Moderator: Kathy Armistead William Morris Agency
Todd Goldstein AEG Live
Steve Saunders Coors Brewing Company
Rob Senn Gibson Guitar Corp.
Paul Sewell House of Blues Entertainment
Chris Stacey Hurricane Interactive Promotions

The panelists intended to address a bounty of new technologies and how they can influence today’s sponsorship campaigns. The discussion, in the end, whittled down to one thing.

Cell phone text messaging was definitely the 800-pound gorilla in the room. Many tours incorporate the technology as a pre-show marketing opportunity, where fans post messages on the video screens where ads can also be found. The recent Brooks & Dunn outing is an example, and the Black Eyed Peas tour is off and running with it.

Statistics show those older than 25 are notoriously ignorant of text messaging, which gave Chris Stacey an opportunity to show CIC delegates what they were missing.

His company, Hurricane Interactive Promotions, provided the service for the Brooks & Dunn tour, and he set up shop in the Del Mar conference room. On one side of the panelists, a video screen was used to show an in-house example of what a Brooks & Dunn concert-goer saw. On the other side, Grant Garner acted as a moderator, using his laptop to monitor the messages.

Attendees posted messages by dialing short code 21212, registered to Stacey’s company. As the panel progressed, messages ranging from “Hi” to “Can I get a reduction?” scrolled across the screen. One lucky participant received entrance to the Foundation Room at House of Blues in Vegas that evening.

In 2004, there were 3 billion text messages sent. In 2005, there were 7 billion. According to Verizon, text message traffic has risen 800 percent in the last 12 months. Obviously, the text message wave provides incredible sponsorship opportunities if it’s handled properly.

The video screen included a Coors advert, and if the example actually took place at a concert, the fan would be sent a message such as “Be sure to visit the Coors merchandise table.” The next day the concertgoer could be sent a text message such as, “Thank you for going to the show. In appreciation, go to www.brooksanddunn.com/coors for a free download.”

But not everyone was ecstatic, including Coors’ Steve Saunders. Whenever the beer company sponsors a live event, it does exit polling, he said. Even if Coors did all of the pouring, audience members often neither know, nor cares who did. In this case, Saunders said it never hurts to have the company name attached to the event in one more way but he added he wouldn’t pay for it.

Senn said his company only sponsors if there is an almost synonymous tie-in, which is why the guitar company has its name on a concert venue – the Gibson Amphitheatre. He added that he wants a durable connection with the consumer, and piggybacking on a text message might not be Gibson’s cup of tea. Likewise, Goldstein said a Las Vegas audience for a Celine Dion show might not be the kind of concertgoers who would embrace the technology.

As the panel closed, one of the last questions from the audience was one of the most pertinent: At what point would text message information become spam? Stacey said his company is judicious with its text messages – it might send one message out six months after the event.

But then again, what of unscrupulous competitors? Could one bad apple make consumers less inclined to give out their phone numbers? Most of the panelists agreed that it’s a little early in the game and, no matter the case, text messaging is definitely worth watching.