When you shop online, you’re taking tax dollars away from your local community and state.  With an economy in recession and several states entering into a budget deficit, when you buy online, you’re hurting your community.

I don’t know who’s behind this ad or if it’s nation wide, but further research yielded no results.  I grew up in a small town in SD, so I understand the dependency local businesses have on their constituency…especially during non-peak months of the year.  It’s for this reason many will fight to the death to keep a Walmart out of their town.  However, to publicly argue that “shopping online” is the moral equivalent is both lazy and short-sided.

It all comes back to building a great online presence and strategy and recognizing that you may be locally based, but your customers and marketplace are GLOBAL.  People shop online because it’s quick, it’s easy, and it saves money.  Ensure your website and ecommerce are optimized for those 3 principals.  We’re to a point now where merely having a “business card” website isn’t going to cut it.  Local businesses need a web presence that’s alive, that interacts with their customers (or fans) on a daily basis, and that CLEARLY and EASILY sells products and services.  It’s what we at the Blend help businesses do every day.  The local in-store experience has become the bottom of a very large funnel – and should NOT be considered the primary means of sales and revenue.  “In-store” is now the premium experience, and not every customer is able to or even wants to participate at that level.  The key is creating alternatives online that are easy, quick and save money.

The internet is the NEW “main street” and instead of bemoaning the fact that local tax dollars are being depleted, local businesses need to build great online brands and forge new, global customer relationships.  Give these fans a reason to love your brand from afar, and long for the day when they can see you in person.

Fighting this, and having a “protectionist” attitude is what REALLY “hurts your local community.”

This is a MAJOR win for Live Nation as they have now stolen Ticketmaster’s #2 client. Earlier this year, Live Nation announced they would be ending their OWN client relationship with TM, taking all of that inventory of out TM’s system as well. However, to truly appreciate the game changing nature of this move, you have to consider what TM has become.

When a company is allowed to exist as a near-monopoly for so many years, they become lazy, uninspired and reliant on a singular revenue stream. Ticketmaster clearly fits the bill on all 3. What’s worse for TM is that the “consumer at large” absolutely hates them. Faced with no clear alternative in the market for so many years, concert fans begrudgingly paid the service fees to get their ticket. TM’s internal mgt team not only hasn’t cared, but doesn’t even consider the ticket buyer as their customer! To TM the venue and artist manager are customer and the ticket buyer be damned. Case in point – TM will bend to the will of any manager who wants to pad their net revenue per ticket, but by RAISING the service fee. TM will then provide that money as a kickback to the mgr.

Contrast that model to Live Nation, who’s main source of revenue is NOT service fees, but a blend of multiple revenue sources. These are revenue sources where the fan actively participates and appreciates the business entities involved. Coupled with exclusive ticketing rights for big name artists, LN has set a solid base from which to operate and actually REACT to consumer sentiment or changing trends. They have also existed outside of a corporate umbrella, an uncomfortable situation for Ticketmaster who now finds itself spun off from Barry Diller’s IAC.

Predictably, there will be those within the TM ecosystem who will tell you today’s announcement doesn’t hurt TM in the long run – that TM’s business is much bigger than just one client. However, TM CEO Sean Moriarty was quick with his retort, “SMG lacks authority to make a deal on behalf of the municipally owned venues it runs because it is generally required to award services based on competitive bids. We will continue to compete on an individual basis for all venues seeking ticketing services.” Note to readers: Moriarty’s shotgun press releases always come from a place of panic. Read between the lines and you see just how upset he is.

And so the great “Ticket Wars” wage on. As we near the start of 2009, the world will be watching to see if and when Live Nation’s own ticketing platform takes off. Until then, give LN their moment. Today was the day the mighty Death Star was weakened.

Wall Street Journal Article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122108892557921303.html