Archive for June, 2010
CRM Paradigm Shift
A very interesting post post from SmartData Collective titled CRM Paradigm Shift that posits that “important technological trends have the potential to fundamentally change the way organizations “manage” relationship with their customers and revolutionise CRM …“
The four trends that they suggest will result in a paradigm shift in Relationship Marketing delivered by CRM are:
But I would suggest that entertainment organisations are even a step behind the situation outlined here. The one step removed relationship with customers that is imposed upon event owners by virtue of the current venue exclusive ticketing contracts with encumbent ticketing agencies is a major barrier and handicap to any CRM paradigm shift for entertainment event owners.
Until this barrier is removed or superceded, event owners will be fundamentally handicapped in attempts to capitalise upon the potential of online to facilitate direct relationships at the foundation of any Relationship Marketing initiatives.
28 June, 2010 at 6:38 pm Tim Roberts ARTS Australia 1 comment
WordPress Integration Makes A Lot Of Sense
But there is more …
They have also released a ticketing plug-in that works with sites built on WordPress and that is clever, as Front Gate Tickets describes it “a fully integrated website, ticketing and social marketing experience“.
WordPress offers significant functionality for free or low cost and can offer an affordable CMS for many small to medium organisations. This affordability does come at the cost of functionality however, in fact, WordPress is a simple means to offer a great deal of Social media integration and avoid much of the current double entry of content between different systems.
Front Gate seems to be leaping ahead in a few areas “connection of its web-based ticketing system and websites to Google Analytics, on-demand multi-channel sales reports, web-based event building tools, automated ticket count alerts, on-demand customer data reports, stored credit cards to encourage repeat purchases, localized portal promotions at www.frontgatetickets.com, and automation with social networks“.
More about Front Gate Solutions online>>
Read Front Gate Tickets goes mobile and plugs-in to WordPress article.
22 June, 2010 at 5:06 pm Tim Roberts ARTS Australia 1 comment
If Not Cost Per Ticket, What? Revenue Per Seat
A new entertainment marketing resource online theSituation and an interesting post that discusses cost per ticket versus revenue per seat.
“Think of revenue per seat as a measurement of how much financial productivity you’re getting out of your venue. You should never forget that each seat is an opportunity to produce revenue and get somebody watching what you’re producing.“
http://www.entertainmentmarketing.com/2010/03/if-not-cost-per-ticket-what-revenue-per-seat/
17 June, 2010 at 4:30 pm Tim Roberts ARTS Australia Leave a comment
Its not about the Technology Stupid (via Inside the Inbox)
Gianfranco Cuzziol on Inside the Box addresses the importance of a customer focus and relationships or as he terms it “connections”
He finishes the blog with 5 ways to turn technology to your advantage from Joseph Jaffe’s book, Flip the Funnel:
1. Technology should bring out the humanity in your company, not mask it
2. Adopt a multi channel approach to building relationships
3. Consider tiered systems for different segments
4. Automation is not always the answer
5. Personalisation is the gift of technology, intimacy is the gift of humanity
via Inside the Inbox
13 June, 2010 at 9:40 am Tim Roberts ARTS Australia Leave a comment
Government Review – Ticket Scalping: Ticket onselling and consumers
“The Commonwealth Consumer Affairs Advisory Council (CCAAC) is conducting a review into ticket onselling and its impact on consumers.
Under its terms of reference CCAAC will examine the following matters as part of its review:
- whether there is consumer detriment and, if so, the level of detriment posed by ticket onselling practices;
- the views of stakeholders affected by ticket onselling practices, including consumer groups, ticketing organisations, auction/reselling websites, and peak sporting and live entertainment bodies;
- actions currently undertaken by industry that seek to limit ticket purchasing by scalpers for re sale;
- the identification of any non regulatory options that could address any harmful practices arising from ticket onselling practices;
- the effectiveness of consumer information to address any consumer detriment associated with ticket onselling practices;
- the effectiveness of current legislation related to ticket onselling practices;
- the impact of technology on ticket onselling practices; and
- the effectiveness of international approaches that address any consumer detriment related to ticket onselling and the appropriateness of these approaches for the Australian marketplace.
The Issues Paper examines current practices relating to ticket onselling and considers possible market responses, including both regulatory and non-regulatory options, and their cost and effectiveness.“
Interested parties are invited to comment on the paper and the closing date for submission is Friday 23 July 2010.
12 June, 2010 at 5:18 pm Tim Roberts ARTS Australia 1 comment
Google Enters the Ticketing Space with Cloud Printing?
At Internet week in New York this week Google Cloud Print was unveiled with Live Nation joining the press release as one of the first partners to deploy the API’s and technology that could leverage such a service.
“Our goal is to build a printing experience that enables any app (web, desktop, or mobile) on any device to print to any printer anywhere in the world.“
If concert tickets never needed to be printed again until you get to the venue, will this make Print@Home Tickets obselete? It is suggested this is just another attempt to kill some of the secondary ticketing market by removing a transferable printed ticket from the equation.
“Live Nation says that they plan on using it to let people print out tickets, and promotions from a mobile app.“
Sounds like another opportunity for a “Convenience Fee” …
Google Cloud Print: Never Print a Concert Ticket at Home Again?
9 June, 2010 at 10:09 am Tim Roberts ARTS Australia Leave a comment
RT @davideedle “Have E-Commerce Your Wa
RT @davideedle “Have E-Commerce Your Way” http://bit.ly/ciT1Ky Nice parallels between ebay & online ticketing agents = do it yourself
8 June, 2010 at 1:01 pm Tim Roberts ARTS Australia Leave a comment
Watchdog slaps big-ticket fine on Sistic
Singapore’s competitive watchdog, the Competition Commission of Singapore (CCS ), yesterday fined Sistic the dominant ticketing operator in Singapore about $1 million when it ruled that Sistic had stymied its counterparts’ ability to compete.
This is in direct contradiction of the USA and UK governments’ positions and findings with respect to the Live Nation Ticketmaster merger.
“Jointly owned by the Singapore Indoor Stadium and The Esplanade, Sistic also had ‘explicit agreements’ with the venues to be appointed as ticketing agents. Besides that, Sistic also had 17 other agreements with event organisers for it to be appointed as exclusive ticketing agents.“
The exclusive contracts are alleged to represent 60 to 70 % of the local market.
“As a result of the agreements, ticket buyers could buy tickets only through Sistic, causing prices of tickets to increase for which consumers had to bear, said CCS.“
I am not sure how a contract for one agent ticket agent to sell the tickets on behalf of the event owner has a causal link with increases in the face value or price of tickets? Sistic does not set the price of the tickets, they do however set the price of some of the transaction costs worn by the event owner (inside charges) and the consumer (outside charges). But it must be noted that inside and outside charges in Singapore are at very low level internationally as a proportion of ticket price.
7 June, 2010 at 10:09 am Tim Roberts ARTS Australia 1 comment
Disney Puts Tickets on a Facebook Site
In what may be a first, Disney has quietly launched a ticketing application on Facebook with the ability to prod (oops encourage) friends to attend and also geolocation functionality so it responds with films in your area.
“When you buy a ticket through Disney’s application, for instance, it alerts your Facebook friends and prompts you to invite them to buy tickets of their own.“
Hence, the promise Disney Tickets Together promise – “No Friend Gets Left Behind” …
“Disney quietly introduced the service on May 26 with a simple post on the site’s official “Toy Story 3” page, which has over 732,000 followers … early results indicate that people are using the application to buy tickets in groups as large as 80, according to Disney.“
“What Disney is doing moves beyond just creating awareness to using the (Facebook) platform to acquire customers directly,”
“This is the first time that a movie studio has tried this, which we think makes a lot of sense because moviegoing is one of those activities that is inherently social.”
3 June, 2010 at 2:30 pm Tim Roberts ARTS Australia Leave a comment
Rather than individual pricing, personalised discounting based on behaviour
An interesting innovation reported in the New York Times 
Sam’s Club Personalizes Discounts for Buyers
Rather than discount coupons, Sam’s (part of Wal-Mart) eValues is offering direct discounts to club members “ … coupons normally had a response rate of 1 percent or 2 percent. With eValues … as many as 20 percent to 30 percent of eligible customers collect the discount they are offered.“
“There’s no clipping coupons,” eValues offers “highly individual relevant offers specific to each Plus member. All they have to do is purchase the product, and the savings are automatically applied at checkout.”
The program targets discounts based on previous purchase behaviour with ”predictive analytics, which uses vast amounts of data to spot trends and anticipate consumer behavior.“
“If you get more relevant to shoppers, you get more loyalty, you get more business,”
“Sam’s Club can vary the message and price in the communication received by the customer … Aside from the cost savings, tailored messages to consumers can also highlight specific product attributes that a particular consumer typically seeks, like “organic” or “environmentally friendly,”“
2 June, 2010 at 10:09 am Tim Roberts ARTS Australia Leave a comment
