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How to overcome 2023’s ticketing trends

People are buying tickets later: how do you overcome this in 2023?

It’s turbulent times for festival promoters and organisers. Not because ticket sales are down – but because people are buying tickets later than ever.

It’s a far cry from the initial post-Covid excitement where people were snapping up tickets to everything they could get their hands on. Today, concert and festival goers are more likely to buy in the week or day of the event – or even as walkups.

So where’s this indecision coming from, what does it mean for the industry and how can you get people to commit earlier in 2023?

What’s causing purchase procrastination?

There are plenty of tours and festivals on – but everything from limited venues, cautious audiences and crippling costs means people are delaying buying tickets.

The Covid hangover

As much as we’d all love to move on, the effects of Covid are still very much around.

While many shows were rescheduled for 2022, a lack of venue space has pushed others into 2023. And, after countless Covid cancellations these past few years, consumers are understandably wary about spending up on live events which might not go ahead, anyway.

Costs keep rising

Everyone’s feeling the pinch as costs of just about everything continue to soar. For consumers already feeling the pinch, higher ticket prices are difficult to swallow. For festival organisers, these cost pressures often mean doing more with less – and a reduced lineup in a highly competitive and saturated market is a tough sell.

The good news

Interestingly, live music tends to get away relatively unscathed during frugal times. Whether ticket prices are more palatable or audiences are particularly loyal, it’s a glimmer of hope for many promoters and organisers. We also know that artists who’ve engaged with their fans during Covid have emerged stronger than those who haven’t.

It’s not an easy environment right now – but there are plenty of ways you can stand out from the crowd

How to encourage earlier ticket purchases in 2023

It’s not an easy environment right now – but there are plenty of ways you can stand out from the crowd.

Presale and onsale campaigns

Well-planned presale and onsale campaigns will help you sell more tickets, faster.

Get the most impact by:

Ensuring your presale registration starts as soon as the lineup is announced and runs between 4 and 7 days

Choosing the best on-sale date and time based on when your audience is most active online (and making sure this campaign starts early!)

Using social media platforms so fans can easily spread the word. Not only is this a highly effective way to expand your reach, it also reduces marketing spend

Offering prizes and incentives that build buzz and encourage ticket sales.

Build an audience you own

When you regularly (and thoughtfully) engage with your audience, you create a loyal fan base – and that leads to more ticket sales. You’ll also save money on paid ads which, like everything else, are becoming increasingly expensive.

Building those quality connections with fans is the new age marketing – and what’s going to bring in those timely ticket sales.

Start by:

Reconnecting with your dormant subscribers by analysing your database, nurturing those on there and enticing them back to fan status

Tapping into the post-event high to secure ticket sales for your next event. In other words, don’t wait for your presale campaign to roll around months from now – capitalise on the excitement while it’s still happening.

Do it once. Do it properly

While it might be tempting to drip feed lineup announcements, this approach actually dilutes the impact.

Don’t be afraid to create noise, a feeling of scarcity (‘these tickets are selling fast!’) and something a little different. After all, no one ever got far in this business by staying quiet.

Tackling ticket sales in 2023

Want the right support to sell more tickets, earlier? Book a demo here.

Audience Republic is the all-in-one CRM and marketing platform for festivals, venues and artists. By utilising presale campaigns, waitlists and gamified competition features, we can help you increase your ticket sales.

Check out our FREE Presale Calculator to see how you can sell more tickets, faster.

 


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How to announce your music festival for 2023

The announcement of a music festival and its accompanying presale, along with the lineup announcement are two of the most important milestones in determining the success of your event.

It’s worth considering exactly how you plan to amplify your festival and maximise overall reach. It will be even more important to capitalise on these moments in 2023 as we see the complete re-opening of the world following the pandemic.

Many organisers will return to traditional promotional methods like paid digital advertising and paid social media. These methods however are continuing to increase in price as reach remains steady or decreases.

The most trusted form of advertising, word-of-mouth, is still usually overlooked in favour of more pre-2020 promotional methods, which is why it will be a huge differentiator when it comes to announcing your music festival in 2023.

“Word-of-mouth is consistently recognised as the most valuable form of marketing for brands”

Why Word-Of-Mouth?

Word-of-mouth is consistently recognised as the most valuable form of marketing for brands. It’s the most trusted by consumers and the most likely to drive sales for you.

Nielsen’s 2021 Trust in Advertising Study found that “88% of global respondents trust recommendations from people they know more than any other channel.”

Amplifying Your Festival Announcement With Word-Of-Mouth

You can supercharge word-of-mouth and amplify your reach through the use of campaigns, a feature unique to Audience Republic, which gamifies the presale access process and rewards fans for sharing the presale registration link to friends, family and their social networks.

When your festival date or lineup is announced, running a gamified campaign allowing fans to register for presale access alongside the announcement not only amplifies your reach but also carries with it many other benefits outside of direct ticket sales.

Campaigns grow your database by collecting ticket buyers’ names, email addresses, and phone numbers.

“The results were so successful, we were 80% sold out 12 months in advance”

Additionally, you can use the audience you’ve built to drive ticket sales for future concerts, tours and festivals you manage for years to come. This effectively negates the need to spend thousands on Facebook Ads to reach the same audience year after year.

New Zealand’s premier festival, Rhythm and Vines utilised Audience Republic’s campaigns platform to drive a 321% uplift in preregistrations with marketing director, Kyle Bell saying “The results were so successful, we were 80% sold out 12 months in advance”.

2023 To Be The Year Of Oversaturation?

2022 saw the testing and learning for the return of live events. As this phase draws to a close, 2023 will be full steam ahead with fans returning to live events in droves. Data from Resident Advisor shows there are 66% more electronic music festivals in 2022 than in 2019 and you can expect that to grow even more in 2023.

The only issue this will pose is the creation of a saturated market with more content than ever on offer to fans. This will force organisers to get strategic and amplify as far and wide as possible to ensure their festival stands out among the noise.

“It is perhaps time to admit that traditional promotion methods are dying fast”

Paid Social Is Dying. SMS is Back.

As the cost-per-click for paid social and digital advertising rises, it’s past time to ask yourself: “Why would I continue to pay for a high-cost, low-return channel?”

SMS marketing has seen a resurgence and with it, a staggering open rate of 98%, with 90% of messages being read within the first three minutes of receipt.

It is perhaps time to admit that traditional promotion methods are dying fast and now is the age for word-of-mouth and SMS marketing, or, to at least consider them as the key drivers for launching your festival in 2023.

Audience Republic is the all-in-one CRM & marketing platform for festivals, venues & artists. We utilise presale campaigns, waitlists and gamified competition features to help increase ticket sales. Use our free Presale Calculator to see how we can help you sell more tickets, faster.

 


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Why 2023 will be the hardest year to sell tickets

2022 has seen fans return to dance floors and fields across the world as the live music industry reopens post-Covid. What has followed has been the creation of an overly saturated market as artists and festivals fight to make up for two years’ of lost revenue.

Globally, 2022 has also brought with it a raft of new economic conditions: rising inflation and low unemployment. Historically, these two factors have spelt out one word, recession. Mixing a saturated live events market and a looming recession together can only lead to the question, ‘will 2023 be the hardest year to sell tickets?’

As consumers tighten their budgets to cope with the rising cost of living, live events may start to take a back seat. This will be the great equaliser for event organisers as competition for consumer’s business will become increasingly tight. There are some strategies event organisers can implement to mitigate the risk that will come with producing events in 2023 and beyond.

“Creating excitement alone may not be enough to sell tickets in 2023”

Build An Audience You Own

In what has already become a market flooded with content post-Covid, ensuring lineup and tour announcements for 2023 stand out among the noise will be critical.

Announcements create excitement; and with them, comes press coverage, social sharing and tagging. But creating excitement alone may not be enough to sell tickets in 2023. This excitement can be monetised with a presale registration campaign which also builds a massive audience of engaged fans that organisers own and can market to.

This will help sell the remainder of the general on-sale while also generating and gauging demand. Owning ticket buyer data and marketing to them directly through channels like email and SMS, removes the need to rely on publishers like Facebook. This will reduce advertising costs and give organisers an engaged audience they can market to over and over again.

Leveraging the Power of Fans

Social media platforms now make it easier than ever for fans to connect with each other. By gamifying presale campaigns with social sharing and prize incentives, organisers can let fans do their marketing for them. This enables exponential reach, organically and means the message travels further, is more authentic and leads to increased sales at a lower cost.

“Post-event presale campaigns put more revenue in organisers’ back pockets, faster”

Ride the High

Running a presale campaign immediately after an event harnesses the success and emotion of this year’s event to sell tickets for next year’s.

Post-event presale campaigns put more revenue in organisers’ back pockets, faster. Going on sale immediately following an event locks in ticket sales and cash flow earlier, providing security and peace of mind.

The Race To Win Fans and Sell Out 2023

Even though at times it may seem like it, it’s not all doom and gloom for the live music industry. Fans will still seek to immerse themselves in live experiences, but it will be a question of which events will win their hearts, minds and ultimately business as they become more selective.

Audience Republic is the all-in-one CRM & marketing platform for events, venues and artists. We utilise presale registration, waitlists and unique gamified competition features to help increase ticket sales and return data ownership to event organisers.

 


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