February 29, 2012
Lexington, KY - For the staff that operates Rupp Arena and its sister properties at Lexington Center, it was like making the Forbes 500, but they won’t likely trumpet their latest honor in any traditional marketing campaigns.
Rupp Arena has placed fifth on Venue Today magazine’s initial Social Media Power 100 Chart, placing ahead of such facilities as the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Ga., and Radio City Music Hall in New York City. The Roxy, in West Hollywood, Calif., tops the list, followed by Denver’s Red Rocks Amphitheatre, New York City’s Madison Square Garden, and the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
The list was assembled through a partnership between Venue Today and Matt Kautz, director of social media and consumer marketing for Paciolan, a provider of ticketing, marketing and fundraising solutions for organizations that host live events. The formula was created to find a balance between audience size, venue engagement and fan engagement through a formula incorporating Twitter and Facebook followers and fans along with interactions pertaining to each venue through those sites.
More than 300 venues in North America were studied, with a score produced for each that was weighted for market size and facility type. Rupp Arena had a total score of 172, well behind The Roxy’s leading 494, but only four points in back of the Staples Center and ahead of the 102 posted by the sixth-place Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh, Pa. The KFC Yum! Center in Louisville was the venue nearest to Lexington to make the list, placing 36th, with a Power 100 score of 37.
“It’s a wonderful thing, something we’ve strived to develop,” said Sheila Kenny, marketing director for Lexington Center. “We always like to position ourselves like one of the top arenas in the country, and this is wonderful for promoters to be able to access that kind of powerful marketing tool at no additional expense. The marketing team here has worked really hard to diligently eat, sleep, breathe, dream this stuff.”
But Rupp Arena’s showing probably won’t find a place in the mainstream media. It will instead try to show off its place on the Social Media Power 100 Chart through trade magazines, presentations, etc., that will be targeted toward promoters, booking agents and other entities responsible for placing acts in various venues. The thinking is this: The more decision makers who see the list, the more quality acts that will migrate toward Rupp Arena and bring more fans in the building. And with the days of nationwide tours being a prerequisite for anybody on top-25 radio quickly fading, quality is certainly at a premium.
“It is very difficult to reach that age 16-35 audience anymore in the world of print, radio, television,” said Carl Hall, director of arena management for Rupp Arena. “If they [the list makers] say we’re very active and have a huge following in social media, it brings us up higher in the pecking order of places to try, places to go that they may not have thought [about]. In the world of reality, as much as in Lexington we hate to admit it, we’re a tertiary market. ... In none of the ratings are we a 75 or better. It’s a harsh reality.”
But Rupp also has notable advantages as an entertainment venue, Hall said.
“With the super-sized building we have, it pushes us way up to be more recognizable to start with. UK basketball is certainly a valuable asset, and this [the list] is just one of those pieces that makes us more recognizable to booking agents, national promoters. It’s one more brick in the wall to keep your name out there at the forefront.”
Kentucky men’s basketball certainly contributed to Rupp Arena’s score, accounting for 368,037 of the 805,368 times the turnstiles moved during 2011. But the Wildcats were in Rupp Arena 19 times last year (including exhibitions and Big Blue Madness), a total dwarfed by other venues that are also home to sports teams. The NBA’s Chicago Bulls played at the seventh-ranked United Center 50 times during 2011 (including playoffs), while the Chicago Blackhawks of the NHL used the facility 47 times coming off their 2010-‘11 Stanley Cup championship. That scenario was almost repeated identically with American Airlines Center in Dallas. It finished 10th on the Social Media Power 100 Chart, while serving as the home for the NHL’s Dallas Star and the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, the 2010-‘11 NBA champions.
Instead, composers of the list point toward Rupp Arena’s staff as being a leader in the social media market despite any real or perceived disadvantages when it comes to population or geography. Dave Brooks, managing editor of Venues Today, noted innovative moves such as past scavenger hunts for tickets organized by the Rupp Arena staff as ways to involve fans and leverage social media platforms.
“Of course, having a tenant with a storied tradition like UK basketball is a blessing and will help their numbers. But when you start to get into that top tier, it goes beyond that,” Brooks said. “It goes to constantly experimenting and finding new ways to engage their audience. Within the arena marketing world, people know Rupp’s staff and totally respect them and look to them as trendsetters — they have that kind of reputation. They’re constantly talking. But not only is Rupp talking with their fans, their fans are listening.”