LIVE Nation recently purchased Madonna’s next 10 years of mega-tours from her for $100 million. They turned around and bought U2’s next 10 years of mega-tours for $120 million- For the revenue from the tour ticket sales? Maybe… but the real strategy here is to target Ticketmaster and start chipping away at the monopoly Ticketmaster has on concert and event ticket sales.
Whales fighting whales can be very instructive. Most of us are attacking our whales from an outside in approach- or a head-to-head approach. That would be the same as opening up an on-line ticket sales website and trying to fight Ticketmaster in a fair market fight. Problem is that with their market position, it is impossible to have a fair fight- so you have to set up an unfair fight. By going after the events and the artists rather than the venues, Live Nation has changed the dynamics of the fight.
When we see clients take this type of game-changing approach to the marketplace- fight a different fight in a different way in the same market- market share moves to them quickly. Clients of The Whale Hunters on the front-end of the outsourcing and offshoring market shifts have cleaned up in their industries by changing the rules of the fight. How have you seen game-changing strategies work in your market or company? How can you develop one for market share grab?
