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VMS Live to open London office, launch marketing arm

Independent British promoter and venue operator VMS Live is making changes to its business model, opening a central London office and creating a new marketing division.

Founded in 2007 by the late Steve Forster, VMS Live operates and/or books mid-size UK venues including Eventim Olympia Liverpool (1,960-cap.), Asylum in Hull (1,100-cap.) and the William Aston Hall in Wrexham (1,200-cap.), and counts Eventim UK, the local arm of Germany’s CTS Eventim, among its clients.

Following the appointment of Bert Van Horck as CEO in September, VMS is undergoing changes to improve customer service and enhance marketing support for venues.

From 6 January 2020, VMS’s booking, ticketing, marketing and music divisions will operate out of a new office in King’s Cross, London, headed by High Voltage festival promoter Abbie Marshall. Central services such as finance and HR will also be based out of the London office.

“To align our aims and those of our clients, we will invest in new systems, and a new office, and create a new marketing department”

The company has also hired Ioana Mosteanu, who formerly worked on music brand partnerships at Red Bull, and digital marketing and design specialist Yara Magarino to work in its newly created marketing division. Mosteanu will also take charge of the ticketing department.

VMS’s former operations assistant, Aoife Niblock, will take on the role of northern regional manager, supervising VMS venues in Wrexham, Liverpool and Hull.

“We have taken a very close look at the heart of the company and consulted with the great team of people working here and fantastic clients to make some well-informed, bold decisions,” comments Van Horck.

“To align our aims and those of our clients, we will invest in new systems, and a new office, and create a new marketing department, for which we have appointed two marketeers.

“This signals our ambitions to help our clients grow their businesses and expand our portfolio of venues.”

 


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VMS Live partners with Eventim UK

Eventim UK, the UK division of German ticketing giant CTS Eventim, has added independent British promoter/venue management outfit VMS Live to its portfolio of clients.

VMS operates a host of mid-size UK venues, including Manchester Academy (2,600-cap.), Copper Rooms (900+300-cap.) at the University of Warwick and William Aston Hall (1,200-cap.) in Wrexham.

“As we’ve grown and deliver more, we needed a ticketing partner,” says Carl Bathgate, promotions director at VMS Live. “We need access to the best technology and wanted bespoke developments. We selected Eventim for this role, as they have an ideal mix of skills that will allow us to develop and mutually support each other.”

“Eventim’s initiatives tie into our ethos as a business”

James O’Mullan, finance director at Eventim UK, says: “We wanted to work with VMS as they are the fastest growing promoter in the country, and we have experienced exponential growth in 2017. We both have similar ambitions for the future, and working together we will be able to help each other reach those goals.”

“VMS are currently a small business in the context of the major players out there, but we continue to double in size year on year,” adds VMS managing director Steve Forster. “Eventim approached us about a partnership, and their flexible approach and ability to modify their standard offering to suit our business needs convinced us to partner with them.

“Eventim’s initiatives tie into our ethos as a business – in particular we really like FanSALE, their fan-to-fan, fair-price ticketing resale platform. Overall, Eventim just felt right for us at this stage in our development.”

 


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