Senator Baucus Touts TicketPrinting.com as Example of Bringing Montana Solutions to Global Markets.

Butte, Mont., (September 13th, 2010) — At the Montana Economic Summit today, Senator Max Baucus and TicketPrinting.com, the leader in ticket printing and event design and marketing, announced the opening of a new customer support center in Lewistown, Montana.  With global growth in North America, Europe, and Australia, TicketPrinting.com is creating new jobs in rural Montana to meet its rapidly growing base of global customers for event marketing services, ticket printing, and its new online event promotion and online ticket sales service, Ticket River™.

For over twelve years, TicketPrinting.com has been the leader in ticket printing and event design and marketing, helping event promoters, entertainment venues, sports leagues, concert promoters, music bands, schools, non-profit organizations, state fairs, and festivals market and ticket their events.  With over 600 ticket templates, design-your-own functionality, several event products, and most importantly, superior customer service, the Montana-based online event and ticketing company has perfected the customer experience, making ticket design, event printing, and online ticket sales as easy as ordering a book online.

“This just goes to show that we can truly build Montana’s economy one business and one employee at a time through our efforts at the Montana Economic Development Summit,” said Baucus, “Folks in Lewistown really know the value of a hard day’s work. The leadership at TicketPrinting.com has the vision to see that the people of Montana are genuine, friendly and hard working, which gives them an edge in the customer service world. TicketPrinting.com and its Ticket River division are paving the way for a successful e-commerce business model that gives the rural Montana workforce a chance to shine.”

“TicketPrinting.com CEO Lance Trebesch said, “We are very proud of the fact that we have more than doubled in size since the last economic summit and were able to grow over 25% last year in the face of the recession while opening up new markets abroad and adding full time employees here at home.  We expanded our operations to include the United Kingdom and Australia in 2009 and are now market leaders. Our teams in Harlowton, Bozeman, and soon to be Lewistown have been a huge competitive advantage, helping us expand to these new markets.  Our success is driven by our commitment to superior customer service and our 100% customer satisfaction guarantee.  You can’t do that without great people.  Great people are all over Montana and we intend to keep expanding in Montana.”

TicketPrinting.com’s customer support center in Lewistown will serve customers throughout North America, and also provide critical global support to TicketPrinting.com’s subsidiaries, UK Ticket Printing and TicketRiver Australia, and to its new online event promotion and tickets sales site, Ticket River™.

TicketPrinting.com has a primary base of operations in Harlowton, employing more than 30 people, full-time and part time in production and customer support positions. The e-commerce business also currently has remote customer support employees working from Livingston, Billings and Lewistown.

“The Montana Economic Development Summit is a fantastic platform and event for our teams to come up with new ways to grow,” said Trebesch. “The breadth and depth of the conference speakers, attendees, and topics provide real opportunities for TicketPrinting.com to explore more ways to expand and close new business, and by doing so, generate new jobs in our Montana operations.  I attend several conferences and the Montana Economic Summit beats all of them hands down in terms of directly helping our company grow and in expanding our network. We thank Senator Baucus and his superb staff for hosting and organizing the Summit.”

About TicketPrinting.com

TicketPrinting.com has been the leader in ticket printing and event design and marketing for over twelve years.  Founded by Mike Yinger, Chairman and CTO, TicketPrinting.com serves over 80,000 customers in entertainment, sports, nonprofit, education, performing arts, and music across North America, Australia, and the U.K.  Lance Trebesch is the CEO of TicketPrinting.com and also serves on the Board of the Better Business Bureau.

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Are you ready to try something different when it comes to marketing your theatre? Ready to reward your fans and benefactors with a little token of your esteem? Ready to boost your box office numbers with some stealth marketing or merchandising? If you’re looking for a low-cost, low-effort, and low-maintenance way to raise your visibility in the community, consider selling or distributing custom publicity stickers.

New Life for Old Designs

Most modern theatres have probably already paid someone a fair amount of money to design an eye-catching banner for their website. Well, that banner is the perfect digital file if you want to create the perfect Bumper Sticker. If you like the design, why not give it new life and new mobility, allowing it to move about your city and spread the word for you? Printing a stack of Bumper Stickers is cheaper than renting a billboard, and those stickers go everywhere. While potential customers are stuck in traffic, they could be memorizing the URL to your website, conveniently printed on the car in front of them.

Or, work in a smaller format. Do you use a recognizable logo when you advertise your theatre? This can translate into a sticker, too. Economy Stickers come in all shapes and sizes, and they’re versatile and eminently affordable. Vinyl Stickers are all that and more: they’re weatherproof and UV-resistant, so you can stick them on outdoor surfaces, or in a well-lit window, and they last for years.

New Designs for New Life

If you don’t already have a design in mind, you can get creative. Find one that relates to an upcoming show or season. Or, hold a contest and ask patrons to design a logo for you. It’s a great way to get the community involved, create extra publicity, and generate buzz around your website. Let patrons vote for their favorite design, online or when they visit the theatre.

Printing custom stickers for your theater is not expensive, and small print runs are available. You can create a range of designs and sizes for different spaces and different budgets. Nice stickers may become a collector’s item, and some fans will want to collect the entire run.

Where Are You Going to Stick that Thing?

Depending on how much effort you intend to put into this marketing campaign, there are a few choices concerning what you’ll actually do with your stickers once you receive them. The easiest answer, of course, is sell them, either in your box office, or on your website. Cheaper than T-shirts and more versatile than programs, stickers make cool souvenirs. Some patrons will want them for guitar cases, car windows, dorm walls, or decoration of small items like notebooks or laptop computers. That’s a lot of exposure.

If money is less of an issue than visibility, you can give some of your stickers away. These could be small prizes in a contest or small gifts to thank loyal theatergoers. Or, think bigger: distributing these stickers to a general audience could result in advertising in places you wouldn’t expect. Visit arts festivals and similar events, anywhere you might expect to find lovers of the arts, and pass out a certain number of stickers. Small children have a habit sticking them in the most unusual places. At large events, you can stick them directly on people’s shirts in the morning, and all day long, they’ll share your message.

Stealth marketing takes the most effort, but, properly done, realizes a huge return. Sticker design is essential: you must create something that makes viewers take notice. It’s especially effective if the design elicits questions in the viewers’ minds. If you’ve thought of a phrase or image which will inspire people to want to follow up and learn more and (this part is essential) you’ve included your website on the sticker, you can drive traffic to the website and create new patrons.

This technique is most effective if you can stick your stickers in surprising places. Ask around: you may be able to create a campaign by placing your stickers in unusual spots in bars, art galleries, schools, and other facilities where potential patrons may be found. Bathroom stalls are a good choice, if you have permission, as are bus shelters, and well-traveled footpaths. Use your creativity and imagination. Get them where they’ll be seen, and noticed.

Change Is Good

Marketing your theatre can be trying, especially in an economic downturn, but you can get a big return on a little investment if you’re willing to try something unusual. Where will you hang your publicity?

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Kids and Stickers. They go together like sparkles and glue, like gift-wrap and tape, like paste and construction paper. Kids love Stickers. Educators know that kids love Stickers. Marketing professionals know that kids love Stickers. Isn’t it time you used a resource your school has in abundance—kids—and one that you can obtain easily—Stickers—to promote your school, motivate your students, and create something unique to represent your values?

Adherence: Marketing 101

The best way to sell something is to get your customers to sell it for you. If you’ve ever invited corporate sponsors into your school, or participated in any large, multi-school program, you’ve most likely noticed that free Stickers are offered to your kids. Some of them may end up in the trash, the laundry, or the bottoms of your students’ sneakers, but it only takes one Sticker, stuck in the right place, to create free advertising.

Some adults may be wary of sticking ads on their personal property. Not so with kids! Those who love Stickers the most will be happy to stick any corporate logo on their notebook. Why not take advantage of this trend to market your school? If a child will happily display the name of a company that has offered him or her a free water bottle, how much more will they be willing to spread the word about the school they love?

Follow Instructions

All you need to do is print your school’s name on a stack of Vinyl, Economy, or Bumper Stickers. But don’t stop there. You’ve got a website, right? Prominent inclusion of the URL makes it easier for potential parents to find you online. What about a logo? If you haven’t got a logo, hold a contest and get the kids to draw one for you. Now you’ve got a beautiful, child-centric design to attract the people you want.

Other options include adding an image of your school, your mascot, prominent alumni, or anything else that appeals to your students. This is a creative medium! Stretch your mind: find the images that work for you, and add your names and website to create the perfect marketing tool.

The Old Math

You may already be using Stickers to spread the word. Many schools offer Bumper Stickers to parents of honors children, and more recently, these Stickers have been customized for parents of children in the band, on sports teams, with perfect attendance, or even those who simply show up on a semi-regular basis. “Proud Parent of an XYZ School Student” may be enough.

If you’re not already offering Bumper Stickers along these lines to your parents, either as rewards for their children’s performance or as part of your fundraising efforts, this is one situation when you want to be on the bandwagon.

The New Math

Bumper Stickers are, as they say, Old School. They certainly get around, but there’s more to the story. Why aren’t you offering your kids custom Stickers with their school’s name on them?

If you begin with an assortment, you can use them as incentives and rewards for different activities. You can create Stickers for each athletic team, each after-school activity, each instrument in the band. You can create Stickers that celebrate grades, attendance, or community service.

You can create a range of collectible Stickers to motivate young children to complete a series of tasks so they can collect them all. You can create customized rewards that will be highly coveted. Just find an inexpensive source for items that children need or want anyway, then slap a Sticker in the center:

• Notebooks
• Pencil cases
• Water bottles
• Kleenex packets
• Binders
• ID cards or badges
• Folders

Better yet, ask your students what kind of prizes they’d like to earn!

The more items available, the more stealth marketing you can do. Wherever your kids take their Stickers, they’re offering your school free publicity.

Final Exam

Small and portable, the possibilities are pretty much limited by how many Stickers you’re willing to buy and your creativity in finding ways to use and distribute them. Once they’re in the kids’ hands, those Stickers will announce to the world you’re your school is on the map. Whether you choose to sell them or give them away, offer them as prizes or incentives, Stickers in schools create a winning situation all around.

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Let’s talk low tech.

Of course, you need to hype your band with blogs, homepages, forums, free downloads, viral videos, and email newsletters, but you don’t live your entire life online, and neither do your fans. You can’t skip Internet marketing, but you can’t stand on it either. Fortunately, there’s a time-tested, low-cost, high-profile way to spread your name and grow your fan base: Stickers.

What goes on a sticker?

The perfect band name, perhaps coupled with that perfect band logo, is all you need to start. Save it as a digital file. For very little money, you can print that file on a stack of custom Vinyl, Bumper, or Economy Stickers. Choose the option that fits your budget, or order an assortment.

Band names and logos are merely your jumping off point. You can start with a single design, but you’ll do better with a few different ones. Don’t underestimate the power of fan art! If you already have an active Internet community around your band, ask them for designs based on album or song titles, lyrics, or even caricatures of the band. Another option is to enter into a deal with an artist whose work you admire. You may be able to buy or barter the rights to a design you already love, or commission one especially for your band.

Be sure to include your website in the design, so fans know where to go to learn more.

You’ve got Stickers. Now what?

Stickers are the ultimate stealth marketing tool. They create a presence for your band wherever they go, and they can go literally everywhere. Depending on the size of your band, the power of your reputation, and the number of people who are willing to help you out, you’ve got three basic options.

• Give your Stickers away for free to your fans
• Sell your Stickers to your fans
• Place the Stickers yourself as part of a viral marketing campaign

Give it away, give it away, give it away now

If you’re just starting out on the scene, or if you have a small but passionate fan base, you may want to choose option one. Free Stickers help you give back to the community. Everyone loves getting something for free, especially if it’s swag from someone they admire. You can offer free Stickers to people who sign up for your newsletter, or attend certain events, or, if you’re feeling lucky, you can simply give them out in front of clubs or other venues where music lovers hang out.

Free Stickers end up on laptop computers, class notebooks, water bottles, high school lockers, and other high-profile locations. If you’ve already got an eye-catching logo, potential fans will notice the Stickers on their friends’ possessions and ask about the band, visit your website, or Google you. It an easy way to spread your influence.

Money, money, money, money, money

If you’re already turning a profit and just want to expand your reach, offer your fans something new, and come out even, you’ll want to sell those Stickers. Bands with merchandise tables find that inexpensive Stickers sell themselves, even with a relatively large markup. They’re cheaper than T-shirts and, while most folks will wear a T-shirt no more than once a week, a Sticker can proclaim your allegiance every day.

You can also sell Stickers online. Your virtual merchandise booth is a great way to figure out how much interest you’re generating. If you see spikes in Sticker sales after a big promotion or event, you know people are paying attention.

Down in the Underground

Stealth, underground, or viral marketing is the hottest way to spread the word. You can use the same Stickers, or you may want to create mysterious and not entirely clear designs that compel viewers to check out that website. The trick is to place them where folks are likely to notice.

Giving these Stickers away to a particular, elite group of fans, with instructions to place them where they will be seen, is one way to go. However, you’ll want to place many yourself for an extra edge.

Don’t make the mistake of upsetting potential supporters by littering the world with your Stickers. Defacing public or private property is likely to backfire. It’s OK to stick them on public message boards or places where hanging Posters is acceptable. It’s not OK to put them in the middle of other peoples’ plate glass windows.

The cardinal rule of Sticker placement on private property?

• ASK FIRST!

Many club owners will be happy to allow to you stick them around the club. Others will not. It’s important to know before you act. Once you have permission, be creative. Let your Stickers wait in unexpected places: on the ceiling, under counters, behind doors. Viral Sticker marketing campaigns should provide pleasant surprises, amusing moments for viewers. Depending on local ordinances, it may be OK to stick them on places where they won’t last long, like sidewalks. Again, find out the rules before your begin.

The greater your coverage, the more effective your campaign. Make lists of places where potential fans congregate and try to get your Stickers nearby.

Tying your Sticker campaign to an event such as a show, a CD release, or a new video provides a sense of purpose as well as a time frame. If you’ve created a desirable Sticker and band image, your underground marketing Stickers can become a commodity of themselves.

The bottom line is that the right Sticker in the right place can help your band get the attention it needs to succeed.

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