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| Executive Corner with Dave Butler |
From the Executive Corner
by Dave Butler, Ticketmaster
Welcome to the latest edition of Insights. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for your partnership. As the live entertainment industry continues to evolve, we could not ask for a more committed, passionate, and inspiring group of clients to help us drive the business. I would also like to extend our thanks to so many of you that joined us at PACnet in February. It is one of our favorite weeks of the year and we always appreciate the opportunity to learn about your business, success stories and challenges as we work to shape a better future together.
Some of the most exciting news that we shared at PACnet was that many of you achieved dramatic results through Ticketmaster marketing programs. Collectively, during the eight months leading up to PACnet, the community sold over $4.5 million dollars in ticket revenue through these programs. What’s more, there has never been a greater opportunity for your organization to connect with new customers and drive revenues through Ticketmaster technology, marketing programs, and consumer reach.
On the product side we shared enhancements in tRes v6.91, and tGen v6.92, provided an introduction to the Archtics suite, and discussed our product vision of a unified platform. Questions about perceived versus actual differences between the business processes of tRes and Archtics were raised and addressed both during and after PACnet in a Frequently Asked Questions document.
I’d like to reiterate that you have the option to renew a long term tRes contract and we are committed to extending value of the tRes product offering with enhancements in v6.91 and v6.93. Please keep in mind that any time during your agreement with us, you have the option to move to Archtics if it best suits your organization without any penalty. While you have both products available today and a new combined product in the future, we are fully committed to supporting you and your organization with options that best fit your business needs.
It’s football renewal season and currently there are over 50 universities participating in the Green Partnership Program. This year’s program focuses on ways to sell more in a difficult economy, while leveraging eco-friendly strategies. March Madness also recently came to an exciting conclusion. We would like to extend our sincere congratulations to the University of North Carolina on their national championship. In fact, all of the Sweet 16 universities leveraged Ticketmaster tRes or Archtics platforms to sell tickets this basketball season.
In Major League Baseball news, on April 13th, the New York Mets hosted the first regular-season game in the history of Citi Field to a sold out crowd of 41,007 fans. The beautiful Citi Field was a big hit with fans and the Mets set an all-time Aramark per cap record on opening day. From a ticketing perspective, the new stored-value system integrated with parking was unveiled and worked flawlessly, while wireless turnstiles and access management prevented dozens of counterfeit tickets from entering the ballpark for this historic game. We wish the Mets and all of our MLB teams the best of luck this upcoming season.
Performing Arts venues continue to be some of the most proactive leaders leveraging Ticketmaster marketing programs. During the first quarter, Kansas City Starlight Theatre sold over $258,000 in gross ticket revenue, Theatre Under The Stars sold over $169,000, Bass Performance Hall sold over $154,000, and Playhouse Square sold over $104,000 all directly by leveraging Ticketmaster “Reach further. Sell More.” marketing programs. Several other performing arts organizations are also realizing the value of these powerful programs. Congratulations to these proactive organizations for taking full advantage of these opportunities to sell more.
In concert news several of the year’s largest tours including Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, Phish, and Billy Joel and Elton John are playing in many of your buildings. These fan favorite tours bring with them large onsale opportunities. A few of the leading onsale success stories include the Wachovia Center who sold out over 21,000 Bruce Springsteen tickets in an hour, The Erwin Center at the University Texas who sold over 10,000 Bruce Springsteen tickets in an hour, and Rushmore Plaza Civic Center who sold out 5,800 Elton John tickets in 15 minutes, the fastest sell out in the history of the arena.
Museums and attractions clients continue to raise the bar using new technology. Pittsburgh Zoo, for example, leveraged eVenue to sell tickets online for the first time for a special Easter event “Breakfast with the Easter Bunny”. Pittsburgh Zoo also offered discounted tickets online to members only, using the membership entitlement functionality. Pittsburgh Zoo sold out seven events, adding another event due to high demand with 78% of all tickets sold online.
I always find it exciting to hear these community successes and innovations. As always, our goal remains to be the best possible partner for you and to provide you with products, services, and support to help you manage your business and help you to realize success.
Sincerely,
Dave
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| Best
Practices & Case Studies |
Retain Priority Customers in a Down Economy
by James Kim, Ticketmaster
Retaining your customers during these tough economic times is a common problem faced by many organizations. With a high price tag of a season ticket, some consumers are having a difficult time opening up their wallets to renew their season seats. These desperate times don’t necessarily call for desperate measures; you just have to think creatively and leverage what is available to you. As you’re planning your season ticket/subscription renewal strategy, below are a few helpful ideas.
Give Flexible Options
Remove barriers of making a big purchase by offering your customers a flexible payment plan or deferred payment option so that they can save up for it. These payment options have proven to be very useful for college football season renewals. For example, the University of Colorado brought in $2.5 M in deferred renewal revenue last season using a deferred payment application. When considering these payment options, make sure you:
- Clearly highlight this option in all of your customer communications (e.g., email, renewal applications, website, etc.)
- Include simple and detailed how-to instructions
- Offer an online payment plan to help you drive online season renewals
Add Value to Your Tickets
Increase perceived value of your ticket by letting your customers get more out their season tickets. Make a deal with your sponsors and offer something extra with a season ticket purchase. This season:
- Theatre Under The Stars is offering a $50 gift certificate from a sponsor (restaurant) if season subscribers renew by the deadline
- Boston College is offering a 20% discount on purchases from their online store with a season ticket renewal
Work with Your Customers
For customers who can no longer afford a full season ticket, offer them the ability to temporarily downgrade seats or help make arrangements to share season tickets with others who are in a similar situation.
Arizona Diamondbacks enabled one of their die-hard season ticketholders to share season tickets with another fan in the same section due to financial reasons. In addition to keeping a loyal customer happy, the Diamondbacks managed to preserve revenue.
Need ideas on your renewal strategy during a down economy? Contact your Client Partner.
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Strategies to Boost Ticket Sales
by Ellen Suwanski, Ticketmaster
When times are tough, it’s nice to be able to take comfort in something you like – something you can believe in. And your customers believe in your brand.
In today’s economy, focusing on your current customers is critical. Current customers are easier to market and sell to since they already know, like and trust you. Fresno State, for example, is promoting a special football season ticket offer to customers who purchased mini-plans last season. They are offering a 20% discount on the regular season public price.
To further drive ticket sales, be sure to package products creatively. Bundling tickets into one package allows you to offer “package pricing.” This is a great way to save customers money without directly cutting prices. New packages also give you a great opportunity to communicate with current and past customers, and prospects.
Fresno State also offers several package deals on football season tickets. Customers can choose from the Premium Seat package, which includes seats directly behind the home bench with temporary chair backs provided; the Family Plan package, which includes two adult and two youth season tickets; and the Young Alumni package, including Fresno State graduates from the past five years.
For single tickets sales, setting a strategic marketing plan that matches consumer purchasing behavior can have quite an impact. Bass Performance Hall, for example, has seen success from carefully planned advertising efforts tailored around the calendar. It's seen sales spike at the 15th and end of each month, typically when customers get paid and have money to budget for entertainment.
Today’s economy is forcing marketers to transform what were stale strategies into creative new approaches. Interactive marketing offers the chance to communicate more powerfully with your customers. Bass Hall aggressively expanded its reach through viral marketing with web 2.0 technologies. Its online presence results in a much higher ROI than traditional advertising mediums.
Need ideas for your new season/subscription and single-event sales? Contact your Client Partner to create a comprehensive strategy. |
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| Product
Guide |
Product Spotlight
by Jeff Meyers, Ticketmaster
In an effort to keep you informed of the latest product development initiatives, we are highlighting updates and milestones of enhancements in tRes v6.91, and v6.93. Below are details and highlights of each of these releases.
6.91 Update
Approximately 43 clients have upgraded to v6.91 and we continue to deploy upgrades to the remaining clients as scheduled. For information regarding your upgrade or to request an upgrade, contact Kathryn Olivier or your Client Partner. As a recap, below are the features and benefits available to your organization in 6.91.
Features / Benefits
| Features |
Benefits |
Limited-Use Passwords (eVenue, WBST) |
Enables more control (single-use passwords) and flexibility (multi-use passwords) in selling promotional inventory online. |
Multi-Day Events (tRes, eVenue, WBST) |
Provides an alternative way to sell events that span multiple contiguous days. |
Expanded Item Quantity Rules (tRes, eVenue, WBST) |
Setup and enforcement of item minimums and multiples in most selling processes to improve control in the sale of general sales and promotional inventory alike. |
Price Type Dependencies (tRes, eVenue, WBST) |
Specify a relationship between price type pairs (e.g., BOGO), and force the purchase of the same quantity of each to help sell more inventory. |
Autoload items to the cart (WBST) |
Automatically load additional items into the WBST cart (e.g., tickets and parking) saving time during the transaction process. |
Improved Event Date Search (eVenue, WBST) |
Event date search added to eVenue; supports search for multi-day events for an enhanced user experience. |
Order Breakdown Summary Prompt (WBST) |
Enables review of order details in WBST prior to completing checkout. |
Copy Combo Items (tRes) |
Streamlines the creation of combo items when patterned after existing combos. |
Renewals Progress Report (tRes) |
Greatly enhanced report enables you to better track renewals year over year and monitor progress more closely. |
Additional 6.91 Updates
- The FDMS-Nashville processing platform will soon be certified on Protobase 6.0 (PB6.0). When we receive certification confirmation, we will notify affected clients using this processing platform and begin scheduling 6.91/PB6.0 upgrades.
- Maintenance patch 6.91.101 was certified on April 10, and has been deployed to all 6.91 clients.
- Maintenance patch 6.91.102 is targeted for certification at the end of April. This patch gives clients the option to break out facility fees and per ticket fees or add them to the ticket price in eVenue confirmation emails.
6.93 Update
This release is currently in the development and quality assurance phase and is targeted for beta release in the spring of 2010.
Features / Benefits
| Features |
Benefits |
eVenue cross-sell, up-sell functionality |
Intelligently offer additional items before the purchase is finalized to increase sales. |
Email confirmations for walk-up and phone room orders |
Optionally send an email confirmation for back-office purchases to enhance customer service. |
eVenue On/off sale times by Price Level / Price Type |
Improved support for frequent price changes to reduce the need for reloads. |
Date/time based delivery method constraints |
Greater control over will-call, print-at-home, etc. |
Permission-based returns for past events (WBST, tRes) |
Better enforcement of return policies. |
Item quantity max for all channels |
Honors item maximums by account across all channels. |
Soft credits for tFund |
Better visibility of overall giving level for complex donors. |
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| Learning Center Series |
No Time, No Budget, Fewer People?
by Jason Evans, Ticketmaster
The Learning Center Series (LCS) continues to provide weekly 30 to 60 minute training sessions on best practices, tips and tricks, new features and functionality, and much more at no cost to you! The LCS is presented Wednesdays at noon PDT via GoToWebinar, allowing you to easily join remotely from your office.
Each month there will be an assortment of topics to propel you to new heights of understanding through training, round table discussions, and best practices.
To participate in any LCS session, simply register online via the Community Portal and preview upcoming events.
To review previous LCS Sessions, simply log into the Ticketmaster Irvine Support Online site.
- Log into Ticketmaster Irvine Support Online.
- Click the Documentation link. The Documentation Main Page displays.
- Click on Learning Center Series Archive link
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