Quote:
Bloomberg.com: Jon Bon Jovi was bored. Rock legends get a lot of days off between shows and studio sessions, and the icon of the 80s got to thinking: He’d play an acoustic set at a smaller venue and see if that didn’t create a more satisfying connection with his audience.
It worked. So well, in fact, that the 53-year-old rocker still known for big hair and even bigger spectacle turned it into...Runaway Tours...five years (ago)...(T)ravel packages that included lodging, concert tickets and after-parties, along with Bon Jovi photo ops, autographs, and other swag. Its motto: "We super-serve the superfan."
...Bon Jovi is now selling Runaway Tours to On Location Experiences, the independent spin-off of the National Football League’s event-and-hospitality business. Bon Jovi will join On Location as an investor and board member, sitting alongside NFL owners, as they try to turn events of all kinds into deluxe, once-in-a-lifetime experiences for superfans.
“I realized it was much bigger and broader than me -- and therefore any artist,” Bon Jovi said in an interview. “You became just a tent pole, an opportunity to get together like-minded folks under one roof and share something -- in this case it was my music. Then we as a business started to create other opportunities. I knew I could do this with any flag pole, i.e., the NFL, which is the cream of the crop."
The business aims at a generation that would rather spend money on experiences than things, said Paul Swangard, the former managing director of the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center at the University of Oregon.
“As their discretionary income grows, so too will the market for experiences,” he said. “Building this business now, with the team and connections in place, gives them first mover advantage in what I expect will be a lucrative market.”
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Some rumors have started floating around about Jon wanting to buy the Tennessee Titans American football team, but of course they're false -- of course Jon has learned that it's billionaires, not millionaires, who can buy major league sports franchises. Perhaps he's come up with the next best thing. But he should keep in mind that a) though most Bon Jovi fans aren't super RICH, they were super enough to have PAID for Jon's seat next to those NFL owners; and b) while there may be no limit to what the super rich are willing to
pay, there IS a limit to how much they
need to buy...