What Taylor Swift taught RBC CEO Dave McKay

While CEOs understand the power of entertainment to delight people they’re trying to reach, they might not appreciate the business case—and how it’s shifting. Dave McKay of RBC told me he’s never been more popular than when the bank sponsored Taylor Swift’s Eras tour. It also helped RBC add more than 600,000 clients to its Canadian banking business last year. Here are some insights from CEOs shaping the next wave of live entertainment. 

Create a multigenerational experience. It’s not just mother-daughter Swifties. In organizing the CBGB event, entrepreneur Phil Sandhaus created a “Young Punk” category of $73 tickets, along with a separate stage area of younger acts that was buzzing with energy—and the sponsors who wanted to associate with that. He also livestreamed the key mainstage acts.

“We want to appeal to people who grew up with this music but make it accessible to a younger generation,” Sandhaus told me. “Different price points and experiences let us go after different sponsors and brands. We’re not trying to gouge people; we’re here for the long run.”

Pick a committed partner. As Terrapin Station Entertainment CEO Jonathan Shank notes, with ticket prices often starting at 10x what they were a generation ago, an experience needs to “be first class in order to cut through.” That means investing in technology—ABBA pulled in $2 million a week from a concert that featured their avatars—and the right partner. A pioneer in bringing intellectual property from Bob Marley to Disney to the live stage, Shank knows the importance of partnering on a franchise that matters to the owner. “If it’s a prioritized project within the studio, you have everybody going down the river in the same direction and at the same time,” Shank said. “If it’s not a huge priority, you can find yourself out on an island” and the project suffers. 

Create an ecosystem. Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment CEO Sam Zussman is proud of what he’s built around the Brooklyn Nets and New York Liberty, but his goal is to turn the Barclays Center into a destination for the community. (The latest example is the Brooklyn Basketball Training Center.) That vision is a big reason why Brooklyn Nets owner (and Alibaba Chairman and cofounder)  Joe Tsai chose Zussman. “Sam came in as an outsider and saw BSE Global as a venue-based entertainment business with IP that’s proprietary to us,” Tsai told me recently. “I was looking for someone who can create an ecosystem.” While Zussman says the goal is to “build generational fandom,” the BSE CEO views sports as “a vertical of entertainment” with talent, partners and facilities that let him woo a world of other customers.

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CEO Daily is compiled and edited by Joey Abrams and Jim Edwards.