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Sun, November 29, 2009
There is so much to be grateful for this Thanksgiving season. Personally, I’m celebrating my first holiday at home with my newly born son. Professionally, I have the most incredible staff around me and, at the same time, I have the most forward-thinking, open-minded client base I’ve ever had since forming Situation Interactive.
This past January, I posted a story on my views on what 2009 will bring in the live event marketing space where I said the following...
“There is a one major reason I see to be optimistic for what 2009 will bring – that is, there is a new sense of urgency that will bring action to key issues in our industry. This is the year that removes excuses, delays and reasons to put off big problems for later – with hardship comes a new found focus, a ‘sense of urgency’ for positive change.”
While the Broadway industry typically gets a bad rap for being resistant to change, you can consider me an optimist while I call that old adage one big stack of bologna. I’d like to profile just a sampling of initiatives that I thought reflected the spirit of positive change and innovation that stood out to me over this past year. While there were a ton of awesome campaigns, the following initiatives stood out to me as they reflected executions of change that I think will be here to stay for quite some time.
Broadway Goes Green
It’s amazing what you can accomplish when you mix passion with work ethic. I stand in awe at the progress of the Broadway Green Alliance. Aside from the actual mission of trying to make Broadway a greener place, I was equally impressed by the commitment of those that came together to make it actually happen. Susan Sampliner, Seth Greenleaf and many folks associated with the League should be very proud and we, as an industry, should try and find ways to duplicate this ability to take an idea or concept and execute it with passion. On Wednesday, December 9th from 11am - 1pm you can deposit your e-waste (broken cell phones, computers, printers, and dry batteries) in the center of Times Square (in front of the TKTS booth) to show your support for the Broadway Green Alliance's one year anniversary.
Broadway Ticketing Embraces Mobile Outlets
Mobile devices clearly represent the future of live event marketing and ticketing. But, what many people don’t know – “the future” is actually now. Under the direction of Jennifer Tattenbaum at Telecharge.com, thousands of tickets were purchased on mobile devices this past year on the Telecharge mobile platform. No aggressive marketing, no major industry outreach – simply a smart mobile site and the proactive commitment by Telecharge to offer their consumers options in how they can transact with Broadway. Kudos to the folks at Telecharge. Take out your mobile device and visit www.Telecharge.com to check it out.
Variable Pricing Comes to Life in Box Offices
Sure, there is still a lot of work needed to better maximize the pricing structure for Broadway, but this past year pushed forward the discussion of true variable pricing. While this will be a topic of discussion that will evolve over the coming years, the folks at the Shubert’s really made the discussion a bit more concrete by placing digital screens in the lobby to allow for better variance in pricing of full-price tickets. Positive change has to happen somewhere, so I’m happy to see shows coming together with the theatre owners to come up with proactive solutions to maximize key revenue potential.
Audience Rewards Brings New Hope to Future Audience Development
There will always be tons of skeptics on any new industry-wide program for selling Broadway tickets, so when Audience Rewards was launched I can imagine a ton of eye rolling and the rumblings of “another one?” At its face value, Audience Rewards is a points exchange platform that allows consumers to use points to purchase Broadway and live event tickets. Well, this program is much different than anything you’ve seen before and you need to keep an eye on its development over the coming years. First, all three major theatre owners are on board with the program. Second, from my understanding, it’s a well-funded initiative with hundreds of thousands of dollars invested in making the project a success. Third, they have brought in an experience executive team that is outlining a much broader vision that can open this up well beyond just the selling of Broadway tickets. If done right, Audience Rewards will capitalize on maximizing national live event customer data to drive incremental sales, build brand loyalty with the overall Broadway category and create opportunities for enhanced glue with Broadway and the touring productions. It represents much, much more than simply buying Broadway tickets with rewards points.
Social Media Has Taken Flight
Name a show that doesn’t have some kind of presence on at least one of the main social networking platforms like Facebook or Twitter? Well, this past year most (if not all) major musical productions now have social media as a part of their overarching marketing plan. Kudos to guys like Ken Davenport who through BroadwaySpace.com has heavily promoted the idea of brands thinking more social or other agencies like Art Meets Commerce who continue to promote the importance of bringing content to where our consumers are. I see no slow down in this trend over the next three to five years although, if history has taught us anything, we can be sure the way the conversation is structured on how best to use social media is bound to change.
These are just a sampling of some ideas to me that illustrate the spirit of innovation and positive change that is in full-swing on Broadway and across the country by very talented people across all facets of the industry.
Do you have any examples of innovation or positive change from this past year that inspired you? How about change you hope to see this next year?
Thu, August 27, 2009
Yes, the discussion about discounting tickets on Broadway has become almost dull to even talk about. We say the same thing over and over again. We all know there are hundreds of discount offers sent monthly via email to hundreds of thousands of consumers generating tens of thousands of tickets sold. We all know that our discount email practices are showing a clear trend of a shift in many full-price ticket buyers converting into discount ticket buyers. This is no longer even arguable as there are stacks of data that support this point. The issue has become – what do we do about it?
One answer is to simply do nothing about it. Hey, overall revenue continues to go up for Broadway.
Essentially, as an industry, it seems as though we have moved the top ticket price upward (both prime orchestra and premium seating) which in many ways has subsidized the reduction of ticket prices for the rest of the house through selective discounting. In addition, we have essentially begun to cut out the middleman (either intentionally or unintentionally) – group sales and FIT resellers – and have gone direct to consumer with our messaging and discounting strategies. When you boil all the numbers down, overall attendance really hasn’t changed in quite some time yet the industry today gets significantly more revenue per ticket than ten years ago.
If you look at it that way – is the pricing model really broken? What business wouldn’t love to see an estimated 70% + increase in the cost-per-unit sold column over a 10 year period?
I am one that believes that we should all be very happy with the overall revenue growth of the past but we should also be proactive in making sure we can keep that growth as we move into the future.
How do we remain proactive in advancing our pricing strategy? I’ll give you my novice opinion – feel free to let me know where you think I’m either wrong or completely off-base.
I think to start, I would suggest keeping an eye on three major trends that I think are both happening around us and having a profound effect on business as I type this email.
They include:
Trend: Social media is infiltrating the way we now communicate with Broadway ticket buyers
Effect on Broadway: The discounts that Broadway is sending out via email is now being distributed through a variety of additional channels which is ultimately eating into full-price ticket sales
I think we can now officially debunk the myth that all of those discount email offers that are sent out daily are being delivered to ‘theatregoers’. Simply put, your discount offers are now distributed well beyond email throughout the web whether we like to believe it or not.
Consumers online have become inherently social and Broadway content publishers are being forced to adapt to consumer needs. Our studies show that 50% of Broadway ticket buyers now belong to a social network. Five years ago people wanted to get their offers by email but there is a much larger trend that is occurring – people want to have their content delivered to them in the way that best works for them. Some want it on Facebook, others on Twitter and others by mobile alerts. This has forced practically all of the Broadway and theatre publishers who send out discount ticket offers by emails to now also have either a public listing on their website with those discounts, a Twitter feed promoting the discounts, a fan page on Facebook with discount listings or a profile on RetailMeNot (or other bulletin board websites) listing all of their discount offers. All of these distribution platforms then live within Google where there are tens thousands of searches daily for Broadway ticket related keywords. In short, these discounts are often the first thing consumers see when they are looking to purchase tickets.
Someone sees your TV spot/radio ad/billboard/online ad, then makes their way to Google to find you and lands on one of these discount offers. This is much more common that many people realize. Currently, this means that we are likely leaving somewhere between 30% – 40% of the revenue per ticket on the table through these discounts. I think it’s important to note that many of these people are tourists - the folks we are ultimately banking on to pay full price for tickets.
Over the past few weeks I’ve finally come to the school of thought that we now must really throw out the idea that “going to the booth” is somehow more damaging than sending out a discount offer to an initial email list of 250,000 plus members which is then repurposed indefinitely through a variety of online channels.
There is NO end in sight for this trend and you can only expect the problem to get worse over time. And please, don’t take my word for it – run a few Google searches, run a search on Twitter or simply talk to the folks at your ticketing company. It’s not just my paranoia.
One possible idea to help control discount code distribution would be for Telecharge and Ticketmaster to create a technology that allows for the creation and redemption of one-time use promotional codes. That means if I get a discount code and use it to buy tickets, the offer code ends there. I believe this would instantly crush much of the discount abuse from happening (or at least give us the option to test in areas to start weaning people off the regular discounts). It would put a thorn in the side of some folks in the secondary market and would make bulletin board websites offering discounts less relevant as a channel for ‘guaranteed savings’.
I don’t think anyone (including myself) really feels discounting is a bad thing – I think the general consensus is that we need better tools to optimize and control the offers. And, my personal feeling, is that we need to make our discounts make consumers work a little more. Discount offers should be offered for the not-so-great seats or have to be purchased either really far ahead of time or really last minute. By offering open ended discounts in many respects is a slap in the face of the full price buyer and is ultimately bad for long-term customer relationships for the Broadway industry. Also, which I will cover in the next part of the article, I think we need to keep our discounts at a level that doesn't undercut the FIT or group sales rate whenever possible to keep our sales partners wanting to work with us.
I know of many shows that will still want their offers to go far and wide like they do today but I also know many others (particularly the bigger hits) would love to find a way to selectively discount.
I know there will be technology limitations to all vendors being able to send out emails using the one-time use coded system – but, like all things technology, when there’s a will, there’s a way. Furthermore, when there is money to be lost if it doesn’t happen, things often work themselves out.
To me, if we expect to continue to advance and improve our discount strategies using some kind of coded system, I think some kind of shift to limitation on specific code usage will be absolutely necessary. Many other industries use this now to protect from the very problem we are currently facing.
Trend: The Internet has revolutionized the FIT business and has completely changed the way consumers research and book their travel
Effect on Broadway: Our current pricing model for FIT business is missing a major opportunity to convert tourists before they arrive in New York City
Attendance really hasn’t changed for Broadway in almost ten years. The FIT business sales figures have risen over that same period but still currently sit at about 20% of total sales (CORRECTION 9/1/09 - I was told 4% is directly attributable sales but 20% if you account for influenced sales from FIT impressions which are booked outside of the FIT channel. Thanks Janette for catching this). Meanwhile, the rest of the travel and tourism industries have gone through one of the biggest transformations in how they can now sell their tickets to tourists.
I have some travel clients who sell more than 50% of their tickets through the reseller market – I’m talking millions of tickets annually. They offset their marketing and advertising expense by shifting to a sales commission model – meaning they are paying a commission to a reseller for every ticket they sell on their behalf. While all is not always rosy in selling through resellers, it feels odd to me that we are still only sitting at 20% of sales. We are a category – in fact, we are the #1 category that consumers say they want to do when they visit New York City. Why are we carrying the load of selling the other 80% of tickets by ourselves when there are thousands of OTA’s (online travel agents) booking large numbers of transactions for New York City activities online through a commission-only basis?
If you are a hit – it most likely makes sense to sell directly to consumers which is the current model. Why pay commissions on sales when you have such heat that sales are pouring into you? But, if you have a lot of inventory, why not consider shifting some of your marketing and advertising costs towards subsidizing commissions to resellers who will guarantee you sales for payment?
I believe one reason has been an issue of agreeing on an acceptable commission structure. My general sense (and when you look at most of the current FIT rates), is that many producers are reluctant to give a deeper discount on the ticket or increase the commission to the seller. I don’t fully understand why but I really think now is the time that we need to become more dynamic in how we approach setting and adapting the FIT rate.
Why? Because if you look at just a piece of the FIT business of Expedia, Travelocity and Orbtiz, we have the opportunity to have Broadway brands in front of millions of bookings completed each year from consumers across the globe. Yes, many shows are currently listed on these sites now but just about every show is offering what equates to full-price tickets (or more) to these consumers. These are consumers looking for ‘value’ – and with our current FIT rates set the way they are, we are giving them NO incentive to book in advance by offering them a full price ticket. On top of that, our FIT rate also leaves little incentive for our partners to even want to promote us to their audiences. Until we create and adapt our rates that incentivize both the consumer and our resellers, we will just continue to miss the major opportunity of reaching out to tourists before they arrive in market. And, just to stress one other point – it’s not just Expedia, Travelocity and Orbtiz. It’s rental car companies, hotel websites, airline websites – all of these companies are in search for ancillary revenue and they all currently operate through the FIT model.
Here’s where I get the most confused when you think of how we currently do business as an industry. I’ll do a quick formula which I know is far from completely accurate – it’s just meant to illustrate a point.
Many Broadway shows currently promote a $65 discounted ticket price on popular email lists with little concern. We all know this kind of offer immediately comes with a marketing cost of $60 cost-per-ticket (assuming a $125 ticket price). Then, let’s just layer on an advertising costs of let’s just say $20,000 to send out a few emails promoting the discount offer.
If we sell 3,000 tickets @ $65 per ticket we would yield $195,000 in sales. Currently, I feel the mindset says – we spent $20,000 and made $195,000 in sales - that’s a 10X ROI! In some respects, this is true as many of these seats would have gone dead without the push and the incentive.
But, when you factor in the true cost-per-transaction, it tells a VERY different story. When you factor in the discount given on each ticket, you then have an additional opportunity cost of $180,000 that needs to be factored in to the total marketing cost. So, the $180,000 cost of the discount and the $20,000 cost in the advertising, makes it a long-term losing proposition. That’s $200,000 cost for $195,000 in revenue. That is a marketing cost of $66 to sell each-ticket at $65. That’s not sustainable even though it helps reduce losses in the short-term.
With this knowledge, why can’t we be more aggressive with the FIT rate? With the average FIT rate of $95, we still have about $20 worth of wiggle room per ticket when you take out the appropriate commissions to make our resellers work harder for us and still be ahead on selling $65 discount tickets. Why don’t we tier the commission structure? Sell more than x tickets, we’ll give you a rate $85 per ticket. Sell x (+y) and get a rate of $75 per ticket.
If they sold more tickets, you would ultimately have to spend less in marketing and advertising and most likely fill houses further in advance.
I could be totally wrong here – but, at a minimum, I think this needs to be explored. It’s a standard formula being used outside of Broadway in the live event and travel space and my gut just says it’s an opportunity that really needs to be taken advantage of on Broadway.
Trend: The secondary market has continued to become incredibly savvy and efficient using online technologies
Effect on Broadway: We are losing control of the most critical point of the Broadway buying experience – the conversion
Personally, I feel that every ticket sold in the secondary market represents an incremental revenue lost by the primary market. Have you noticed how sophisticated some of the secondary market ticketing engines are? They have wide ranging affiliate programs reselling Broadway tickets on thousands of websites. They are price aggregators giving consumers the best options to search for availability. They aggressively purchase search terms and have incredible organic search placements. They are so far ahead and only getting further ahead in terms of using technology to drive ticket sales. What’s more impressive when you really think about it – they are, for the most part, selling a significant number of tickets above face value.
I think it’s quite telling when you Google ‘Broadway’, ‘Broadway shows’ or ‘Broadway Tickets’ and the number one listing is Broadway.com. All data points to Google being the primary driver on how consumers ultimately connect with brands. As an industry, we spend over a hundred million dollars every year promoting Broadway shows but where these consumers often end up is at a cash register where we most often have the least control.
I wish I had even a possible answer to this problem. Is it a ‘best rate guarantee’ that is offered on the official ticketing sites? Is it a push to stress our legal muscles a bit more to block the way our brands are marketed without our control?
I think it’s something that really needs to be explored as we can only expect technology to advance rapidly and these secondary market folks to be at the forefront of many of these changes.
So, those are just three trends that have concerned me the most as of late. While I like to consider myself a practical optimist, I’m not foolish enough to believe we will be able to adapt to these trends overnight. But I am hoping to begin a conversation with many of our clients and folks within the industry on how we can reduce the amount of money we are leaving on the table and to protect the value proposition of seeing a Broadway show.
I sincerely believe we are at a boiling point calling for change – I hear from folks across the industry who continue to sound the alarm on the problem yet little change is being made. If I can get my head together, I will organize a meeting of the minds particularly around the FIT side of the business in the coming months
Would love to hear your opinion on all of this.
Thu, January 22, 2009
I don’t know about you – but I’m excited for 2009. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been speaking with the best and brightest marketers in the industry (see below) and I have the feeling that most folks are actually more optimistic that one would think for 2009.
Sure, the economy sucks – so what? There is nothing you or I can do to change that and if we spend time trying to deny it, fix it or toss and turn in our sleep about it (ok, a few times), then next year is going to suck too.
There is a one major reason I see to be optimistic for what 2009 will bring – that is, there is a new sense of urgency that will bring action to key issues in our industry.
You know that big elephant in the room (we all have one) – that big marketing issue that you’ve been meaning to address. Whether it’s concern over broker commissions, issues with retaining your subscribers, frustration packaging shows with add-ons, this is the year you can address and overcome major issues you’ve had in the past. This isn’t meant to be an emotional pep-talk – without question, the market conditions over the next year will create a new tone from many players in the live event industry – more flexible vendors, better media rates, more collaboration between companies.
This is the year that removes excuses, delays and reasons to put off big problems for later – with hardship comes a new found focus, a “sense of urgency” for positive change.
We are only three weeks into the New Year and we can already see exciting changes! To start, both Telecharge and Ticketmaster are making exciting new enhancements to their website that will make our customers have a better buying experience. We have already met with new media partners this year who miraculously are saying “yes!” to things they once said “no way!” too. And, oh yeah, we have a new President.
There is no room for naysayers – optimism will be the critical ingredient to innovation in ’09. Don’t just take my word for it – I asked a sampling of super-smart marketing folks in New York and Las Vegas on their reasons to be optimistic in 2009.
Here’s what they told me in no particular order:
“First, with a new president, even one facing ENORMOUS challenges, comes a great sense of hope and optimism. His youth alone will feel like a breath of fresh air, and he is steeped in current social and cultural trends, such as making the country more green and more e-friendly, which will quicken our embrace of modernity. We will also see what is now an inevitable trend towards more online activity, which I feel is good for the arts and theatre, particular the live arts. We already gather communities of people every night who have at least one thing in common--they all want to see that show on that night, so we just need to continue to find ways to keep them captivated. We are gathering them in a live, not virtual setting, but the virtual world can support this, and I feel with change in the air we will continue down the path of connectivity. All of that being said, however, the horizon for now does not look encouraging, but at least we are on the cusp of welcoming new, energized leadership while the rest of us feel drained.”
- Harold Wolpert, Managing Director, Roundabout Theatre Company
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“The reasons to be optimistic are fundamentally because we have no choice - any other way of thinking is only self defeating, un-motivating, and depressing. We honestly don't know what's going to happen, so we need to do our best and beat the shit out of our competition.:)”
- Carol Chiavetta, Vice-President of Marketing and Press, Blue Man Group Productions
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“Some good news? Gloom and doom stories seem to be the only thing interesting the press right now. But the fact remains: we are going to see a Broadway season unlike any other in recent years. Major stars doing plays in limited engagements. Yes, the economy may be in trouble and no one knows just how all of this will play out. But for now, let's focus on what is good: Major names coming to Broadway to star in smart, sophisticated, tough, timely, interesting, though-provoking PLAYS. That gives me hope.”
- Chris Boneau, Partner, Boneau Bryan-Brown
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“With the on-going negative chatter about our economic climate and the live entertainment marketplace I have every reason to be optimistic in 2009 as our team will tackle the challenges head-on and utilize new technology from social media, mobile marketing and web opportunities to conquer new frontiers to increase visibility and enhance value.”
- Jordan Fiksenbaum, Vice-President of Marketing and Public Relations, Cirque du Soleil, RSD
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"My thoughts -
• Labor gains for all - we have smarter deals with the unions that benefit all, and will really help the web and broadcast, hopefully keeping every show running longer.
• Competitive pricing of vendors - some partners are getting the message that prices must re-adjust - seeing some flexibility in print as well as outdoor buys. Radio also showing a willingness to get in the boat with us and help row.
• Quality sells - a quality show is still a quality show. This fall, in the midst of the supposed economic Armageddon, we saw Boeing-Boeing, The Seagull and In The Heights pay back, and Billy and Shrek launch to strong advances(really strong actually) and sell large quantities of tickets.
• Variable pricing - direct mail is working again. I know there are some in the industry who struggle with discounting. But what has happened over the last 5 years is variable ticket pricing, and a market correction of sorts. Any show now has a $25 student ticket, a $40 TKTS ticket for rear mezzanine, a $59/$65 ticket for previews on direct mail, an $80 full price balcony seat, a $110 to $125 orchestra prime seat, and a $250 premium seat. And we need consumers to know that there is a price for them, as well as reward (no need for waiting in line, preplanning) that matches that price. Sometimes I think our toughest problem currently is we are delivering almost the same value at $75 as we do at $125. Madison Square Garden does not have this problem. But it's an asset for consumers.
which leads me to...
“Broadway is a value - we cannot continue to set ourself up as a luxury good. Consumers are willing to spend dollars on experiences that they consider part of a life well lived, even if that price is substantial. Think skiing, or wine, even fine kitchen and entertainment systems and how the perception of those products has changed to the average household over the last 20 years. Conversely, if you think of what we do as an elite splurge, we are in danger of being seen as an "irresponsible purchase" as one client put it, particularly in tough times like these. We must remind people that we are a unifying experience, arts are good for education, and are enriching for all. Theater is a habit that holds generations together, not to mention killer first dates and grand anniversaries.”
- Drew Hodges, President, SpotCo
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“2009 is going to be a fantastic year on Broadway for the theatre consumer, or I should say, the theatre lover. Now that the theater industry is no longer in denial about the global economic recession, we can deal openly with the fact that there are alot of affordable tickets in the market place, and there will be availability at previously sold-out shows.
Looking ahead there are more than twenty new productions scheduled to open from now until the beginning of May on Broadway.
With the diversity of productions, combined with a remarkable number of Hollywood stars on stage this Spring, I believe that we should be able to revive a theatre-going habit among former avids who may have given up on Broadway, and bring in audiences that rarely go, if ever, to see a show.
It’s a great time for the industry to jointly promote. The editorial story of dozens of big stars coming to the stage will reach media that wouldn’t usually consider covering Broadway.
Affordable tickets may encourage people to see more than one show. The explosion of mechanisms to reach audiences online and by texting means that we can more effectively target offers and promotions. With so much production activity, we will learn even more this year about how we can become even more efficient in communicating directly with potential audiences.
The volume of production will also help the ailing old media by providing a steady stream of news which will justify their fight for editorial space. It is also a great time for publicists to engage traditional press who have stopped covering Broadway and new media who don’t usually cover theatre -- we should be able to make Broadway national news again this Spring.
The fact that all the Broadway houses will be occupied or accounted for over the next few months is a great sign. I think the economy will ultimately cause the creation of stronger shows which will eventually bring in larger audiences."
- Adrian Bryan-Brown, Partner, Boneau Bryan-Brown
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"I'm actually as optimistic as I've ever been about the prospects for the future, albeit after a period of real challenge. Here's why:
1. Start with the plays and musicals coming in this spring... Beckett, Ionesco, Noel Coward, Yasmin Reza, West Side Story, Guys and Dolls; look at the actors -- Geoffrey Rush, Jeremy Irons, Susan Sarandon, Jane Fonda, James Gandolfini (just some of the "names" among a pantheon of really great talents... to me this is the most telling indicator of the astonishing vibrance and resilience of our business, and of the Producers tenacity, respect for the art form, and respect for the brains and taste of the American theatre-goer. I'm in awe of and in gratitude to who bring these gifts to the public. And that makes me optimistic.
2. I think we're on the cusp of developing a true distribution mechanism for theatre via an extensive partner network of loyalty programs that crave what we have to offer.
3. Other entertainment is struggling, as we are, to evolve their economic model when content is so widely disseminated and hard to monetize. Music? The News (yes... News is entertainment)? Movies? Live theatre, however, is hand-crafted, uniquely made each performance and therefore we can't get digitized, atomized, and reconstituted-- you actually have to BE THERE (in caps) in order to get it, and we're just starting to understand how to commercialize that wonderful fact.
4. We're learning how to communicate with our customers to tie in their preferences and likes and dislikes with what we offer them in our marketing. How powerful will that be, and it’s not far off.”
- Charles Flateman, VP of Marketing, The Shubert Organization
Sun, September 28, 2008
For those of you who have not seen this site yet, go check out FanSnap.com. It was co-founded by former executives from StubHub and Google and is being positioned as a search engine for fans search for tickets to live entertainment in their area. According to the following story from TicketNews.com, “The site specializes in sports, concert and theatre events and offers targeted searches for tickets, but it is not a broker site, nor is it a ticket exchange. Once a fan enters a search phrase, such as ‘New York Rangers’ for example, they are taken to a page with a map of Madison Square Garden with dozens of tickets from various providers. They can drill down and reset the search to only include tickets within a certain price range, or look for games within certain cities, among other search criteria.”
It seems that one of their key differences in the ticketing marketplace is their pricing model – they are based on the Google-like cost-per-click model rather than on cost-per-acquisition/commission that others charge. According to the Chief Marketing Officer Michael Janes, “You go to where the customers are, whether it's selling directly or through a channel partner. Ultimately, we'd like to have relationships with all companies in the primary and secondary markets."
Let’s see how they play with the “primary” ticketing options. That will be interesting to follow.
Read on.
Sun, August 31, 2008
Quick reminder - if you are a show selling your tickets through Telecharge, make sure you are participating in the College Tix program. As of right now, NYU, Columbia and Baruch students are participating in the program - there is no cost to participate, you simply need to offer a price point somewhere around $25 - $35 per ticket which are sold like a regular discount code. There are numerous safe guards in place to help prevent the code from being used by anyone other than students and, to date, the program has already sold over 2,000 tickets for Broadway. So, if you're not on it - now is the time as there will be a lot of on-campus advertising that the early bird participators will benefit from most.
Mon, October 22, 2007
Ok, so I'm over exaggerating but let's do a quick recap... StubHub, which is one of the largest ticket resale websites, just opened a storefront on 40th and Broadway. I’m a consumer, I want tickets for a show tonight, I can go in and purchase them. Tickets may cost more or less than face value although a spokeswoman for eBay, which owns StubHub, said that 40 percent of tickets on eBay are sold at or below face value.
So, what happens next? Yes, for the handful of ridiculously hot shows, consumers will be paying an arm and a leg for tickets but at least they’ll get in to see the show (secondary market to the rescue!). I get it. However, for the rest of Broadway, I don’t see how this is good in any way. It’s clear that this will become some form of dumping ground for the brokers to unload their tickets. To me, that seems like just another TKTS booth with potentially more options to choose from. Hmmmm.
Will TKTS sale take a dip? Will full-price walkup take a hit? I’m not one for ‘ring the alarm’ because I’ll believe it when I see it, but I can tell you that I don’t really have an optimistic outlook on all of the recent changes happening around Broadway ticketing.
Read On
Mon, August 06, 2007
Take a look at this – Major League Baseball has struck a deal with StubHub on the resale of tickets. In short, MLB is now getting a cut of the profit of the secondary market and is trying to get a handle on how to manage the resale of their tickets. It will be interesting to see how Broadway handles this over time.
Read On
Sun, June 17, 2007
Thanks Jim M for this very interesting article from Time Magazine on the ticketing industry and the competition heating up around Ticketmaster. It looks into the secondary market and, with the change in the new resale laws, how the competition will only continue to heat up. The interesting, but not surprising, statistic I pulled from this article is that the average consumer pays 45% above face value for resold tickets, according to a study by Alan Krueger, economics professor at Princeton University.
Read On
Mon, May 22, 2006
Percentage of tickets bought online via Telecharge.com
Below is a look at the trend of the last five years of the percentage of online ticket sales in relation to the total sales made through Telecharge. This includes phone sales but doesn’t include TKTS, Groups or Box Office sales.
FY 2000-01: 18.9%
FY 2001-02: 23.4%
FY 2002-03: 32.6%
FY 2003-04: 41.3%
FY 2004-05: 51.2%
FY 2005-06: 59.4% (so far--by the end of June it should be above 60%)
Mon, May 22, 2006
What is the number of people that attend Broadway theatre more than once a year?
What percentage of phone calls to Telecharge convert to ticket sales?
As the primary ticket selling agent for Broadway, Telecharge is one
of the few players in the industry that has a complete grasp on how
tickets for the entire industry are bought and sold.
We sat down with Jennifer Tattenbaum, E-Commerce Manager at
Telecharge.com, to help us get some insight on the state of Broadway
ticket buying patterns and what's happening over at
Telecharge.com. Please note that the answers to her questions are
just estimates based on a large sampling of shows. These are not
exact figures so please don’t hold her or me to these statistics.
:)
Click here to read the interview.
Mon, May 22, 2006
So where do the sales come from for a typical Broadway show? We were able to find some answers that you may find interesting.
According to rough estimates we obtained from Telecharge, here is a look at an average breakdown of total tickets sales for a typical Broadway show.
10% TKTS
10% Groups
25% Box Office
55% Telecharge
Of the 55% of tickets purchased through Telecharge, approximately 60% are made online.
What's staggering is the rate of growth in online ticket sales. More information on this topic to follow.
Thu, March 23, 2006
This article was passed on to us from a Situation Room subscriber {thank you Matt}.
The issue is revenue management and it has long been argued that the theatre world needs to embrace the airline ticketing model. Well, Christophe Imbert from software company Sabre Airline Solutions and Tim Baker of arts consultancy practice Baker-Richards addressed this issue at a recent conference.
"Tim Baker argued that airline tickets had only a simple utility value – a means to an end – and by advertising their lack of frills, lowest prices, and basic point-to-point service, the low cost airlines had in effect reduced the value associated with the experience. Whereas performing arts tickets were all about the value of the whole event as an experience – the end in itself; even with low ticket prices, people had to value the event enough to buy the tickets. The airline model is primarily based on differentiating price by time of booking, and a completely different approach is needed for the cultural sector.
What cultural organizations need to do is identify which of the other price differentiators (performance type / timing, concession group, seat location, service level, as well as transaction time) were most motivating for their customers and design an approach to revenue management that worked in their circumstance. For example, from Broadway to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, customers are willing to pay for premium seats, generating very significant additional income. In a sense, theatres have been using ‘revenue management' techniques for decades – standby, early bird, discount quotas, peak performance pricing, etc. and the opportunity now is to be more scientific about how they are applied."
Amen.
Click here to read more.
Fri, March 10, 2006
Fandango, the nation's largest movie ticketing service, has partnered with TicketsNow.com to begin selling Broadway tickets.
So, is this good news for Broadway? Well, not exactly. We ran a search for a Wednesday night for a show that is currently only selling at about 60% capacity and yielded ticket prices of approximately $220 per ticket for an orchestra seat.
So, that would be about $900 for a family of four to come see the show. This has to be hurting Broadway as a whole as these prices simply push us off of a consumers list of affordable entertainment options.
Click here to take a look for yourself.
Thu, February 23, 2006
Ah, the great topic of ticket pricing. Do we raise our top ticket price? Do we offer more affordable pricing for sections of the theatre.
Now, the new hot topic may become variable pricing.
As we are sure many of you read last week in The New York Times, the concept of variable pricing may be hitting movie theaters in the near future. According to Peter C. Brown, who runs the nation's second-biggest theater chain, AMC Entertainment, "I predict we will see it within a year."
What is variable pricing? Well, in the case of the movie theater industry, it simply means you will pay more for a ticket on the weekends and less on weekdays. You'll be able to buy a reserved seat in the center of the theater for a few extra dollars.
Should Broadway be next to follow? Should a ticket to a Tuesday night performance cost the same as a Saturday night performance? Should one show that opened to rave reviews have the same pricing structure of one that is simply not as "hot"?
Or, is this pricing strategy dangerous for Broadway or simply not feasible?
Wed, January 18, 2006
So, we've all heard the record spending online. But, what reports fail to mention is that customer satisfaction in the online buying experience has dipped. As companies shift to pushing their operations online, they are not keeping up with customer expectations of what good service should be.
As Broadway ticketing continues to thrive online, we must all hope that the service end maintains the same level of growth. Can customers find a phone number for customer service? Can they get answers to questions quickly enough? Is the online purchasing experience fast and easy?
A bad experience with a ticketing agent can have a direct impact on sales. We can do all of the marketing in the world, but your ticketing agent must close the deal with the customer.
We don't see this as a serious issue now but if online purchasing continues at the rate of the growth that it has over the past few years, it's certainly something we should all keep an eye on.
Click here to read more from the study about customer satisfaction results from some of the larger retailers.
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