International Ticketing Report 2021: New products and services
The International Ticketing Report is a one-off annual health check on the global ticketing business, with emphasis on the sector’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The past two years have been turbulent for the business, but with consumer demand for live events now at an all-time peak, the challenges of fulfilling the most packed event schedule in history will test ticketers to the hilt.
Staffing, vouchers schemes and refunds, demand, consumer behaviour, communication, new products & services, secondary ticketing, pandemic lessons and recovery are among the challengers addressed by industry-leading experts in this extended report.
The report, originally published in IQ105, is in lieu of the International Ticketing Yearbook – a standalone global guide to the live entertainment market that will return in 2022.
IQ will publish sections of the International Ticketing Report over the coming weeks but subscribers can read the entire feature in issue 105 of IQ Magazine now.
To read the previous instalment of the report on communication, click here.
Event Genius & Festicket CEO Benjamin Leaver notes that the pandemic shutdown created additional time for individuals and companies to develop new products and services – time that ticketing service providers the world over have been exploiting.
“One of the biggest takeaways for us is the accelerated embrace of technology in the industry, from digital ticketing to contactless access and cashless payment systems,” Leaver says. “Although the adoption has been quicker because of the pandemic, we strongly believe the change will benefit the industry in the long-term.”
AXS director of ticketing, Paul Newman, agrees. “The last 18 months have afforded us the opportunity to accelerate the development of a number of initiatives that would have otherwise taken far longer to implement,” he says, citing AXS opening up its mobile ID technology to other ticket agents.
“Taking notice of the feedback from the customer sentiment surveys we have undertaken; we have introduced venue iconography and other features into our purchase flow to give returning customers the information and reassurances they seek to return to live events.”
Weezevent CEO, Pierre-Henri Deballon, says: “Over the last 18 months, we have essentially worked on the relaunch: the challenge was to ensure that the teams were ready for the relaunch and that the product was also ready. To do this, we worked on international development by buying the company PlayPass.
“We also reworked our capital structure by buying out the shares of Veepee, which was a shareholder of Weezevent, in order to be completely independent. This makes us one of the few truly independent European players in our sector.”
“The last 18 months have afforded us the opportunity to accelerate the development of a number of initiatives”
It’s also been a time for acquisitions at Dice, which bought Boiler Room, as well as completing a $122m (€105m) funding exercise.
“We built-out our live-stream offering working with 6,400 artists on quality streams; we developed and rolled out a completely new client tool with collaboration from our partners; we made massive design and functionality improvements across our app and website; and we opened up a new HQ in New York,” says Russ Tannen of Dice.
On a B2B level, Leaver says, “We developed our Ticket Management Portal [TMP], which allows event organisers to be fully track-and-trace compliant by collecting all attendee details. The TMP also allows fans to easily share tickets with friends, as well as letting organisers seamlessly communicate with all eventgoers rather than solely lead bookers.”
Fair Ticket Solutions’ founder & CEO, Alan Gelfand, meanwhile, says, “We have spent the time evolving our identity-based platform to include a pre-clearance tie-in of the health requirements to activate all types of ticket formats.”
And in Hong Kong, Total Ticketing‘s Martin Haigh tells IQ, “We have developed a global distribution system allowing us to ingest ticketing inventory from a large number of inventory holders and redistribute it to hundreds of agents, managing CMS, sales, invoices, credits. This allows for massive increased discovery.
“Alongside the ongoing development of our ticketing software, we have also created Total Streaming to give promoters the ability to mix and match in person and streamed sales through our platforms and to geofence viewers and enforce a single-viewer-per-link on our streams.”
“We took this moment to take our business global”
Mark Yovich says the pandemic pause allowed Ticketmaster to fulfil long-held ambitions. “We took this moment to take our business global,” he says. “Our goal was to unify across the globe as a single team with a single mission – to innovate and build one incredible experience for fans and clients wherever they are in the world.”
“CTS Eventim has used the time of the pandemic for numerous strategic initiatives to emerge even stronger from the crisis,” reports chief operating officer Alexander Ruoff. “These include product developments. Among these, our digital ticket EVENTIM.Pass stands out in particular.”
Taking the opportunity to “make ticketing more seamless for both the promoter and customer,” Skiddle’s head of marketing, Jamie Scahill, says. “Over the last 18 months, we’ve launched our beta Promotion Centre to current promoters, built from the ground-up.
“[It] provides new features such as bulk-editing events, bulk-embargoing events, new dashboards, embed-listing widgets for promoters and more. We’ve also introduced a DIY payment plan builder for promoters to have greater control over the payment plans they want to offer to customers.”
Not to be outdone, Richard Howle says The Ticket Factory is close to completing an overhaul of its payment systems, offering increased security for customers when they are booking online.
“We have also installed a brand-new telephone system in our dedicated contact centre. It’s becoming increasingly rare in the ticketing industry for this kind of personalised interaction – and it’s something we’re committed to and really value as a business,” says Howle.
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AEG Facilities launches venue solutions division
AEG’s venue management arm, AEG Facilities, has announced the launch of AEG Facilities Global Solutions, a new division offering management and planning services to entertainment and sports venues.
Headed up by AEG Facilities senior vice-president Jay Cooper – newly promoted to Global Solutions’ managing director – the division can provide advice on, among other things, pre-construction and pre-opening planning, vendor selection, sponsorship and premium seating, financial modelling, operational and sustainability planning and risk management, procurement and safety/security assessments to both new and existing venue owners and operators worldwide.
“Our unmatched global experience in developing, owning and managing leading facilities uniquely equips us to meet the increasingly complex requirements of designing, constructing, operating and managing theatres, arenas, convention centres and stadiums,” says Bob Newman, president of AEG Facilities. “The decision to launch AEG Facilities Global Solutions is in direct response to market demand and perfectly complements our core business.
“The decision to launch AEG Facilities Global Solutions is in direct response to market demand and perfectly complements our core business”
“Our proven and proprietary solutions and services are designed to improve operational performance and can be customised to fit a client’s specific needs and budgets. We can draw on our successful track record worldwide and our wide range of in-house skills and experience in order to deliver venues that are cost-effective to build, economically sustainable to operate and optimise the revenue generation potential of each facility.”
Among the services available to Global Facilities clients are AEG Energy Services, which assists with energy efficiency; AEG Global Partnerships, which oversees naming rights, premium seating and other strategic partnerships; AEG SAFE, which develops venue security plans; AEG 1Force, which focuses on hiring practices to maximise community satisfaction with a venue; and AEG Encore, which offers guest-service training.
“From the early design phases through the grand opening and beyond, AEG Facilities Global Solutions has a solution and the expertise to ensure a successful project,” says Cooper. “I look forward to working with current and new client partners to activate the many benefits of AEG to create the most profitable and successful solution for each project.”
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