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Steve:
When you go to an event or a concert, what makes it an incredible experience? Is it all about the game or the music, or is there more to it than that?

Alex:
These buildings, stadiums, arenas, convention centers typically are owned by municipality. Somebody else that trusts us. And so there is a responsibility of kind of bringing those together, us being able to apply some of our expertise or knowledge or information we picked up along the way from our guests and attendees to providing a very compelling offering at each of these places.

Steve:
Designing the entire event experience on this episode of The CX Leader Podcast.

Announcer:
The CX Leader Podcast with Steve Walker is produced by Walker, an experience management firm that helps our clients accelerate their XM success. You can find out more at walkerinfo.com.

Steve:
Hello, everyone. I'm Steve Walker, host of The CX Leader Podcast. And I'm glad you're listening today. It's never been a better time to be a CX leader and on this podcast we explore the topics and themes that are helpful to leaders like you and help you deliver amazing experiences for your customers. Attending concerts, sporting events, conferences and other gatherings is a big part of our culture and could easily be considered the pinnacle of experience design. But there are so many elements that go into crafting the ideal event experience to make it truly memorable. How do you put it all together to exceed the high expectations of today's consumers? Well, I'm very excited about my guest this week. Alex Merchán is the chief marketing officer at ASM Global, a leading venue management and services company. Alex, welcome to The CX Leader Podcast.

Alex:
Hi Steve, Thank you for having me. So glad to be here.

Steve:
It's been my pleasure to get to know you and ASM Global here over the last couple of years. Full disclosure ASM Global is a good client of Walker and Qualtrics, and we work very strategically with them. But I actually did not know about your company, and your background is so interesting for this topic. So, you know, in case our listeners aren't familiar, could you just give us like a quick download on what ASM Global does and what it is, And then also kind of your unique pedigree and experience that you've brought to this organization?

Alex:
Sure. Sure. Absolutely. So excited to share some of this with you, Steve. And ASM Global is the product of a merger that happened late in 2019. And as you can imagine, a company dedicated and focused to bringing live events to life and hosting them. The timing was a little challenging with the pandemic, you know, squeezing up just behind it. So although the company has been formed for three and a half years, you would you would say that for two of those years we've not been able to really activate or operate. So because of that, because of the merger, again, not surprised that ASM Global name would would ring immediately. But let me give you some background on the company. ASM Global is the product of a merger between SMG, a leading facilities company, and AEG facilities. And with the merger, it created the world's largest portfolio of venues in the world. So what does that mean? That means a company that manages a collection of stadiums, arenas, convention centers and theaters all over the world. These venues are across five different continents. And when you look at the 350 venues and the 20,000 events that we host on an annual basis, it's a significant footprint.

Alex:
And so each and every single one of these events is a great opportunity to engage with fans, with guests and to understand their take on the experience. This represents about 160 million fans a year. So across live events, across different genres or interests, whether it's music, sports, family entertainment conferences, trade shows, conventions, you know, we're hosting people in our buildings on a regular basis. And so ASM Global, very excited to partner with the cities, municipalities and the team owners who own these properties and entrust us to manage these facilities for them. Our responsibility is to, in many cases, operate book and program the building, run food and beverage concessions, security, management, staffing, ticketing, marketing, partnerships and other revenue opportunities. So it's really a full 360 coverage or responsibility to bringing these events to life. You know, one thing I'd like to always kind of tie it back to is, we feel the responsibility of the entire guest experience. So what does that mean? We influence everything except for the scoreboard of the game or the setlist of the concert. Right from the very earliest search on a website to look up an event to engaging throughout the entire pre-event journey.

Steve:
Yeah, I just want to jump in here because again, it's been my pleasure to get to know this business and I'm like the rest of the 160 million, I'm a fan. I'm a Indianapolis guy, so I'm a Colts and a Pacers fan. I've been to almost 50 Indy five hundreds and then I'm a child of the 60s and 70s. So I also love 60s and 70s rock and roll and Motown and all that music. And I'm trying to see all my favorites here. But again, I think that our listeners can and this is a great thing for CX leaders to do, is to put themselves in the the role of the customer or the consumer. And I think all of us have been to an event where we've spent some money and we want that. I mean, this is a very, very intimate and personal experience for the fan who's showing up and spending big money to have a great evening, right?

Alex:
Yeah, absolutely. No, it's an amazing one. I think that's where it starts, Right. Our interest, even as professionals in the CX field, starts as the consumer. I've always been drawn to music. You know, even when I was young, I knew I'd had to trailblaze my way into somewhere in the entertainment space, not knowing what that would be early on in your career. Right? But, you know, attending concerts, going to shows, having experienced something at home in your bedroom as a teenager, you know, on a radio or whatever it was, and and then being able to go and see it in person live and then feel the energy, the electricity, the people around you who share that passion and share that sentiment. These are special moments and it's not lost on us. In fact, when you think about it, I've been very fortunate to be to be grounded in the fact that I know every day I work on something that to many is not work. To me, it's not work. People save all year to go do something like this, you know, in their everyday life. And so very fortunate to do this for a living and be able to to be a part of an organization that execute this, you know, for for people for a living. But we know that for the individual, these are things I look forward to. They have it on their calendar, They plan, they save and and they want to have a good experience. And so we want to make sure we provide that experience. And more importantly, we understand what we're doing to to ensure we provide that experience and pull the, you know, pull some insights from from those guests.

Steve:
I'm going to get into the whole… Because the business model is fascinating and it's complex and you've got tons of stakeholders and relationships you're trying to manage, but your personal background, you sort of hinted at it. You wanted to be in the the entertainment space. And to the outside observer, it does look like a very glamorous job. But give our listeners just a little bit of context of your journey because you're relatively new at ASM.

Alex:
Yes. Yeah. So yeah, glad to share some some some perspective here. I've been at ASM Global now for about a year and a half as Chief Marketing Officer. This has been truly the the perfect intersection or the pinnacle of everything, you know, I've been able to experience and accomplish before, you know, talk about preparation, right? Like things just kind of align and work out. Early in my career, I knew I wanted to be in in entertainment space of some sort, but not being the entertainer, the the musical talent per se, I realized I had to be on the back side of it on the on the outskirts or eventually discover the business side of it. And so although careers don't always take a straight line, I think you end up where you know where you want to. And so long as it's driven by, you know, by passion and commitment. And so for me, early on, you know, entertainment and media was a star for me. Television and music and in various support roles in sales and in marketing, I learned early on to watch, to listen and to learn, to help me define the place I wanted to go. You know, early on in television, seeing the success of a program or of a channel in a certain market, how do we understand those success? Well, there was ratings, there's data, there's research and and understanding that there's some nuances and again, metrics that that lead to decisions that inform decisions.

Alex:
And by better understanding something and being more informed, I think it leads to success. And so early on, kind of finding my footing led me still still keeping keeping a close proximity to entertainment into retail. Back in the day when we used to go out and buy physically buy books and music and things of that nature. But, you know, being in retail, understanding that. You wanted to find out what the guest experience was like. Again, information, data, sales reports, things came back to inform what you were doing to allow somebody to purchase their entertainment, what they're going to consume. And it started really kind of providing a clear picture to the value of not just the the experience we had in the post event world, but also kind of understanding how you can influence it at that time, at that given time. Spent time in retail, then moved on to to hospitality and live events. And that's where you recognize you could actually impact the pre during and post event journey by listening, by by having the right systems and tools in place and the the interest or need to to to hear these you know these experiences live.

Steve:
Awesome. I really appreciate you sharing that. And I also give life advice on this podcast. But you said something that's really important is to you it doesn't feel like work. And I have had the same blessing in my life that most of what I do, I do it for free. I just figured out how to get paid to do it. So any career advice for our listeners out there? That's part of The secret is find out, you know, find something you really like doing and that you can get paid for. But, you know, we've talked a lot about the actual fan or the the the participant, the on site consumer aspect of it. But this is a really complicated business. And you also have an important responsibility and duties to these venues and to their owners who typically are municipalities. They're really quasi public goods and, you know, those tax payers and those politicians and and administrators want to make sure that they're getting the economic return on their investment here. So just layer in for us a little bit the the aspect of the B2B and then how the B2C data and all this rich data environment can help inform that part of your your business and that part of creating value for your key stakeholders.

Alex:
You really right. This is a really important part of the business. And and it's not just the consumers. You know, we owe it and are entrusted by our partners, which yes, are made up of cities and owners. And the responsibility of managing these these, you know, facilities, these assets, all of which are unique, They're unique in history. They're unique to their markets. They're unique maybe on their origin and how they got there. They're all deep rooted in their communities in different ways. And, you know, we're being tasked with programing them with different events to to attract and bring different people within the community to to these places and even from beyond. And so as we look at that, the responsibility lies in hitting certain benchmarks and succeeding. For these partners, leveraging CX has been powerful because beyond our our consumer facing CX priorities, we have a whole behind the scenes B2B piece, which actually came first within our organization. It's important to understand what our event organizers expect when they come to an event, what music promoters want or expect of a venue that maybe they've never played at, or it's a brand new building. And, you know, we want to make sure we're conveying the right things to them. The ability to then give an educated opinion based on our ability to benchmark across a system is very powerful on the B2B side. You know, leveraging rich data, giving our perspective across across an industry, live events, industry that that no one else can do is an exciting proposition that we bring to the table, to the B2B side. And the unique challenge for us, which makes it fun, it's the the ongoing puzzle to solve is having a unified standard of excellence across such a diverse portfolio and making sure we're delivering that value for these partners around the world.

Steve:
You know, I just summarized that, you know, there really are there's at least two layers here that you have this really complex sort of B2B relationship with the venues and the owners of the venues, and you are providing, you know, really consultative type of advice to those people because of your span of influence and all these laboratories that you're running. So you can deliver real value. And I'm sure like you're actually helping these venues make more money for their owners or their communities too. But it's such a data rich environment because that one out of 160 million people that is at this show or this game or this theater, their experiences just got to be rock solid. And that's really what you're building on the on the CX side. So I want to talk a little more about how do you measure that? How do you action it? Take us through sort of a scenario or a maybe a consumer's experience and where you're pulling some of that data. And then then how do you use that.

Alex:
Listing to be able to hear the guest experiences? Ultimately a key component to making sure we have that ongoing success. And so a couple of different ways we can do that in a in a ticketed environment, you know, call it a, you know, at a game or at a concert. You know, one is really understanding and engaging our guests, whether it's through pre event or post event surveys. You know, the idea now, again, with technology and our use of technology, the fact you can have QR codes on site and we will get immediate feedback from someone as well is another nice feature. And the more data points or the more intersections we have with those guests and allow them to share their thoughts, I think the more impactful it makes it for our business. We make decisions based on this information, whether it's a new food and beverage offering, how is it well received? We may have done some research and have some some intuition about it, but truly, at the end of the day, as the events happening, what do people thinking about that when you when you promise someone this expectation of executing this event, you want to make sure you understand the operational pieces, the things that you can't sit there and follow everybody individually.

Alex:
So how was their ingress and egress to the building? What do they think about the facility? You know, hey, we we just invested, you know, all this capital and put some amazing new projection screens or, you know, some new feature. Did they notice did it make an impact? Did it change their overall experience? And so, you know, as we go down this path, every opportunity we can set up capture moment or moment to engage with the attendee with the fan is invaluable. And you do that to scale. You really start to put together an amazing deep, rich library of of live event data. And that's what excites me. What excites us is having the world's largest platform for live events, having that number of guests, 160 million plus guests going through our buildings allows us the ability to really have some rich and deep insights which truly do influence decision making. And what we have to do at the end of the day is deliver results. And so that information really feeds into delivering the business results that are also expected. In addition to meeting and exceeding a guest experience.

Steve:
This is the pinnacle of experience management kind of in our world today. And, you know, I hope our listeners can kind of envision, you know, taking these rich data sets of the actual consumer's experience and matching that up with what type of event it was and what the venue was. And then being able to feed that data back with some. You actually have a great level of syndicated data now where you can kind of benchmark and you can find best practices and you can probably sometimes even discover how is this venue doing this part of it so good.

Steve:
My guest on the podcast this week is Alex Merchán. He is the chief marketing officer at ASM Global. And we are having a fascinating discussion about one of the coolest customer experiences I think any of us could ever envision. And it's one of the reasons why I love what I do and I love the clients I get to work with and the help that we get to provide to creating great experiences. But talk a little bit about then how do you take the consumer data, the fan data and take that back to the venues to drive some of their improvements or to make sure that they're realizing what they need to do for their stakeholders?

Alex:
I think the the the biggest thing is establishing, like you said, that benchmark, understanding that benchmark and how things might vary market to market things will vary event by event based on the on the event type. And so one is understanding, like you said, that benchmark being able to know what's expected and what is the target for success and what we can, you know, aim to to, you know, surpass. The beauty of having the visibility at a really high level across markets allows us to really be able to recognize where we are succeeding, where we are over delivering and, you know, sometimes where you might be, you know, just short or need to make some adjustments. I think that's the power. The power is yes, the validation, the the success, the wins. But the the ability the impact comes from recognizing and identifying where the opportunities lie to become even better. And so from a macro perspective, you know, looking at trends, again, in some cases we'll install a new suite or a new elevated experience where you can still come to your events, still, you know, still still experience the events. But we maybe elaborate or expand on some of the offerings, the environment. You get to sit in the food and beverage. We want to hit and exceed a guest experience and the guest expectations. And so we can put some questions to really dig into specific topics such as the premium space, you know, thoughts on what was delivered, was it to their expectation and really start to to derive some input.

Steve:
You know, I'm just sitting here listening to you and again, I'm going to date myself here, but I went to my first ABA basketball game in 1967 with my dad.

Alex:
Did you say ABA?

Steve:
ABA. The Indiana Pacers were one of the first teams in the ABA, and the first season was '67, '68, and I was ten years old. And but it's something I did with my dad. And, you know, that created kind of a whole lifetime. And I've done it with my son and I hope to do it with my grandkids. But I've probably been to a Pacer game, you know, at least one every year for 50 some years. And I just think of the difference in how that experience has evolved over time, you know, with the venues and the entertainment and the, you know, just the video and all that power that's going on. And this is why it's so great to be a CX leader today, because, you know, we really are differentiating on the experiences and those that data and that insight that we can bring back and actually drive some improvement or help these venue guys, you know, you know, generate additional revenue for their stakeholders. But, you know, it's just really, really a cool deal. And you got to have a good story for us, you know, something that maybe surprised you or something that you came across that was just, you know, such a cool insight that you were able to take and make a big impact.

Alex:
From a CX perspective, then?

Steve:
Yeah.

Alex:
One unique thing, specifically in our world at ASM Global, we do tailor and are considerate for the end consumer, the fan, the attendee. But as you mentioned earlier, the B2B side is a big one as well, and we have event organizers who entrust to bring their big conventions and trade shows and and that pinnacle for their company for the year to bring all their key people in and they entrust us to make this happen. And so one of the interesting parts we've uncovered already is having that relationship with these event organizers, getting their feedback throughout the process, throughout the engagement of setting up their event. On site as they're setting up. If you can imagine, these conventions sometimes take days to a week to just set up before all the attendees show up. And so a lot of opportunity there to to to instill and ensure that these events happen and take off correctly. So we're able to get feedback from our partners, from our event organizers to understand that whole journey. This is behind the scenes, but this is ultimately what the attendee, the consumer will experience. And, you know, having the insights at that level with event organizer taking it, you know, way ahead even before the attendees show up, has been a really eye opening opportunity. You know, we've got we've received great feedback from from our from our clients on areas to improve. You know, one thing we we did late, late last year was start to integrate on site day of QR codes and get live data not just to a dashboard. Right. But having our operator, our GM, um, you know, our partners, you know, have live updates.

Alex:
Right. You know, using the platform, using their mobile device, being able to see any changes in flow of traffic issues in one part of the building or another, just by simple QR code with a series or a very simple question that can give us some immediate feedback we can address that same day or for the next day to ensure that that event continues to flow and work out well. Um, this is the kind of stuff that, as I look at my career and the evolution of CX and technology and the role it's played to evolve what we can do and elevate the expectations. I mean, now we come to to expect what can we do today, What can we do right now to fix this, to change this? Um, I referenced early on in my career in retail, we waited to hear about the experience after and then recap it after a month. And what are the trends a month later? What do we do last month? Yeah, now we're living in the now we're living in the immediate moment. And so it's exciting to have that responsibility, have that ability. And what excites me the most is, you know, we get to have a look behind the curtain and see this across industries, across the live events in general and beyond one geographic market. And so bringing that to life for an event, understanding with an event organizer what they want to make sure the event takes off. Well, just an exciting piece to know that we have that that information to to make those decisions and you know, influence it for for for good.

Steve:
You know, I want to go back to your setup. You know, this this firm, your firm was formed right before COVID and you really had to, you know, persevere through some tough stuff. But I think our listeners would just love your perspective on. I think we're back. Right? Things are back?

Alex:
It's a good feeling to know that every day we're back and we continue to to get back. Um…

Steve:
I think the conferences and some of the trade stuff has been a little slower. But man, I'm involved in a lot of this stuff. But you know, leisure travel is like is blowing up again. And so there's a lot of good, good signs, I think for the hospitality space in general.

Alex:
Yeah, I think we all took a if you all take a moment and just think back of what we were where we were a year ago individually, right? It, you know, it's almost like waking up now, like, was that a dream? Um, we're very excited across the industry. We're seeing the, the, the return of events. We've been seeing it. But, you know, the unique role our company plays and the visibility we have, we seen it in phases and stages around the world, right? So North America, for the most part for concerts and sporting events, etcetera, was back earlier on than the rest of the world. And then we saw the evolution and the the, you know, coming back online in in the UK and Europe shortly thereafter. And then there's parts of the world like Australia and other parts that, you know, even legally weren't allowed to congregate until very recently. And so the trend. Yes, the business optimism and vision. Yes, we're excited that things are definitely coming back and and going in the right direction. But there's nuances, there's nuances. And that's where I think having not just our business perspective, but having a CX role to understand and kind of see these waves and see the pace at which business comes back online, what's important, what's important today in in, you know, March of 23 versus a year ago, dramatically different already from a perspective what our fans what our guests were expecting and it'll continue to and so having that information having that knowledge to feed and inform what we do and make the right decisions is super empowering. And then there's of course, what we learn in one market that might be ahead of a curve, we can quickly apply somewhere else and. Um, and, you know, improve that that experience and reduce that learning curve has been pretty impactful.

Steve:
Alex, we kind of the hallmark of our show is we always leave our audience with sort of what we call take home value. And the concept here is for you to deliver your best tip or one nugget could our listener take from you today that they could apply to their CX program or their company and make some improvement in their program? So Alex Merchán, it's your turn for take home value on this podcast.

Alex:
Different ways of saying this, but I can tell you being an ambassador, being a passionate advocate and being that cheerleader for CX in your organization is, I think, a critical, critical role. This information is great, but unless implemented or shared with the right people to influence, it's fall short of the potential. So one of those things and themes that I pay attention to is how do you continue to understand these trends, leverage this information and be be an internal company source or connective tissue to influence an organization. Watching, listening and learning is critical to capture the information. But then being that that passionate advocate to making sure the org understands what's happening is going to be critical for anybody in a CX role. So that'd be my my big thing to think about.

Steve:
That's a great topic and I'm sure some of our listeners are a little bit envious that the CMO of this huge global company is so focused on CX. But you're right, it's a cheerleader. And as we've discussed on many episodes, you know, I think it's really neat that CX is part of marketing at ASM Global because you can't have a brand without an experience that matches it, right? So those two are symbiotic. They are hand in hand. They are pervasive throughout the organization. And to have someone you know in your role who is such a advocate for this is just the best thing for our profession.

Alex:
I'll give you a thought on that. Actually, I've been very blessed and fortunate that in the many organizations I've worked for and some of these amazing experiences, CX was always a part of marketing or very close to marketing. Early on in my career, just having the exposure to it and as my career evolved and in some cases the opportunity sat there for me to to to jump on it and say, I want a piece of this and own and own and embrace CX is part of my role and responsibility. And I look at the various iterations and phases of my career and the different stops along where I've had CX partners and and implemented CX platforms in multiple places already. Um, one experience has fed into the next. And so I've been very fortunate that I've been in environments where CX has been critical and tied to marketing and now allows us to, to, to have it sit within the marketing org and drive what we do at ASM Global.

Steve:
Yeah, well it's a great story and thanks for coming on the podcast and sharing it. I'm very grateful that you're willing to do this. And Alex Merchán is the Chief Marketing Officer at ASM Global. And Alex, just in case anybody would like to continue the conversation, I know you're on LinkedIn, right?

Alex:
That is correct.

Steve:
I bet you they could find you on the ASM global website, too, right?

Alex:
They can definitely find me nowadays you can find me a lot of places with social media, right? Yeah. Linkedin be a great way to to reach out and connect. Always looking forward to to sharing experiences, learning from one another, whether it's at trade shows or conferences or even via LinkedIn and conversation.

Steve:
Great. Well, again, thanks for being a great guest on the show and and sharing your story. I'm sure our listeners are going to get a big kick out of this one. So and if you want to talk about anything you heard on this podcast or about how Walker can help your businesses customer experience, feel free to email me at podcast@walkerinfo.com. Remember to give The CX Leader Podcast a rating through your podcast service and give us a review. Your feedback will help us improve the show and deliver the best possible value to you, our listeners. And by the way, did you know that we have a blog? That's right. You can find a ton of CX related content on our blog at walkerinfo.com/blog. Be sure to check out our website cxleaderpodcast.com to subscribe to the show to find all of our previous episodes. They're organized by topic and you can search them. And it's an amazing encyclopedia of CX knowledge and expertise. The CX Leader Podcast is a production of Walker. We're an experienced management firm that helps companies accelerate their experience management success. You can read more about us at walkerinfo.com. Thank you for listening and remember it really is a great time to be a CX leader So go out there and be a cheerleader for your CX program and your organization. Thanks for listening and we'll see you again next time.

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