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The modern venue marketer has endless digital tools at their fingertips: email, SMS, social ads, and AI-driven targeting. But what about the old-school tactics? The box office crew who knows every regular by name. The street team pounding pavement with posters. The stack of paper comps given out to fill the room. The radio spots that once broke artists to entire regions. Do they still work in 2025, or are they relics of another era?
Spoiler: some still pack a punch, but only when used strategically. Let’s separate the tactics worth keeping from the ones better left in the past.
Your box office is not just a transaction point. For many fans, it is the first and most personal interaction with your venue. A trusted box office team can upsell, cross-sell, and build loyalty in ways no algorithm can. People still want to be recognized, remembered, and guided to the right shows. If your box office staff is engaged and knowledgeable, they are not just clerks, they are community builders.
Plastering poles with posters for every show is lazy and forgettable. But when street teams are aligned with the right audience and locations, they still drive awareness and legitimacy. The key is authenticity. A hand-to-hand flyer at a record shop or coffee house can feel like an insider tip, not spam. And when fans see your posters in the places they hang out, it reinforces your presence in the local scene.
Papering, or handing out free or heavily discounted tickets, still has its place, but only as a surgical strike. Used sparingly, it can seed a room with energy, helping artists who are just breaking or ensuring a TV taping looks full. But rely on it too much, and you devalue the ticket, train audiences to wait for freebies, and make it harder to sell next time. If you paper, do it with intention and be clear about your goals.
Radio once meant mass reach, but in 2025 it is more about alignment than blanket buys. If you can partner with a station that truly reflects your audience, it can still move tickets and build artist awareness. Sponsorships, DJ endorsements, and targeted plays around concert announcements can punch above their weight. But broad, untargeted radio buys are often expensive with little to show for it.
Print Ads: Expensive, slow, and limited reach. Unless your local alt-weekly still carries real cultural weight, print is mostly nostalgia.
Blanket Flyering: Untargeted, untracked, and usually trashed. Better to invest in smarter placements or digital.
Old-school promo works best when it is powered by modern data. Your street team hits harder when you know which neighborhoods your fans live in. Your box office can upsell when they have access to past purchase history. Radio sponsorships become smarter when you can tie exposure to ticket conversions. Even papering decisions are better when you track who redeems comps and whether they come back.
Opendate connects the dots so you do not waste effort. Old tactics stay valuable when paired with new intelligence.
Old-school promo is not dead. But it has to be more than tradition or habit. Use it where it adds authentic human connection or amplifies your digital strategy. Retire it where it drains resources without results.
The best venues are not digital only or old-school forever. They are the ones who know what still hits, and why.
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