Well Played

We opined on the concept in Tampa last season...but they weren't the progenitors of the concept.

It appears like it was Nashville that came up with ways to keep opposing fans out of their house. And, it's all about those damned Blackhawks.

Because Chicago Blackhawks fans travel so well, other teams have attempted to block these fans from their arenas. Tampa infamously did that during last year's playoffs by requiring all ticket buyers to their home games against the Blackhawks to have a Florida Zip Code.

Months from this year's playoffs, the Nashville Predators are doing the same thing. But, then again, they've been doing it since 2013, requiring tickets be purchased at the box office for out-of-town fans. This time, only credit cards with Tennessee addresses (or from their TV network coverage States of Kentucky, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia) were accepted for Tuesday's game (which, by the way, they lost 4-1).

Nashville CVC's Butch Spyridon was crystal in his view: “Obviously, we love visitors and we love Chicago visitors (their number one market). I understand, from a business standpoint, what (the Predators are) trying to do, but we want to convey a friendly and welcoming environment. We’re not exactly on the same page."

That the Chicago media picked up Butch's comments is a good thing. That the Predators don't get the bigger picture is disturbing.

I think I'd be more focused on developing a team that can send Chicago fans home with the burden of a loss than playing silly games trying to keep red jerseys out of the arena.

But, that's just me.

 

Skill v. Luck

Earlier this week, the New York Attorney General's office informed Fantasy Sports sites FanDuel and DraftKings that they were operating outside the law and will be subject to criminal penalties.

The Attorney General's position is that investing in games of luck is illegal (except, of course, in State licensed casinos)...and that online Fantasy Sports plays are games of luck.

Anybody who has ever participated in a Fantasy Sports league knows that such a position is patently false. It takes an uncanny knowledge of the game and a certain skill set to win, no matter how easy the actors on the TV spots make it look. Indeed, if anything here should be illegal, it's commercials making mere mortal sports fans think they stand a snowball's chance of winning.

The Attorney General said, "(Daily Fantasy Sports) is designed for instant gratification..."

As are instant scratch lottery tickets.

So...what exactly is your point?

That you're not a fan of instant gratification...or you picked Ryan Mallett as your Quarterback?

And Another Thing About "Best Of" Competitions

Over the past few weeks, the internet has been awash with pleas from 64 communities to vote for them in Outside magazine's "Best Town Ever" competition. We even got into the action when one of our clients (a quarterfinalist) asked us to spread the word on Facebook.

But, let's be real clear here. Chattanooga gets to call itself the "Best Town Ever" for the next year (or five), but it's not. It's the town with the Destination Marketing Organization that had the best communications plan to win the contest. 

Not that it shouldn't have. The CVB sent out 400,000 emails during the monthlong contest, urging residents and fans to vote. They road Social Media and community pride all the way to nirvana. Bureau President Bob Doak said, "It's a superlative we look for in our business. Anything that ends with 'est' is what we're striving for. It just makes it so much easier to attract a group, convention, sporting activity."

And, that they did. But, we need to be mindful that the increasing number of "est" rankings with suspect criteria brings with it the chance that these ratings become meaningless to the consumer.

In the meantime...congratulations to Chattanooga. Well played.

When Winning Teams Hurt their Destinations

Tonight, when the puck drops for Game One of the Stanley Cup Playoffs in Tampa, the stadium will be packed with fans of the home team...and precious few Chicago Blackhawks fans. You know them...the out-of-town fans that spend millions on hotel rooms, meals, liquor and just about anything else within sight.

It's not that Blackhawks fans don't travel well (they do). It's that the Tampa Bay Lightning has instituted the following policy for ticket sales: "Sales to this event will be restricted to residents of Florida. Residency will be based on credit card billing address. Orders by residents outside the selected area will be canceled without notice and refunds given.”

WTF?

I get that having a raucous fan base is often an advantage for the home team...but, at what cost to the local economy? 

Maybe the Lightning are convinced that there are enough North and South Florida residents interested in coming to the Playoffs to fill as many hotel rooms in town as Hawks fans would have. But, that's missing a much bigger picture. Maybe it never crossed their mind.

Most Florida residents have a sense of, or experience in, Tampa Bay. Most Blackhawks fans probably don't. And, this was their chance to show off their sensational city to a whole new set of consumers that, if my experience with that city is any judge, would place it on their list of "oh, hell yeah, let's go back" destinations.

While the Team will show up to battle the Hawks tonight, the franchise forfeited a wonderful opportunity to enhance the region's visitor economy for years to come.

In addition to looking frightened and insecure.