Ticketmaster actually makes a smart play. Our idea, of course.

November 17, 2008 in Commentary, ticketing news | Tags: , , , , | by ehoush | No comments

We’ve said this since, oh -2001. Why do companies break the ticket fee out in a line item to consumers? I’ve blogged about it on several occasions, but our general feeling is that “convenience fees” are hated by customers. I personally helped work the call center for an event recently, and more than one person expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that fees were charged at all.

Now, the company who trained consumers to hate convenience charges by systematically defrauding and flogging them for the past two decades has decided to swipe a page from our playbook. You can read the article here, but basically, TM is trying an “all in” ticketing price. The article implies that this was the idea of Irving Azoff, the high powered new CEO of Ticketmaster Entertainment who joined the company when Front Line Management merged with Ticketmaster earlier this year. They will test the strategy on the upcoming Eagles concert tour.

I tried to buy Eagles tickets for the “Hell Freezes over” tour back around 1994, Tickets were $90 for nosebleed seats at BJCC. I can imagine once you factor in all of the TicketMaster fees this time around you may drop two or three benjamins to see Glen, Don, and the crew phone in your favorites.

Regardless, this is a good idea. I have no doubt that Ticketmaster will see better numbers with this experiment, and this may become their standard operating practice in the future.

So let’s see- in the past couple of months Ticketmaster has:

  • Merged with FrontLine Management in a copycat strategy to address LiveNation
  • Renamed the company to reflect the acquisition
  • Named a new CEO, and
  • Changed their ticketing strategy

Seems like straw-grasping to me. In their quarterly revenue report, Ticketmaster showed that revenues dropped 76% from the quarter earlier. The economic downturn is hurting them (as it is most live entertainment businesses) and they are trying to respond. Will any of their responses benefit musicians or music fans?  Probably not.

Facebook Integration now live for all TicketBiscuit Accounts!

October 30, 2008 in Company News, new tech, ticket selling tips, ticketing news | Tags: , , , , , , | by ehoush | No comments

We never stop innovating to help our clients sell more tickets. That’s kind of become our motto here lately. We’ve been quietly building the Facebook integration for a few weeks and beta testing it to the hilt, and I am happy to say our super genius dev team has done it yet again.

Now, when you set up an account in TicketBiscuit, you can automatically publish your event to your Facebook page. If you update the event, it will be updated on Facebook as well. There is simply no easier, quicker, or cooler way to connect with your fans and keep them in the loop.

I know what many of you are thinking: “I don’t have time for some kid’s toy!” But think again. Rapidly approaching 100 million registered users worldwide, the Facebook community is expanding into all demographic categories. Those 25- 40 year olds with deep pockets? Over 11 MILLION are registered on Facebook in the United States alone. That will probably be 12 million by the end of the month. The takeaway is that this ain’t just a kids toy. It is a serious marketing tool and can reap mucho benefits. (UPDATE: read this blog post if you’re still not convinced)

Check this page out to learn more about Facebook Pages. Here’s another overview page about the other business products you can get.

If you’ve already set up a Facebook account and want to get this feature hooked up pronto, give us a call.

(Full Press Release: TicketBiscuit Ticketing System adds Automatic Facebook and Eventful.com Integration)

Juniper Research: 400 Million Mobile Ticketing Users by 2013

October 23, 2008 in Commentary, new tech, research | Tags: , , , , , , , | by ehoush | No comments

New research released by Juniper states that by 2013 there will be 400 million people using their mobile phones to buy tickets. This makes a lot of sense and seems like a logical next step in the evolution of mobility and Internet transactions. When I worked at Intel, they called the phenomenon “convergence” - that the line between computers and cell phones would gradually blur. Couple this with the fact that people are increasingly willing to purchase online, and voila- the boom of mobile ticketing.

As I have stated before, major roadblocks in the proliferation of this technology are bar code reading issues, lack of reader infrastructure and availability of near field communications (NFC) handsets.

Here’s a link to the full article just in case you’re made of free time, but the salient points are these:

  • Mobile will catch on in Travel first, followed by live entertainment and then sports.
  • Total gross mobile ticketing transaction value will reach $92 billion by 2013.
  • The Far East & China region, together with Western Europe and North America will represent in excess of 80% of this global gross transaction value by 2013.
  • Mobile ticketing must “make life easier” for users. In this respect, NFC, with its convenience, is a crucial development.
  • NFC will reach its tipping point over the 2011 to 2013 period (meaning that my prediction of 2009 may have been a little aggressive)

What do you think? Would you be comfortable purchasing tickets over your mobile phone?

Six Twitter Tools and Spinoffs I’d Like to See

October 23, 2008 in Commentary | Tags: , , , , | by ehoush | No comments

I started using Twitter about a month ago. For those of you unfamiliar with the service, it is essentially a microblogging tool, where you post updates of 140 characters or less.  This guy explains it pretty well:

The updates can be silly, informative, or completely random. I started twittering to connect and network with others sharing similar interests, and hopefully promote TicketBiscuit without being caught. You can check out our twitter feed here.

So, one month in, I am approaching my 40th post, I’m ranked somewhere in the high thirties / low forties on twittergrader, and I feel like I’m getting to know the tool better. Mark Krejci introduced me to several cool twitter tools like twitterfon, twitfire, and twitterfeed which have made my twefforts easier, and I’ve picked up a couple of other tips as well (thanks to whoever suggested tweet later ).

But, there is still room for innovation (of course). Since Twitter exposes an API I am sure that we’ll see several new tools pop up over the next couple of years (at least until the next hot thing comes along).  So, all you developers out there, here’s my wish list:

Bitter: Picks up when @replies are getting testy, announces “twitter fight” to the twuniverse, battle ensues for the amusement of all.

Etiquette-r: Detects when you’re using bad twetiquette (I literally can make up these words all day long), suggests corrections. I seriously could use this.

Toggler: Allows you to maintain separate universes of twitter friends and seamlessly toggle between them, displaying your replies and posts only to the group you choose. I guess you could always create two accounts, but then you would have absolutely no free time. 

Critter: A twitter for pet enthusiasts. Can’t you just see the joy in terabytes of microblogs about what Fluffy did today?

Sidesplitter: Short jokes. One Liners. Knock Knocks. 140 characters to make me laugh.

Porntwitter: (forgive the 100% un-clever name, it’s in beta) Not really interested in using it so much, but interested in how it would be executed. This, again, is just a matter of time. I mean, there are porn blogs, right?

Who-Gives-A-Shit-Er: Automatically filters out the truly idiotic / repetitive / annoying posts from the twitterverse.  I’d probably be the first victim.

It is highly likely that these tools exist as I write this, and if so, please let me know. Do you use twitter? If so, weigh in on what you would or do find useful or amusing.

TicketMaster Passes out Free Pink Slips to Hundreds

October 22, 2008 in Commentary, ticketing news | Tags: , , , | by ehoush | No comments

At least you got off the Death Star in time...

At least you got off the Death Star in time...

Ticketmaster announced today that is is cutting about 5% of it’s global workforce, mostly from online operations. This should come as no real surprise, as TicketMaster’s growth strategy as of late has been to buy companies (Paciolan, GetMeIn, TicketsNow, etc.) rather than innovate and win new business. While the move probably makes a lot of sense due to elimination of duplicate jobs in the acquired entities, but I think it signals something broader.

Seth Godin blogged a couple days ago about acting small and thinking big. TicketMaster has the opposite problem. They think small and act big. This act, while it will help in the short term, will not help them compete. They ignore customers and enjoy being the 500 pound gorilla.

Well enjoy it while it lasts, TicketMaster. Because we are coming. Every day we are investing in our online ticketing system help our clients sell more tickets, and your clients are noticing.

Elite XC Going Out of Business

October 21, 2008 in BattlePass | Tags: , , , , | by ehoush | No comments

Wow. I can’t say that I am surprised by this news, only that it happened so quickly. According to Dave Meltzer of Yahoo Sports,

Elite XC, which produced seven of the 10 most-watched MMA matches in U.S. history on two CBS specials in recent months, will be closing its doors at the end of the week.

Check the full article here.  The good news is that Gina Carano may be looking for work. And we can use some muscle in the BattlePass Marketing Department. Gina, call me.

Gina Carano

Gina Carano

TicketAlert - Ticketmaster Keeps Order Processing Fees on Cancelled Events!

October 19, 2008 in Commentary, Musings, ticketing news | Tags: , , | by jburdett | 1 comment

Ticketmaster never ceases to amaze me.  I bought tix to Frank Caliendo’s show in Birmingham and it was cancelled.  On Friday, I received this email from Ticketmaster:

Hello, this is Ticketmaster Customer Service with an important alert for your upcoming event. Frank Caliendo, scheduled at BJCC Concert Hall on Friday, October 24, 2008, at 8:00PM, has been cancelled.

Your credit card will automatically be credited the ticket price and convenience charges, and should post to your account within 7 to 10 business days.  Please note, the $3.20 per order processing fee and any ticketFast or UPS delivery charges are non-refundable.

If you have any questions, please contact us online at:

http://www.ticketmaster.com/h/asktm.html

Thank you for using Ticketmaster.  We appreciate your business!

I love the last line:  We appreciate your business!  What service did they provide me?  In my opinion, they just stole $3.20 from me and provided no service at all.  Glad to see I’ll get my money back so quickly as well (note the sarcasm). 

I know this isn’t news to many of you and I’m sorry you have to put up with it.  There is something you can do about it.  Stop going to events where Ticketmaster is the ticketing vendor and encourage your favorite venues, promoters, and artists to sign up with the Biscuit.

Subliminal Messages

October 17, 2008 in Commentary, Company News, Musings | Tags: , , , | by ehoush | No comments

We’re back from the Southeastern Museums Conference today. SEMC is an annual event that pulls together museum directors and operators from the region and gives them the opportunity to share best practices and ideas with each other. They were a great crowd, and we had a very successful time introducing the Biscuit to them. A special shout out to Bob, Rachel, and Kimbelee from Sloss Furnaces - it’s always nice to see familiar faces at those events.

Today I read a great post by Shariar Amin on Subliminal Marketing. This got me thinking: isn’t it a bit ironic that we find it okay to splash product placements all over movies but the practice of  flashing an image for 1/3000th of a second is outlawed? (By the way, Shariar’s post is not entirely factually accurate - for the full story on subliminal advertising check out snopes)

I remember earlier this year KFC got into hot waterwith one of their commercials promoting a new sandwich. At one point in the commercial a message flashed on the screen that said you could get the sandwich for free if you mentioned a secret code word while you were ordering. The ironic thing is, you would have had to have TiVo or some sort of DVR to rewind and find the hidden message. They did another spot where they hid a dollar bill in the lettuce on a sandwich. Of course, the mere word of mouth made the campaign wildy successful.

Maybe that’s the take away- by trying to be subliminal and getting busted, everyone will talk about your ad, and you’ll get the exposure you crave. We’re always looking for new and cool ways to spread the word about the Biscuit- so what do you think? Should we dabble into the subliminal?

Maybe we should be more subliminal than this....

Maybe we should be more subliminal than this....

Kimbo Gets Beat- But Was it Fixed?

October 10, 2008 in BattlePass, Commentary, Musings, celebrity news | Tags: , , , , , | by ehoush | No comments

I’ve gotta admit, I was a big fan of MMA before but since the launch of BattlePass my fandom has gone almost to the nuclear scale. So it was with great anticipation that I awaited this last weekend’s matchup between seasoned veteran Ken Shamrockand Internet phenom Kimbo Slice.

Only the fight didn’t happen. Hours before the fight Shamrock apparently suffered a cut and was not allowed to fight. his last minute replacement was a previously relatively unknown fighter named Seth Petruzelli.

Petruzeilli knocked him out in 14 seconds. Kimbo was supposed to be the best thing for MMA since, well, (forgive the pun here) sliced bread, but he suffered an embarrassing beatdown at the hands of a no-name. And now, there are allegations that the fight was supposed to be fixed. But before I get there, why don’t you watch the fight in it’s entirety? Seriously, it will only take 14 seconds. Go ahead.

Okay so Seth delivers a beatdown. But Seth isn’t used to the limelight. So naturally, when everyone and their mother wants to talk to the guy who beat Kimbo, our boy Seth tells too much:

“They didn’t want me to take him down, let’s just put it that way. It was worth my while to try to stand up and punch with him.”

Ouch. You can read the whole article here if you are interested, but this could be big trouble for ProElite. We’ll keep you posted. One of the great things about MMA is that to this point it has been about combat, performance, preparation, skill. this kind of shenanigan would put a black eye on the sport, but it would be nothing new. I mean, there have been empires (*cough cough WWE*) built on this type of tom-foolery. The BattlePass team will actually get to meet ProElite head of Operations Jeremy Lappen at Fight Promoter University V in November, so I’m anxious to get his take on this whole matter (away from what says to the media).

On a side note, I am now a HUGE fan of Gina Carano. Wowza.

*swoon*

*swoon*

Add 7 Million Sets of Eyes to Your Event. Now.

October 9, 2008 in Company News, new tech, ticket selling tips | Tags: , , , , , , | by ehoush | No comments

Yesterday we continued our absolutely frenetic pace of innovation and released what I feel is probably the coolest TicketBiscuit enhancement since print at home tickets. It represents a HUGE step forward in ticketing, and will definitely help our clients sell more tickets.

You can now publish your events AUTOMATICALLY to Eventful.com

You can now publish your events AUTOMATICALLY to Eventful.com

You may have remembered our tip on how to sell more tickets from a couple of weeks ago- when we introduced a lot of you to Eventful.com. For those of you who missed the post, Eventful.com is an event aggregator site- they maintain a comprehensive listing of local events in cities nationwide. It is a very cool service and as of last count had upwards of 7 million users.

Well, thanks to our team of super genius developers at TicketBiscuit, we’ve now made the process of adding your event to Eventful.com as easy as clicking a button.When you set up your event, it will be automatically populated to Eventful and kept up to date as you update it in TicketBiscuit.

Seven MILLION more sets of eyes. Zero additional effort.

We’ve got more innovations like this in the pipe coming your way soon, all geared toward helping you have more successful events and helping you sell more tickets. If you have ideas or enhancements that you feel would be useful to your business, we’d love to hear them. Just drop us a line and let us know.