Matt Wolff: Keeping your Sports Memories Alive (Full Transcript)
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Ronen Ainbinder 0:32
Today's Halftime Snack features the founder and CEO of Ticket Time Machine – a commemorative product company that helps you keep your memories alive by providing souvenir tickets for the events you attended. They recently launched an augmented reality experience that enhances the fan experience and adds value for sponsors/brand partners while bridging the digital with the physical world.
Our guest is also The Wolff Den Live Show host, so you can find it live on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Youtube. This man's expertise lies in the intersection of marketing, live events, and technology. It is an honor and a pleasure to host him in the Halftime Snacks; Ladies and gentlemen, Matt Wolff!
Matt Wolff 1:19
Hey, Ronen, thanks for how it sounded like it did when I was on the basketball team.
Ronen Ainbinder 1:27
Ah, so you were on the basketball team! That's nice.
Matt Wolff 1:29
Yeah, I wasn't tall compared to every other team.
Ronen Ainbinder 1:37
So my introduction is bringing you to live memories from your time on the basketball team, such as how your tickets bring memories back to everyone else. Man, welcome to the show. Welcome to the halftime snacks. We always kick it off with a fun icebreaker. So let me ask you this. What's the coldest place you ever traveled to for vacation?
Matt Wolff 1:59
Well, that's a good question. Because we go on a sports trip every year with my friends and we go to a different city, Major League Baseball, college football, and pro football and I'm from New Jersey. So I've grown up in the cold. And we were in Pittsburgh in November. And the college football game on Saturday was probably the coldest I've ever been. I was wearing like three pairs of pants, three, three long sleeve shirts. We would get hot chocolate. And before I even got back to the seat. It was cold. And then it was crazy. And the next day, Sunday for the Steelers game. We were in shorts and short sleeves. The sun was out. It was nuts. Oh, that's probably the coldest I've ever been on vacation.
Ronen Ainbinder 2:42
Wow, that's insane. I never heard you know such a difference in one day in the same city. But I guess it's amazing. I have never been to Pittsburgh, man. But I hope I'm going to make it one day. I'm Matt. Man, thank you so much for taking the invitation to come to the halftime snacks. I want to discuss a lot of things with you here today and learn mostly from what you've done though, I mean, all the things that you've been building, how about you, you kick it off by just telling us the story or maybe sharing with those the moment when you decided that you wanted to build a ticking time machine? And I mean, how did it come about? Or how do you start it to share with us a quick story?
Matt Wolff 3:20
Yeah, my first job in sales was for a company called worldwide ticket craft. It was a ticket printing company. I had no idea that there was a job that did this. You assume tickets show up, and people may come, but I worked there for about seven or eight years. And then I left and made anti-money laundering sales for about six or seven years. And I was at a Marlins baseball game, and some focus was a no-hitter. I have a mobile ticket. And they announced over the loudspeaker if you want a printed ticket to come to the box office. So I was like, that's great. And I went up there, and I said, thanks. Can you put in some Volkers no-hitter there? And they say that they couldn't. And I know that they can because that's my background. And so that's when the idea came. I've been to a couple of shows right after that where I couldn't get it printed, taken. I said You know what, I think there's something here.
Ronen Ainbinder 4:07
is that the moment that you also realize that there's also a market for it or through some research and through talking to different folks, you realize that, Oh, there are people who would be interested in that?
Matt Wolff 4:20
Yeah, it's hard to find the research on that. Because at this point, and this is 2018, we were first moving to digital. So we didn't even know, but I knew right away that there was a market for it. It's one of those things that you know that I just knew being a fan—combined with being someone who's in the industry for a while.
Ronen Ainbinder 4:41
Yeah, I remember it's funny that tickets mean a whole experience because I used to collect the tickets for movies used to save them with the movie's name to remember which movies I've seen. So after a while, I know how many movies I've seen, so it was fun to collect them. But I wonder what are some of the challenges that you faced through the time machine? I mean, on the whole, like collectibles and souvenir markets? I mean, what are some challenges regarding competition? Like, Who's your competitor? Or who takes your mind away from you? Sales? What are some of the key challenges to convince people that this is something valuable and worth it? Share with us a couple of challenges that you face so far? TTM?
Matt Wolff 5:31
Yeah, so the first challenge was that going digital was very new. So most places, when I first started this, we're pretty much still doing a printed ticket, but knowing that it was trending towards the digital, so that was the first thing until it goes fully digital, people are still going to say, well, we do, we still do a printed ticket, or they're going to say, Hey, we're in the, we're transitioning. And for some reason, they think that if they do something printed, it will take away from their ability to move people to digital; the second biggest challenge was COVID. And events coming to a halt, which we got into. We did some digital and virtual events and found a little bit of space there. And I still think there's; there's more opportunity there. And then the third one is the new kid on the block when you're not established, and the people who are our, I guess you could say, they're the competition, they've been around for a while they know that people, they have the relationships. So that's probably the third one that we're fighting against. But I believe that we're a new voice, more innovative, and have a better pulse on what the fan wants. So it's just a matter of getting those two yeses, and I think the rest will follow.
Ronen Ainbinder 6:49
So do you feel a lot of pushback when, for instance, talking with customers or potential customers? Do you feel like a lot of pushback now? Maybe this is not for me? Or like, what are some of the prime primary, like pushback reasons they give on why they don't need something?
Matt Wolff 7:07
Yeah, the first one is probably timing; that's probably the biggest thing. So especially with COVID, there's a lot of uncertainty with events. And so, by the time they get around to it, they're so deep in the weeds of what they're doing. They are why we don't have time for any of this. And we can take care of everything, from start to finish, including fulfillment there, we don't need a lot of resources from the customer. But they don't understand that. So it's, it's trying to get the right timing because it's a seasonal thing when people have tickets unless it's just we have events all year round. But a lot of the stuff we do is one event a year. And so that's probably the biggest perspective and yeah money, it's if they don't have money to spend, they've we say get sponsors to pay for it, you're going to generate revenue from the fans. And we can create a program where you don't have to risk anything you buy from me you've already sold. So it's almost on demand. But it's just hard to get people to understand that.
Ronen Ainbinder 8:10
Yeah, and I guess that break, bringing in technology kind of like helps that. So I want to talk about that project that you're currently working on. That brings in augmented reality to increase fan engagement. So tell us a little bit of what it is, how it works, who you're working with, and what exactly is it going to change in terms of the fans' experience moving forward?
Matt Wolff 8:33
Yeah, so the digital experience is something that's coming about. And there's a ton of great companies out there that are doing digital experiences when you're at the game if you're a fan at home, but what I wanted to do is add a digital experience to our physical product, to it's going to add value for the experience is going to add value for the sponsors. And just something to make what we're offering, which we think we have a pretty cool product with our animated tickets, even that much better. And I was trying to find an off-the-shelf type of program with AR that would make us have a good experience, but the AR with the video where, let's say you have a player in the background dancing, and they have all that stuff. It's largely unaffordable. I get 40 $50,000 to start my there are very few companies like Coca Cola can do it; maybe some professional teams can do it. But I'm selling a cheaper, not a cheap ticket but a ticket. It's not. Whatever, let's say it's the ticket people are buying for under $10. Well, they're not going to spend $15 to have someone jump out. So we partner with a company called Maxi gram, and they have video AR, so you trigger for on the ticket, and a video pops up, and that video can be changed out, or it could remain, and there are icons around it, which are one click. And so, the difference between the QR code and the AR video is that the AR video loads automatically. QR code only brings you to a website, and from there, you have to navigate. And especially if you're on your phone, you have to start clicking through the three that three line menu and then try and figure out what you want. The AR stuff that we have in the video is automatic, and the icons are one click. So once it's on your screen, I click one button, I make a phone call, I click another button, it goes to the store, I click another button, you can buy tickets, and another button goes to social media. So it's just a lot of flexibility on what you're offering. And then it just keeps you engaged. It's a very good way to bridge the physical and the digital. And we look at this as an add-on value. I'm not, I was not, I wasn't trying to find something where we can, you know, resell and use that as a profit off. So I'm just trying to add on the value to make it a better experience for everyone.
Ronen Ainbinder 10:47
In my perspective, as a fan, I would love to see or kind of like capture my favorite play from the game or the moment in the game that gave me the most emotion or combining that element of emotion or the thing that impacted my, my, my mood the most during the game, and putting it into the ticket that I'm just going to keep for the rest of my life. I think that's like, that's awesome.
Matt Wolff 11:17
That's what we envision highlights, or songs, maybe if it's a concert, and you're, and you're using it, maybe a song, maybe a preview putting schedules out there upcoming. Maybe you get a message from a player that comes out, and you can alert them by sending them an email and saying, hey, check out your ticket. There's something new waiting for you. I think it's a game-changer for us. We're excited about it. And we're going to talk about movies, we're looking at getting commemorative movie tickets, and we want to have commemorative boarding passes for trips you took. And I'm trying to get into the trading card market because I think we have some pretty cool stuff there. We did a training card for a 14-year-old moto racer, Keegan Brown, and we did a trading card form. And it's got an animated card in the back. It looks like a trading card. And so we think that this stuff is augmented reality if we think our stuff stands on its own, but the augmented reality stuff, I think, will be a value addition for the teams, the fans, and the sponsors.
Ronen Ainbinder 12:23
Yeah, and even taking it further thinking about blockchain technology and the way you can like, sign things digitally, and store them in the blockchain and keep their authenticity, maybe in the future, you're going to have the augmented reality highlight. Still, you're also going to have it signed by the player. And then this adds value to it. And you can then trade it with someone else. Or, as you mentioned, digital cards or collectibles, or things that you can keep, but then increasing value they don't they're not only emotional memories, and things that help you remember what you live, or what you saw. But more than a total, it can also become an investment. So I see a big potential in these kinds of ideas, Matt, but what is my vision, but what is yours? Your vision of the future of galactic collectibles, souvenirs, and tickets for your case? And how are you planning on ticket time machines to adapt to such changes in the upcoming 510 years and in the future?
Matt Wolff 13:31
Yeah, so the vision is, for any fan who wants printed memorabilia printed tickets for any event that they went to, they'll be able to get it, whether someone's giving it to them, whether they have to buy it. That's the goal. And that's the vision for the ticket timesheet. If you want to take it, you'll be able to get it. And how are we going to do that? And how are we going to adapt? Well, I mean, we've added augmented reality that's adapting to the times, but we're going to be a flexible company. So we'll be able to offer a lot more different things once were operating in the way that we want to, we'll be able to offer more experiences like hey maybe like, Field of Dreams, there's a company Field of Dreams in the mall and, and Highland mint, and all these companies where they, they give you it's not just a ticket. Still, it's a frame, and there's some other stuff. So we're going to work on that building experience and build a better, more robust product around our collectibles. But we're focused on the tickets first. And we're excited. We're in a very good position. Now that things are moving again. And we're having some great conversations. And I think it's a matter of time.
Ronen Ainbinder 14:44
Yeah, I'm also very excited to look forward, what's going to happen with all the implant implementations of technology and just like the word just moving, moving forward so fast. We're going to see so many new things being implemented there. And one of the things that can come to my mind when I talk about souvenirs is how like. You know how if you go to like Disney or universal parks you get the ride and then right up through the Rive you, you like you land in the souvenir store, right so so I'm just trying to translate that idea of landing to time ticket machine after a game that like, experience may be put into digital, right? But that's how people are going to start to think like, okay, games finished. But now I want to get my highlights. I want to get the moment in the game that I want to remember. That's where I want to go. And so and so ticket Time Machine is going to be on top of my mind.
Matt Wolff 15:46
Yeah, that's the right opportunity. We can be on-site and selling and printing and customizing, and personalizing. Another vision that we have is to do almost like a kiosk-type thing around places, but ticket Time Machine, the products that we have. It's called Ticket Time Machine. The first thing that comes to mind is that it's a commemorative ticket company, someone here's to get a time machine, they think of tickets. And the definition of a ticket is evolving right now. So we do credentials, we do make name badges, we customize and personalize. We have magnet posters. But it's merchandise. It's merchandise. It's a collectible. It's a souvenir. You call it whatever you want. It's something that's going to generate memories from an event that you did, and it's also going to give you an experience moving forward. So it's Yeah, I mean, we want to be top of mind for we want to be the number one name that people think of when they think of memorabilia and collectibles, and it's crazy stuff that just went on and on. I don't know if you're a card collector, but fanatics are taking over the world. They just basically ended tops. And I hope I've been reaching out to all the card companies to offer what we do. So we were going to be reaching out to we already have reached out to fanatics and the people involved in that department, and we hope to be printing collectible cards trading cards. Sometime soon.
Ronen Ainbinder 17:12
Super exciting, man. I'm a big fan of the name Time Machine. I mean, you guys invented time travel. You guys can take me back, you know, in time and remind me of the best memories of sports in my life. So, man, I appreciate it. I'm looking forward to what's going to happen? Matt wood before we go, man, I can't leave without asking you a more personal question, maybe a little bit more unique to you. And my personal question is, man, what do you want to be remembered for? What is your life's mission? What drives you? When you are, that's the mark you want to leave in this war? What do you want to be remembered for?
Matt Wolff 17:54
That's a great question. I want to be remembered as someone reliable, and they're for the people who needed me whenever, whenever needed. And I have a very good, close circle of friends. And there's nothing I wouldn't do for them. And now I'm expanding my network from a business point of view, and I include some of those people. I'm going to go to bat for them and help them out any way I can. So that's what I think I'd like to be remembered for, just that I was reliable.
Ronen Ainbinder 18:26
Man. That's an awesome answer! And I want to thank you so much for taking my invitation to come to the halftime snacks. It has been an absolute pleasure to host you, Matt, a big fan of what you guys are doing, a big fan of the name Time Machine, unique, and I can't wait to see what's going to happen with you guys in the future. And you're always welcome to come to the show again to talk about it, man. But for now, thanks so much for coming to the Halftime Snacks.