Understanding which fans actually attended an event has been an age-old problem for box offices. Because traditional paper tickets are completely anonymous, transferable without oversight – causing approximately 5M fraudulent tickets to be sold every year – and change hands an average of five times, box offices knew the identity of fans purchasing tickets; however, they didn’t know who was attending the event. In fact, they were lucky to know even one in five.
Cutting-edge enhancements in digital ticketing have opened up opportunities to control distribution, dramatically reducing ticket fraud. Not only do fans have peace of mind that their tickets are valid, but box offices have greater visibility into the fans entering their venue, in addition to the original ticket purchaser.
At Ticketmaster, we’re closing the known fan gap with Presence® – the next-generation venue access control and fan engagement platform that replaces paper tickets with digital passes. Since its 2017 inception, Presence has streamlined countless back-office operations while also providing real-time insights that allow box offices to better understand and engage with fans.
The key to unlocking fan identity is Ticketmaster SafeTix™. Built on the Presence platform, SafeTix™ leverages powerful technology to create a secure digital ticket that is connected to a fan’s Ticketmaster account. This innovation tracks the full chain of custody of a ticket resulting in deeper insights into who purchased the ticket, who the ticket was transferred or resold to, and who is entering the venue with that ticket.
SafeTix removes fan anonymity from ticketing through a seamless transfer and sell process tied to a Ticketmaster account, allowing box offices to know the identity of each ticketholder – generating leads at a higher velocity. Through rapid database growth, box offices can discover endless sales, marketing and communication opportunities, including engagement with fans who are actually coming through the doors. “Because a new ticket is issued every time there’s a transfer or sale, event owners have the ability to develop a unique relationship with each fan, leading to in-venue personalization and future communication while increasing their known fanbase,” said Ticketmaster Chief Product Officer, Justin Burleigh.
In addition to innovations in digital ticketing, modern point-of-sale systems have unlocked new opportunities for the box office to better understand the fan identity.
Point-of-sale systems also play a part in knowing more fans. Legacy point-of-sale systems historically have not allowed box offices to fully understand who they were selling tickets to because there wasn’t an account attached to the purchase – fans would purchase a ticket and would receive a paper ticket. However, with TM1 Sales, box offices gain an intuitive point-of-sale solution that simplifies selling, enhances fan support operations and builds your marketing database with every sale. By instantly creating fan accounts upon sale, whether online or at the window day-of-event, box offices build larger, more effective databases and can re-market events to new-to-file fans. The fan walks up to your window, purchases tickets and their information is added to the database to digitally deliver tickets.
Watch TM1 Sales in action:
In the next few blogs, we will discuss how the integration of Ticketmaster’s latest innovations will help you optimize day of event operations and break through the noise to drive sales anytime, anywhere.
Ticketmaster SafeTix is currently in Beta and will soon start rolling out to Ticketmaster Presence clients. If you would like to learn more about Presence and TM1 Sales, please reach out to your Ticketmaster representative.
