More than a Ticket

Optus Stadium hosting the 2021 Toyota AFL Grand Final

Sydney Royal Easter Show.

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

The 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.

“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.”

Echoing this approach, as part of its reopening transformation, Theatre Royal Sydney has introduced innovations that break away from the traditional commercial theatre ticketing and distribution model.

The historic venue’s new operator, leading global live entertainment company Trafalgar Entertainment, has made the decision to prioritise the customer experience during all stages of a theatregoers experience - from the moment they buy a ticket - while also maximising commercial potential for the shows that it hosts.

In 2020, Trafalgar appointed global digital ticketing technology company, TixTrack, to implement a ticketing solution which would align Theatre Royal Sydney’s ticketing sales strategy more closely to that of New York’s Broadway and the London’s West End.

With the implementation of TixTrack, Theatre Royal Sydney, via their website becomes the primary ticket seller for all performances, ensuring tailored, exceptional customer experience.

This ticketing solution also allows third party ticket partner Ticketek and marketing agent TodayTix and others to sell tickets for shows taking place at Theatre Royal Sydney.

The first Australian venue to appoint and implement TixTrack’s NLiven platform in Australia with Jagged Little Pill when it went on sale - the platform provides a frictionless and user-friendly experience with multiple payment options including Apple Pay and leading buy-now-pay-later payment options, Afterpay and PayPal.

Having identified a need to create a secure, central store of data and to consolidate marketing activity within a unified platform, Trafalgar has appointed HubSpot as the CRM provider for the venue, becoming the first of the group’s businesses to implement this platform.

HubSpot will allow Theatre Royal Sydney to grow traffic, convert more visitors to the site and to run marketing campaigns, with the aim to drive more ticket sales and profitability. Additionally, HubSpot will provide Theatre Royal Sydney with all the tools and integrations to maximise marketing potential, analyse sales and data, streamline content management and execute exceptional customer service.

Houri Tapiki, who was promoted from her initial position as Head of Customer Experience to General Manager as the Theatre Royal Sydney reopened explained “to curate a customer experience which will attract new audiences, Trafalgar Entertainment made the decision to implement an end-to-end ticketing solution to sell tickets directly via theatreroyalsydney. com and through our on-site dedicated box office.

“In addition to providing a user friendly and modern primary ticketing solution for our customers, NLiven allows integration via API to legacy systems, ensuring we are maximising the distribution and reach for all Producers bringing shows to Theatre Royal Sydney.

“This is not only about the ease of purchasing tickets online. It is about communicating to our customers content they are interested in. It is about being available and responsive when a customer prefers to talk on the phone or in person rather than digitally. It is about knowing the value of our customers and making them advocates for our Venue by offering them the best experience possible. Partnering with both TixTrack and HubSpot are allowing us to achieve these ambitions.”

As a result, Tapiki sees the venue delivering an “all encompassing customer experience from digital marketing to ticket sales and the front of house team while also linking with some of our F&B offering.

“We can also then follow with guiding them in getting home safely, finding out if they enjoyed the experience and, if they enjoyed the interaction, seeing them become advocates.”

The pace of change in ticketing technology has also seen the Adelaide Festival Centre transition from its longstanding ticketing service BASS to Ticketek - prompted by a realisation that technological advancements in ticketing and the impact of COVID.

The announcement signalled the end of BASS in South Australia after over 40 years of processing ticket sales for the state’s major arts institutions, including the Festival Theatre, Dunstan Playhouse, Space Theatre and Her Majesty’s Theatre.

The Adelaide Festival Centre has advised that its new collaboration with Ticketek would provide the “most streamlined, up-to-date way to purchase tickets for shows and events at Adelaide Festival Centre venues. Patrons will also get greater access to blockbuster events touring nationally and internationally through TEG-owned Ticketek’s vast Australasian networks.”

Adelaide Festival Centre Chief Executive and Artistic Director Douglas Gautier said the new partnership would lead to a better service for patrons and opportunities to present even more large-scale shows in South Australia, noting “we are excited about what this partnership means for the future of live entertainment in South Australia, particularly the opportunity to attract even more great shows for our valued patrons at Adelaide Festival Centre.

BASS was established in 1977 and was owned and operated by the Adelaide Festival Centre Trust.

Ticketek bought out what was once Queensland’s BASS agency, while in the 1990s Ticketmaster bought out BASS Victoria, which was previously owned by the Victorian Government under the auspices of the Victorian Arts Centre Trust.

Looking forward, Taylor concludes “being optimistic about the future, we know fans want the live experience and we’ve been able to deliver that through our ticketing platform and by continuing to meet the needs and the expectations of the different governments across different states.

“We’re continuing to enhance our technology capabilities, but importantly, we’re really working closely now with our venues, to reach new audiences, drive conversion while providing a world class digital ticketing experience so they can reactivate their fans and reengage that marketplace.” Nigel Benton is Publisher of Australasian Leisure Management.

Houri Tapiki, General Manager Theatre Royal Sydney. Credit: Pierre Toussaint