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People and Pop Culture

Hangin' With ... Feld Motor Sports Int'l Vice President Magnus Danielsson

Feld Entertainment, the owner of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, has recently seen its Monster Jam brand prove that there is no shortage of int'l interest for what Feld Motor Sports Int'l VP MAGNUS DANIELSSON referred to as a "big, noisy, American show." Danielsson oversees the int'l activity of Monster Jam, which Feld acquired in '08. The show has sold out arenas worldwide, and its three int'l tours in '14 included 40 performances in 19 cities across nine countries, including Canada, with more than 520,000 total customers. After carrying out one in '12, two in '13 and three in '14, Monster Jam is making four int'l tours in '15. This year, shows are already scheduled in Madrid and Valencia, Spain, as well as the Philippines. Danielsson recently chatted with SBD Global about the likely reasons for Monster Jam's rapid growth outside the U.S.

On areas Monster Jam is targeting ...
Magnus Danielsson: I must say that Australia is a success story. We came from basically nowhere and we’re such a big business today there, and it’s going to grow even more in ‘15. Every region is exciting from its perspective. I would say in general I’m probably most excited about the Middle East. With the kind of car and motorsport culture they have there, and also with the people we’re currently discussing this with, I think it will be a huge business there when we get going.

Next week in SBD Global:

  • A closer look at Monster Jam's recent rise in popularity outside North America.
On the impact of advances in social media and technology ...
Danielsson: At one point when we were doing it back in the mid-2000s, you would basically put 90 to 95 percent on television and the rest you would do other stuff. That is changing with the changing media landscape with on-demand services basically for everything. Social media or digital media becomes bigger and bigger. It kind of depends on which market we’re looking at. Some are more developed than others, but it's a very quickly growing part of the budget where we transition from TV and print, definitely, more from TV, going to the video landscape. It's a huge focus within the company right now and there’s a few things coming around the corner as well on it. It’s definitely a big driver in what we're doing. We have a very good property to be marketing in that type of environment as well. It’s a good way of driving ticket sales. ... We're spending big amounts in that area, making sure that we’re making the most of the opportunities, for sure.

On Monster Jam's potential ...
Danielsson: I would say to anyone who doesn’t have what we have in their market, this is a huge business opportunity. It really is. Not just for the live event component, sponsorship is a huge opportunity. If you look at it, how many properties in the world are there which are not really taken? With the history that we have today, I can tell you that this is something that makes a lot of sense. There’s definitely opportunities still out there. For anyone who is interested in those, that’s why we’re here.

Magnus Danielsson is the Int'l VP of Feld Motor Sports.
On keys to success ...
Danielsson: This is a huge business, it’s definitely something that’s going to grow in the years to come. It’s perfect. Just look from a venue standpoint, how many family shows do you have that can fill a stadium? I would say pretty much none. You have in some markets a very localized show. You obviously can say that football or ice hockey are family events, but we’re filling stadiums. The thing here is also that we’re bringing in new people to the stadiums, which they haven’t had in their venues before, which is also a huge opportunity for them, because all of a sudden they get to expose their venue to a totally different audience. We’re a family business. Once you launch it and it works, it becomes a good annual business for everybody involved. If you look at rock and pop, that’s not the case. You never know who’s going to come next year and most of the big names are getting older by the day. It’s a very smart product.

Hangin' With runs each Friday in SBD Global.

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