Episode Details

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Sales are soft for Friday's game and someone says the word every ticket office reaches for: discount. Jeremy Neisser makes the case that a price cut and a value add are two completely different promotions — one lowers what fans expect to pay from here on out, the other raises what they believe they're getting. He walks through the research on reference pricing, a study of MLB bobblehead promotions from 2012 to 2023 that moved attendance without touching ticket price, and real packages from the Blue Jackets, Bulls, Dynamo, and Rocket City Trash Pandas. Then he gives you the five places to look for value before you ever subtract from the price.

KEY TOPICS COVERED
- Why running discounts often enough quietly retrains what your fans believe a ticket is worth
- What a reference price is, and how a repeated $5 off resets the number in your fan's head
- The difference between changing your price and changing your offer — and why only one of them costs you revenue
- Research showing fans value promotions for being fun, different, and worth talking about, not just for the savings
- Why "we got hats with our tickets" travels further than "I saved $4"
- What an MLB bobblehead study from 2012 to 2023 found about gate giveaways versus special ticket packages — and what both had in common
- Real value-add packages you can copy from the Columbus Blue Jackets, Chicago Bulls, Houston Dynamo, and Rocket City Trash Pandas
- The five buckets every add-on comes from: food, merchandise, access, recognition, and experience
- How to find high-perceived-value add-ons that cost your team close to nothing
- Why the word "free" can make a fan value your giveaway less — and the one-line fix
- How to build exclusivity and scarcity into a value add so it drives a specific game
- The filter to bring into your next promo meeting before anyone reaches for a promo code

TIMESTAMPS
[00:00] – The Monday problem: soft sales, a Friday game, and the instinct to discount
[01:39] – Why discounting feels obvious — we're all trained to hunt for deals
[03:04] – The hidden cost of discounting too often
[03:58] – What a $20 ticket sold for $15 actually communicates to a fan
[04:54] – Reference price explained: the number every fan already carries
[06:15] – The Michael's picture frame problem, and how price sensitivity compounds
[07:10] – Value adds change the offer instead of the price
[08:10] – Why fans value a promotion for more than the savings
[08:39] – The Chandon, Wansink, and Laurent research on what people get out of a promotion
[09:31] – The psychology of getting "a little something extra"
[10:53] – The Savannah Bananas story: what surprise and delight actually looks like
[11:23] – The MLB bobblehead study: giveaways moved attendance up to 13%, ticket packages about 8%
[12:51] – Two approaches, two attendance increases, zero dollars off the ticket
[13:19] – Blue Jackets family value pack, Bulls family packs, and the Houston Dynamo four pack
[14:18] – The five buckets: food, merchandise, access, recognition, experience
[15:46] – Concrete add-on ideas inside each of the five buckets
[17:13] – Low actual cost, high perceived value — and why your building is already full of it
[18:12] – What this means for a GM, external relations director, or ticket sales director
[18:40] – Why "free" can backfire, and how to name the value instead
[20:06] – The question to bring back to your team
[20:35] – Running all five buckets in the meeting before you approve a discount
[21:32] – Final takeaway: our job isn't cheaper tickets, it's a more valuable game

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