PromoTix University

Will Royall (00:00)
Coming up on PromoTix University today, we're going to be talking about cheer event production and how one company has become super successful in the space.

Will Royall (00:30)
Hi and welcome to PromoTix University. I'm Will Royall your host, and I've sold more than $75 million in tickets to events, and now I'm helping event creators like you do the same. Today we're joined by Carrie Page and Madison Gregory of Victory Athletics, which is one of the best cheerleading competition producers

of events in the industry.

Will Royall (00:51)
going to share with us the things that make them unique and have made them successful.

Will Royall (00:55)
Hi, good morning. Hi, Carrie. Hi, Madison. Thanks so much for joining me on the show today. Carrie, why don't you start and just tell me a little bit about Victory Athletics

Carrie Page (01:04)
Hi, so my name is Carrie Page and Victory Athletics is a company that provides gymnastics and cheerleading equipment. We also have rentals for other EPs around the US and we are also an company. And I am the brand manager and an event director for Victory Athletics.

Will Royall (01:24)
Cool, and Madison, what about you? What do you do over there at Victory?

Madison Gregory (01:28)
Hey, I'm Madison. I am client services also an event director.

Will Royall (01:34)
Well, I know that Victory runs 15 events a year right now. You guys are expanding. You guys have maintained a high level quality of production and awards and things like that that are really attracting these different gyms to participate in your cheer events. So I wanted to first ask, like, what is it like running that many events with a lean team? And what are some of the challenges that you guys are facing in producing all of these events each season?

Carrie Page (02:02)
I think it's important that we have professional staff that have worked in the industry and for Victory for multiple years. And although we are a small team, we work really well together. Everybody knows their roles and responsibilities when it comes time for event day, and they ensure that the event runs smoothly and is successful. I guess some of the challenges would be when we have double event weekends where our core team is split.

But then I go, you know, goes back to everybody having the experience working in the industry and with Victory and being competent in the roles and responsibilities. We do work together as a team from afar. So, you know, everybody's always willing to communicate with one another from event to event, even if we have an event in Washington state and Atlanta, Georgia, which is one of our double event weekends.

⁓ We always work together whether we're apart together and make sure that we have a successful event.

Will Royall (03:05)
How do you guys stand out from your competitors? How do you make Victory's events something special or unique that people really want to attend over your competitors who are out there also throwing cheer events?

Madison Gregory (03:19)
So I would say our awards, our production, our staff, and also our 5 % back towards events if you buy equipment from us. Also our deposit lock-ins.

Will Royall (03:36)
Cool, so you guys have like a little bit of a loyalty program built in, especially for those who are buying equipment from you. They get to credit some of that back towards events. That's a pretty unique loyalty program. Talk to me about the production though. When you say production, what do you mean by that? Like how is it different than your competitors?

Carrie Page (03:53)
So our production, have a crew that travels around to all of our South and Southeastern events. And they provide high quality top notch production and sound and lighting. So ⁓ we have LED walls as our backdrops. And we have hazers, which are the fog machines, high quality sounds and audio and.

I think the consistency of having that same group of people working with us for each and every event provides a consistent experience for our customers and that's what's important for us.

Will Royall (04:30)
sounds like it's really high energy too, like an exciting event that's really getting people engaged in the production itself or the competition itself.

Carrie Page (04:39)
Yeah, it's really cool with the LED walls. You can do a lot of different things. You know, we have a lot of partnerships that we create each and every season, which adds value to the event for our customers and everybody in attendance. We can throw up, you know, some commercials from those partnerships or for the vendors that attend our events and create a different type of experience for those in the stands, which is really amazing because it's not just, we're here at a cheer competition.

You know, they're like, whoa, you know, we've got these video clips that are, can be like some very funny, comical things that they wouldn't even see coming because we have a comedian for a production guy. His name is Sean and he loves ⁓ making people laugh and having a good time. So, you know, I think that sets us apart for sure. ⁓

Madison Gregory (05:19)
That is very true.

Carrie Page (05:30)
And there's just so many different things that we can do to create a different type of experience because of our production for those who attend our events.

Will Royall (05:38)
So you get 15 events like we talked about, and I'm sure that your company is going to continue to expand over time. And some of these events, like when you've started, you've started in a brand new market that you didn't have really anything going on in that market previously. And I think you even have some new markets this year that you're breaking into. you know, how do you decide what markets to break into?

And even when you first host that first event and let's say the first year you don't make money on it, you lose a little bit, how do you decide to keep going and building that event in that area?

Carrie Page (06:16)
Anytime we're looking into breaking into a new market, we go into it knowing that there's risk involved. When it comes to deciding where and when has a lot to do with our schedule that we already have in place, because obviously we don't want, you know, to offer too many events in one weekend with us being a small team. And it's very important to us that we provide a consistent, ⁓ you know, experience for our customers. So,

A lot of times it comes down to us listening to our customers or potential new customers. We have a lot of people who reach out to us for equipment. And so we always mention, hey, you do realize Victory does offer events. So would you be interested in attending? Well, if they're in an area that we don't already have an event, then we take into consideration, hey, there is a demand for what we provide, you know, with our events in that area. So if we have enough

people interested, then hey, you know, we'll pop an event in that place. And, and if it works out with our schedule in hopes that it is successful, if it isn't successful the first year, meaning maybe we lose money, maybe we break even, we just try to get the word out to everybody in the area that might potentially attend in future seasons and get them on board, let them know ways they can save and the incentives we provide in, you know, attending our events.

and we get them to somewhat verbally commit to us for, you know, the next season or maybe, you know, ⁓ multiple seasons, who knows? And we make note of that and then we reconnect with them whenever it's time to recruit for the future seasons. And so, yeah, it's just talking, communicating with the customer, getting their feedback. And if there's a demand for it, we try and make it happen.

Will Royall (08:06)
Yeah, it sounds interesting that you're using like your kind of other divisions data, let's say on the equipment sales side to help judge demand for expanding your event side of your business. And you're also using sort of a loyalty program on the equipment side as a rebate program to help drive participation in the events too. So I think it's really smart what you guys are doing. You mentioned the deposit lock-in system earlier. Can you tell me more about that? Like how does that?

generate more commitment and kind of improve planning on your side for the events from the teams with this deposit lock-in system.

Madison Gregory (08:45)
Yeah, our promo discount is a great way for our customers to say big when attending our events. This also helps when they lock in early to kind of have an idea of how many teams or how many programs are going to come to a certain event, which helps with awards. When you're purchasing awards, how long the competition may last

And that discount also ends September 15th.

Carrie Page (09:14)
Yes, so if you're interested in any Victory events, you've got until September 15th to lock in to those discounts. We also offer a different promotion and if you attend three or more events, you save even bigger than just locking in for one event with Victory. So make sure that you take advantage of that before September 15th. We'd love to see everybody at a Victory event next season.

Will Royall (09:14)
haha

Nothing like a shameless plug in the middle of our podcast. So, ⁓ Carrie you mentioned, consistency as well as being kind of one of the strengths for Victory in your events, using the same production teams, things like that. ⁓ how do you maintain consistency across your events when you're in markets that are sometimes so far from one another? And, ⁓ I know that you even have events sometimes on the same weekend. So some of your events you've got.

Carrie Page (09:43)
Hahaha

Will Royall (10:09)
running in one state and another state and you've kind of split your team at the same time. So how do you really maintain consistency in that level of quality that everybody knows Victory Athletics for?

Carrie Page (10:21)
I think maintaining consistency involves communication and ensuring that every staff member knows what they're responsible for, for the event, whether that's prior to the event or the event day, and making sure that they are confident in their roles and responsibilities. And yeah, I mean, I think communication is huge. Also, you know, our core team, we're very passionate about

what we do for Victory as well as the industry. And we fully support this support the sport and want to see it be successful as a whole. And I think that's important. So you just having the passion to provide an amazing experience for our customers, be able to work together as a team to make sure that we are successful, whether we are together or apart for a double event weekend.

⁓ You know, that is very important to us.

Will Royall (11:22)
Madison, earlier you mentioned awards as being kind of a big thing that sets Victory apart. What does that mean? mean, other event cheer companies also have awards, right? Walk me through what the awards ceremony maybe looks like at the event and how that differs or what the awards are and how they differ from other cheer competitions.

Madison Gregory (11:44)
So we have our regular season championship events, which all first place receives a bow. All level grand champions receive a purple sweatshirt that says, Victory champion on it. Every athlete receives a custom medal, which is customized to the event t-shirt that we sell in our pro shop. So they're all different depending on the theme of the event.

So that's really, really fun. also, every level, sorry, every team gets a banner. Not a lot of people receive a banner every single time they go to an event. Our events, get one every single time. We also do judges specialty awards, which are best tumble, stunt, pyramid, jump, stance.

and then we also do every we give bids away to our Emerald Nationals at the end of the

Will Royall (12:43)
So in the earlier events, if they win, they basically can earn the right, I guess, free of charge when you say you're giving away a bid to enter into your nationals competition, is that right?

Madison Gregory (12:55)
Yes.

Carrie Page (12:56)
So all of our events prior to Emerald Nationals are partial and full paid bids. So by attending a Victory Athletics event prior to Emerald, you're guaranteed a partial paid bid. We also give away full paid bids, and those are announced on social media the Monday after the event weekend. We also have what's called the Victor Circle, which is something that we started a couple of years ago.

Will Royall (13:00)
Mm-hmm.

Carrie Page (13:22)
We keep up with the scores after each and every event and those people who are willing to accept bids and attend Emerald Nationals will be a part of that. And it's the top five scores. And at the end we have the winner of the

Victor Circle and what they get is the athletes receive gifts and then the coaches receive a hotel. ⁓ what is it? Two nights stay mad. think so the Friday and the Saturday night of Emerald, they get hotels and I get VIP parking at the venue for Emerald Nationals for each day of the event. So it's just a little something extra and something fun, you know, ⁓

Madison Gregory (13:53)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Carrie Page (14:08)
to have everybody involved. And it's always nice to be able to like see the excitement and the people sharing the Victor Circle ⁓ each and every week on social media and seeing all the comments. And so that's just something that we added to create a little bit more buzz and excitement ⁓ for our

Madison Gregory (14:28)
Yeah, another great awards that we also give away, I forgot to mention is our state championship awards.

Carrie Page (14:34)
Let's see, so we have Washington State Championship, Mississippi State Championship, Louisiana State Championship, Alabama State Championship, and Georgia State Championship.

Madison Gregory (14:42)
Alabama.

Yeah. So we have five of them and these awards are different because they are state championships. So first place all receives custom rings for the event. And then all level grand chance also receive a jacket

Carrie Page (14:59)
And what's awesome is whether you're attending a one day state championship or maybe just a regular one day championship, you pay the same. So you can attend a state championship, a one day event, you receive rings and jackets, and that's pretty huge.

Will Royall (15:16)
So obviously you guys are in business to make money, right? And I know the event has multiple revenue streams. Every event has to have multiple revenue streams these days to survive. We talked a little bit in our kind of preliminary discovery interview when we sat down to talk about this podcast together. And you mentioned that the top two revenue streams were both team registrations as well as spectator ticket sales.

In your space, you had mentioned that there was two spectators, let's say per athlete that typically attend events, ⁓ usually family members and things. What sort of tactics have you guys considered maybe or even put in place?

to try to increase the number of spectators that attend your events ⁓ per athlete that's participating.

Carrie Page (16:05)
We are always trying to find ways to help the families that attend our events save. So we have considered maybe offering some early bird ticket sales. Whereas if you go ahead and purchase your tickets so many weeks prior to the event, you save and then they increase the closer it gets to the events. We've also discussed possibly offering multi event packages or

season pass of some sort for those who do attend multiple Victory events

Will Royall (16:40)
That's cool. And I think in this industry too, there's this common, I think it's called stay to play ⁓ concept with hotels. A lot of times this is held at a hotel convention center or something along those lines. And in exchange for lower venue fees, a lot of times event producers will require that the teams participating, the athletes stay at certain hotels. You guys have done something

else where you don't do stay to play, you guys don't require that, which means maybe you're paying higher venue fees and things like that, but it's a decision that your company has made ⁓ on purpose. So can you talk to me a little bit about why you guys don't do stay to play and how that's impacted, you know, attendance at your events and maybe overall satisfaction of your, your guests.

Madison Gregory (17:29)
we have a couple of destination events, one being in Nashville. Our end of the season event Emerald is in Pensacola, Florida. So it helps them, you know, they can go stay in a condo, Airbnb, a hotel.

Carrie Page (17:43)
gives flexibility to the families attending our events to budget however they feel is necessary for them and their families. And that's very important because that just goes back to how Victory considers, you know, savings for everybody involved in our events. And we all know that this industry, this sport is expensive and very demanding of time.

Um, and so it's important that we do create that flexibility and option for our customers.

And so they might want to stay on the beach. They might want to stay right next to the venue or maybe even downtown Pensacola where they're in walking distance to different things. Cause we have teams that travel from all over the U S they might not want to rent a car. You know, maybe they do. Maybe it's in their budget ⁓ or you know, maybe it's just more, ⁓ makes more sense for them to Uber around who knows, but we just want our customers to have the option and know that

They have the flexibility to budget any way they feel necessary when attending Victory events.

Will Royall (18:49)
Yeah, I'm sure that it most likely can be made more affordable to attend your events when you're not being required to pay a fixed hotel rate at a specific spot, which means more participation in your events, right?

Carrie Page (19:02)
Yeah, you

know, another thing at Victory, we always think of the customer first. And that's really important to us. Customer service, providing a good experience, whether that is with rentals or equipment sales or events, you know. So we are always putting the customer first in any way we can.

Will Royall (19:05)
it.

I also, know that you have a ⁓ new scoring system, like this hybrid scoring system you spoke about, which is very different as well than other maybe cheer events and how they are running scoring. Can you explain how it's different and why that's a benefit to the teams that are competing at Victory athletic events?

Madison Gregory (19:41)
All retains are welcome.

Carrie Page (19:43)
All routines and all teams are welcome to Victory events. So I think, you know, this was a really good idea for us and something, you know, to provide to our customers. The hybrid scoring system, our scoring system, it's called the bridge and it was created to bridge the gap between two of the most popular scoring systems in the industry of competitive cheer and dance.

and that's united and open. So we wanted to create something that would not affect teams coming to our event, meaning, you know, if they want to come to our event, they don't have to worry about making changes to the routine prior to attending. So very important. And, you know, we offered the bridge this past season for the first time.

Will Royall (20:31)
Super important.

Madison Gregory (20:34)
Yes.

Carrie Page (20:40)
We tested it out. we had positive, amazing, good feedback from our customers who did attend our events this past season, which gave us even more confidence in the scoring system to move forward with it and

it was just important for us to provide something to our customers to where there weren't any restrictions or, you know, anything that maybe made them second guess whether or not they need to attend one of our events

and giving us a chance to provide them with the Victory experience. So it's important to us that

You know, we want everybody to feel comfortable attending our events and know that you're, you're welcome here. You know, we're trying to do all we can to provide a good experience that is, ⁓ you know, less stressful for you. Cause we all have been in the industry as athletes and as coaches. Am I right, Madison?

So we've been in their shoes and we know what goes into coaching these teams, getting them prepared, getting them on the road, getting them to competitions.

Madison Gregory (21:35)
yes.

Will Royall (21:44)
not having to come up with an entirely different routine just to fit a specific scoring system sounds like a huge advantage when it comes to like, hey, we can just go attend one of these Victory events. We don't have to change anything we've done maybe that we had set up for this other set of events or this other competition. I mean, that sounds like a huge win in regards to attracting teams and participants ⁓ in your events.

Carrie Page (22:09)
For sure, we're super excited about it, especially for this second season of using the bridge.

Madison Gregory (22:15)
Yes.

Will Royall (22:16)
Well, we've talked today a lot about a lot of different things that you guys are doing, you know, I would say better than a lot of your competitors, but definitely different. ⁓ You know, you're kind of against the grain on the state of play thing. You've got a unique scoring system. Your production is elevated. You've got these awards that are ⁓ significant and different. And so I can see why Victory is growing and standing out. What sort of advice do you guys have?

for maybe a new event, cheer competition, production company that's just getting started. Maybe they've got a couple of events, if you can think back to the early days of Victory, like what advice besides using PromoTix of course for their spectator tickets, would you give them in regards to growing their being successful?

Carrie Page (23:07)
First off, they need to make sure that they have in their business plan to use PromoTix. But aside from that, they need to have a game plan, strategy, and a good attitude. Ain't that right, man? ⁓ Personality, amazing energy. Not a mad attitude, mad as in Madison, my girl right here. Anyways, that's her nickname, everybody. So I'm not talking.

Will Royall (23:27)
Not a mad attitude, a Madison attitude. ⁓

Madison Gregory (23:32)
Me! Me!

Will Royall (23:33)
Hahaha

Carrie Page (23:37)
Yeah. So yeah, good energy. You got to have a good personality for it. And then I think what's the most important thing I'm going to give advice is you have to have passion for the sport and the industry. I feel like that is why everybody we have on our team at Victory, you know, care so much and work so hard to ensure that we give our customers an amazing experience.

Will Royall (24:07)
Yeah, it's great advice because it's not easy, right? It's a lot of work. It's really hard. ⁓ There's a lot to do. It's tireless. And if you don't have a passion for it, it's probably not very fun. So I know that you guys have a lot of fun when you're doing your events. And so I guess congratulations on what you guys are building over there at Victory.

Carrie Page (24:32)
Thank you, we appreciate it.

Madison Gregory (24:32)
Thanks!

Will Royall (24:35)
All right, well, we'll leave the show on that note today. Really appreciate both of you guys joining and talking about what you do over at Victory, how you guys are setting yourself apart, how you're growing the business. All of that stuff is super exciting and useful to other event creators. So I really appreciate you sharing and we'll see you at the next event sometime soon.

Carrie Page (24:57)
Yeah,

thanks for having us. We've enjoyed it and we hope to see everybody at a Victory event.

Madison Gregory (24:58)
Yes, yes, thank you. ⁓

Will Royall (25:00)
Absolutely.

Madison Gregory (25:04)
Use PromoTix

Will Royall (25:04)
All right, thanks so much.

Yeah.

Will Royall (25:10)
Well, that's gonna do it for today's episode. I really hope you enjoyed hearing from both Carrie and Madison as to how they continue to differentiate over at Victory Athletics. That was a common theme today in the interview. They talked about differentiation through awards, through the high quality production and consistency, through their unique scoring system, going against the grain with the state of play model in the industry. And so I encourage you to think about your own events and how you can continue to differentiate yourself.

from everyone else out there that's doing something similar so that your events stand out and can increase attendance year over year. So until next time, keep selling those tickets and we'll see you right back here at PromoTix University.