There’s a new player in the specialized world of concert logistics. It’s big, and it’s brown.
In May, UPS Inc. and Live Nation Entertainment, the
world’s biggest concert promoter, announced a multiyear
agreement under which UPS will become the exclusive transportation and logistics sponsor of Live Nation’s global operations. New York-based Live Nation produces 20,000 concerts
around the world each year.
Under the deal, which is scheduled to run through 2015,
Atlanta-based UPS will be responsible for shipping letters and
packages between Live Nation’s offices as well as tickets and
merchandise sold on the company’s website. UPS is also in
talks with various artists represented by Live Nation about
providing logistics services for multicity concert tours.
UPS is not a total stranger to the concert logistics arena. It
has long been part of a stable of carriers used by Rock-It
Cargo, a provider of logistics planning and freight forwarding
services for live events. But the agreement marks UPS’s first
involvement as the primary provider of logistics services in the
entertainment vertical beyond sports. That means Big Brown
will be exposed to a whole new audience—one that may not
be familiar with its services.
To connect with the younger people who are the core of Live
Nation’s customer base, UPS is playing the sustainability card.
UPS will provide artists with an analysis of the carbon footprint generated by shipping their concert equipment and suggest ways they can reduce emissions. In addition, Live Nation
will purchase carbon “offsets” to mitigate the emissions produced by the shipping of tickets and merchandise, UPS said.
As for what Big Brown’s arrival might mean for the market,
Thomas Paine, Rock-It’s chief marketing officer, says he doesn’t view the new player as a direct threat. The two companies’
services are complementary rather than directly competitive,
he says. “UPS excels at moving overnight and boxed goods—
tickets, merchandise, etc.,” Paine said in an e-mail. “We excel at
the time-sensitive and intricate logistics of daily moves of
lights, sets, rigging, sound, band gear, and staging. Our expertise is tour planning and personal supervision of every detail.
And in fact, many of the moves we plan are executed through
the UPS network.”
Rockin’ in the Brown world
inbound
Educational conferences generally are serious
business—sometimes so serious they can get a little, well, boring. Apparently, the Warehousing
Education and Research Council’s (WERC)
recent annual conference proved an exception. At
the May event in Orlando, Fla., more than 60
attendees purchased tickets—and risked having
their expense reports denied—to attend WERC’s
first-ever “Beer ’n Bull” session.
This unusual event took a lighthearted look at
the “contributions” hops and barley have made to
warehousing and vice versa. While sampling locally brewed beverages, attendees contemplated the
fact that the first commercial refrigeration unit
was commissioned by the brewing industry—and
therefore, refrigerated logistics might not exist
today if not for beer. In addition to exploring historical relationships between brewing, warehousing, and logistics, attendees somehow managed to
draw connections between beer and current-day
industry issues like differentiation, consolidation,
collaboration, and warehouse safety.
“Some of the comparisons were real, others
were coincidence, while others were total ‘bull,’”
said Chad Pilbeam, chief “disestablishmentarian”
and perpetrator of the event.
Why did WERC include such an offbeat program on the agenda? “To prove that any discussion
can be turned into a discussion about beer, and
that any discussion about beer will improve the
overall conference experience—even increasing
information retention, despite the consumption of
barley and hops,” Pilbeam cheerfully replied.
In all seriousness, organizers felt the session
would encourage attendees to bring creativity and
a sense of risk-taking to their jobs. “Every year we
work to create memorable and unique experi-
ences for our members,” said Michael Mikitka,
WERC’s CEO. “When the idea for Beer ’n Bull was
presented to us, we knew that while it wouldn’t
appeal to everyone, there was an audience that
would love it.”
Judging from attendees’ feedback, Mikitka was
right. A survey of conference-goers showed that
respondents overwhelmingly favored having
another Beer ’n Bull session at next year’s event,
which will be held in Atlanta May 6–9.
“Hoppy hour” a hit at WERC
conference
