Optus Stadium hosting the 2021 Toyota AFL Grand Final
Sydney Royal Easter Show.
More than a
Ticket The latest innovations in ticketing is enabling venues and events to deliver unique, tailored experiences for ticket buyers. Nigel Benton explores the pace of change
T
he traditional ticketing and distribution model for theatre and events has been transformed by technology in recent years, moving way beyond buying tickets at a booth, queuing up at box offices or hanging on telephone hotlines. Accelerated by changes demanded as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, ticketing can now offer a more seamless digital customer experience that engages experience for patrons, fans and eventgoers, As the live industry begins to emerge from COVID-19, Gavin Taylor, Managing Director of Ticketmaster Australia, is seeing what he says is “an unprecedented demand for live shows and events coming into 2022.” 2021 has seen Ticketmaster deliver ticketing for an increasingly diverse range of events including the Australian Open tennis, the Sydney Royal Easter Show, the NRL State of Origin in Townsville and the AFL finals series at Brisbane’s The Gabba, Perth’s Optus Stadium, and Tasmania’s UTAS Stadium. To meet what he calls “the pent up demand from fans” for live events, Taylor says Ticketmaster has “been working with all of our clients to ensure that COVIDSafe events can be delivered and having fully integrated digital tickets for all our clients together we have a completely new way to engage with what was once an anonymous fan with a paper ticket. The digital ticketing experience means we can now communicate, engage and interact with a fan from their first interest in an event right through to the time that they actually arrive at the venue. 48 Australasian Leisure Management Issue 147
“We’re working alongside our venues to understand both their operational needs day-to-day, but also what their longer term strategic priorities are, then tailoring our digital ticketing solution to meet their needs. “Through the data that we and the venue collect we can get a better understanding of the fan which allows us to provide fan experiences such as event recommendations based on preferences and tailored upsell packages. “The digital ticket really allows that personalised service to be driven. And so how we first reach customers in the marketplace, how we engage them to purchase tickets, and then importantly, how we can communicate with them through that whole fan journey in terms of their arrival at a venue and post event experience, means the customer is engaged in a tailored experience like never before.” Taylor continues “(as a result) the understanding of fans is now far greater than what we’ve ever had previously. “If we look at a big event such as the Sydney Royal Easter Show, their adoption of 100% digital tickets through COVID saw multiple days of the 2021 Show sold out with over 800,000 tickets sold overall. “That was achieved digitally - which was a huge shift in terms of consumer behaviour - with the shift allowing patrons to turn up to the Show informed by communication points on how to prepare for the event, what to plan for, how to get there and so on, ensuring the experience is simple and seamless for the fan.”
