News and Discussion

Oxynade is organising the first eTaaS (eTicketing as a Service) Summit in Europe 

Oxynade is organising the first eTaaS (eTicketing as a Service) Summit in Europe 

On the 25th and 26th of September 2018, Oxynade, a Belgian 100% white label ticketing partner, is hosting Europe’s first eTaaS (eTicketing as a Service) Summit in the magical Phantasialand (Germany).

eTaaS stands for an ultra-advanced and hyper scalable 100% white label solution within its core. It is based on the newest technologies and especially designed for professional ticketing agencies and distributors with the need to tailor their platform and make it a part of their own brand and business.

Attendees will get inspired by the line-up of nearly 10 international ticketing business specialists as guest speakers with each of them giving more insights into their field of expertise. To top it off, Oxynade will organise an African dinner experience, an overnight stay and access to Phantasialand.

Hans Nissens, CEO of Oxynade, explains: “The setup of this summit is to inspire and create interaction between ticketing specialists from all across Europe. We’ll be offering a broad range of speakers with real-life expertise in different verticals and geo-markets to share their best practices and use cases. It will be a great networking opportunity for all ticketing experts.”

If you would like to join, the only thing you need to do is to visit the Oxynade website and fill out the ‘Free tickets form‘. Chances are you can save 350€ and enjoy an inspiring couple of days full of free ticketing business insights and international networking.

THE TICKET FACTORY INTRODUCES NEW COMMERCIAL TEAM

A new Commercial team has been introduced at The Ticket Factory (TTF) – tasked with creating more sales opportunities and driving profitability throughout the business.

The news comes as Chris Pile, previously Consumer Sales and Marketing Director for the ticketing company, is appointed as Commercial Director.  Chris will be joined by Nick Fenton in the new role of Commercial Manager, working to build their product base, securing new clients in and around the West Midlands (the home of TTF), and selling TTF’s industry-leading trade and registration system ExpoWare.  Another key focus will be on the preparation of key national and high profile ticketing client tenders.

The pair will be joined by Aliya Hussain who, in her role as Partnerships Manager, will be tasked with expanding TTF’s marketing and distribution reach.  The final important area for this team will be the Groups department, led by Groups Sales Manager Kelly Sharman, who joined TTF in December 2017.

On his appointment, Pile said: “I’m looking forward to the opportunities myself and my team can build and nurture with both clients and partners for The Ticket Factory.  Our in-house technology and new ExpoWare registration service will be key selling points for us, so driving market awareness of TTF’s products and services is essential to achieving our business goals.”

Director of Ticketing for the Ticket Factory, Richard Howle, added: “This is the next exciting stage in The Ticket Factory’s development; only recently we secured an exclusive three year ticketing contract for Crufts – a fantastic contract win with a high-profile client.  Our focus is on expanding our service to clients such as Crufts and the product range for our customers.  Introducing a dedicated commercial team serves to propel these ambitions.”

To speak to the team about new business enquiries please contact chris.pile@necgroup.co.uk or call 07917 087138.

STAY22 CLOSES SUCCESSFUL SEED ROUND AND EXPANDS ITS PORTFOLIO INTO LIVE EVENT AND TOURING BUSINESS

Stay22, a Montreal-based startup whose accommodation solution bridges the gap between events and lodging for event goers, is expanding its client base to include event producers and promoters, and touring artists. Stay22, which recently raised $750,000 in seed money, can create lodging solutions for loyal fans to see their favourite live show or event anywhere in the world.

Stay22 provides a free widget that curates hotel and Airbnb listings close to the event destination which both event organizers and ticket providers can embed on their respective website and platforms. Stay22 offers a revenue share deal with the organizations through a pay-per-booking model. Since the widget is embedded on the event website, attendees can book their stay while registering for the event.

Many high-profile music acts have developed a hardcore fan base who will travel across the U.S. to see their favorite act, including Pearl Jam, the first band to partner with Stay22’s solution. Stay22 recently entered into a similar partnership with Weezevent, the first self-service ticketing and RFID solution based in France.

“Pearl Jam recognizes the value and convenience we can bring to their Ten Club members,” said Andrew Lockhead, CEO of Stay22. “We’re grateful for this partnership, and we look forward to providing a high-quality experience for their fan base when searching for the best deals for their stay during their upcoming U.S. shows.”

Stay22 is pursuing similar partnerships with other live touring acts, concert promoters, festival organizers and shows that attract a sizeable out-of-town visitor base to provide their fans access the breadth of accommodations available in the surrounding area close to the venue.

The company can also apply its solution to event producers, planners and promoters, sports teams and tournaments, competitive leagues, and individual sports competitions.

“Stay22 is excited to take the lead in transforming the event travel industry when it comes to how booking accommodations for events should be done,” added Lockhead. “In the touring business, enabling event travelers to have a great experience in booking accommodations is the first step to attract attendees to events.”

Formed in 2016, Stay22 provided more than $600,000 in accommodation bookings in the first quarter of 2018. Stay22’s widget was used for more than 600 events in 20 countries. It has more than 6.5 million listings globally from suppliers including Airbnb, Expedia, and Booking.com.

Stay22 is eager to arrange new partnerships and is currently setting up introductory meetings with meeting planners, show organizers, and other organizations. Learn more at www.stay22.com.

TORONTO, Ontario, Canada – AudienceView is pleased to announce a multi-year contract extension with AFC Bournemouth, bringing the relationship with this important Premier League client to an incredible 17.5 years.

“AFC Bournemouth is pleased to continue its long-standing relationship with AudienceView,” said Liz Finney, General Manager for AFC Bournemouth. “The decision to extend our contract term was based on AudienceView’s level of support, the system’s ability to match its features with club and fans requirements and the partnership approach adopted by the AudienceView team. We are looking forward to continuing to work with the company to deliver an excellent ticket purchase experience for our supporters.”

As AFC Bournemouth continues to successfully manage its meteoric rise of the past five years, the club is expanding its use of AudienceView to further improve the fan experience in several important ways. Among them, the organization is using loyalty points to help control and stage on-sales based on loyalty status, with points from prior purchases ranking supporters so they can purchase tickets to more prestigious games.

The team intends to begin using family enclosure functionality, which controls the ratio of adults to children for each purchase and ensures no adults or children are in family sections on their own. AFC Bournemouth also plans to offer multiple renewals within the same shopping cart, allowing season ticket holders to renew multiple seats in a single transaction without any fan losing their individual seat or associated loyalty points/status.

“We are delighted to extend our relationship with AFC Bournemouth and look forward to many more successful years,” said Michael Burnett, Managing Director, UK and Europe for AudienceView. “We are committed to helping our clients in the UK and around the world reach a similar pinnacle of success with their businesses. Through these partnerships, we are helping organizations of all sizes and types increase revenues, create efficiencies and introduce innovations that foster long-term fan engagement. The AudienceView team congratulates The Cherries on securing their status for next season and look forward to cheering them on in the Premier League.”

About AudienceView

AudienceView is a leading provider of solutions that empower the business of live entertainment through innovative technology, popular media brands and a comprehensive partner ecosystem. Our SaaS software brands OvationTix and the AudienceView platform are powerful tools to drive attendee engagement, grow revenue and enable operational efficiencies that support more than 2,000 of the world’s most renowned live event venues, teams and organizations across 15 countries. Our media brands, TheaterMania and WhatsOnStage, connect over 1.5 million theater patrons with live events each month, helping to fuel attendance at performing arts venues across the US and UK. Learn more at www.audienceview.com.

TickX Partners with Lancashire Cricket

and Emirates Old Trafford

TickX (www.tickx.co.uk), the UK’s leading search engine and discovery platform for events and attractions tickets, has agreed an exciting new partnership with Lancashire Cricket and the award-winning Emirates Old Trafford venue, as it continues to bolster its sports offering.

The partnership will see the Club’s international and domestic fixtures feature on the ever-growing TickX search engine platform, providing Lancashire Cricket and Emirates Old Trafford with a new wider and larger marketing channel opportunity to bring even more fans to the £60 million redeveloped Emirates Old Trafford.

Fans will benefit as TickX pulls results from more than 75 ticket-selling platforms, including Ticketmaster, Eventim and See Tickets, and displays them in one place, so they will always get the best-priced tickets available.

As part of the agreement, TickX has also partnered with ticketing engagement platform SecuTix, who have recently announced a new contract with Lancashire Cricket to become its ticketing system provider.

The new partnership underlines TickX’s commitment to give fans of all sports a one-stop destination to find and buy the best tickets, with further sporting partnerships to be announced soon.

Steve Pearce, TickX co-founder and CEO, said: “We’re delighted to announce the partnerships with Lancashire Cricket and SecuTix. Lancashire is a forward-thinking club who want to open up new channels to market. The team at SecuTix has also been a pleasure to work with and it was an easy decision to partner with their market-leading ticket engagement platform. We’re committed to partnering with clubs and stadiums across all sports to make it easier than ever for fans to get the best-priced tickets available.”

Jonathon Nuttall, Head of Ticketing and Digital Systems at Lancashire Cricket, said: “The game of cricket is entering a key phase of its development. We’ve been preparing for this with changes to our providers, and the way we approach the sales of tickets across all of our events, to existing, lapsed and new audiences. TickX provides us with a new route to market, and as they develop their offering to buyers, we hope to grow our supporter base alongside them.”

David Hornby, SecuTix: UK MD, added: “It’s fantastic to see our client Lancashire Cricket partner with TickX to bring their events to a wider audience. Our agile platform has integrated easily with the TickX system. This means that customers coming through TickX will experience the same seamless journey as fans who buy direct from the club do. And ultimately, this will help in the efforts to turn first-time visitors into long-term loyal cricket fans.”

In addition to sports, TickX also allows customers to find and buy tickets to over 125,000 events and attractions, including gigs, comedy, theatre, festivals and club nights, with over one million customers using TickX last year to plan their day or night out.

TickX is available to customers across UK, Ireland and Spain online or via the TickX app, with further expansion across Europe coming soon.

What is SOBOM?

The Society of Box Office Managers (SOBOM) is a non-profit, voluntarily run organisation which promotes integration and networking amongst ticketing professionals.
As SOBOM enters its 4^th decade in 2019, we are actively encouraging more people to join the throngs of our wonderful society, not only from London but from around the UK and the world.

With our membership growing year on year, we have members from London, Poole, Inverness and even Australia. We host between 4 and 6 events a year including the huge SOBOM Summer BBQ, the highly competitive SOBOM quiz,  all of which culminate in the SOBOM Christmas and annual Awards Ceremony (which is voted for by your peers and other members).

Our events are curated to ensure that all members have a chance to network and meet their peers, discuss ongoing industry news or just catch up with old friends. Our events are never business sales pitches so that all attendees can feel relaxed without the feeling of being ‘sold to’.

How much is membership, who can join and what does your membership get you?

Our memberships start at just £10 for a Box Office Manager right through to corporate level membership for larger organisations. SOBOM is open to all ticketing professionals (Box Office Managers, clerks and associates) and any industry partners (marketing agencies, service providers, product providers or affiliates).

SOBOM is open to all sectors whether you work in Theatre, Music, Sport, Live Entertainment, TV or Film.

When you become a member you automatically have access to our ongoing Jobs email which comes from within the membership, you have access to be able to book for our events and it opens up the door for you to meet industry professionals across a range of businesses.

As a Corporate Member you also have the chance to sponsor one of our wonderful events to promote your business/show/product to the members and give back to the industry.

Have a a look at some of the picture from our previous events – https://www.flickr.com/photos/138476359@N02/albums

Join SOBOM here – http://sobom.org.uk/join-us

If you have any questions about membership please email dan@sobom.org.uk

As a follow-on from the TPC2018 panel discussion on Frictionless Mobile Payments, here’s some detail on what the new legislation is and how Direct Carrier Billing is becoming a viable and attractive payment method for mobile ticketing.

New EU legislation – PSD2 is here: is your ticketing business ready?

PSD2 is a game changer as it brings European payment services into the 21st century. Ticketing companies should embrace the innovations it will bring in online and mobile payment methods, including Direct Carrier Billing (DCB), and offer consumers frictionless payment options that go beyond PSD2 compliance. DCB allows you to charge digital purchases directly to a customer’s mobile phone bill avoiding having to rely on credit and debit cards.

What is PSD2?

PSD2 is an acronym for the Second Payment Services Directive, a new piece of EU legislation that came into force on 13th January 2018. Its main aim is to modernise Europe’s payment services for the benefit of both consumers and businesses, so as to keep pace with this rapidly changing market.

Under the new regulations, consumers will no longer be asked to pay a surcharge for debit or credit card payments, regardless of whether this is happening online or in store. They will also have better rights when it comes to remote, online payments, including a reduced liability for non-authorised payments.

PSD2 is also expected to be a catalyst for business change as it promotes the development of innovative and online mobile payments by banks and other payment service providers across the EU. This is particularly relevant to the ticketing industry as ticket sales increasingly take place on mobile devices and PSD2 has specifically categorised tickets as ‘digital content’.

Alternative Payment Methods

PSD2 legislation will encourage increased competition, opening up interesting opportunities for Alternative Payment Methods (APMs).

A key APM is Direct Carrier Billing (DCB) where the cost of a digital purchase made on a mobile phone is charged to the consumer’s mobile phone bill rather than to a credit or debit card. During the panel discussion, one thing that leapt out was just how much information you DON’T have to put in when completing a transaction using this payment method.

In Europe, DCB is currently most effective for smaller, micro transactions so a VIP ticket to a Bruno Mars concert will be out of reach. However, for lower cost tickets for smaller events and venues, DCB provides a quick, convenient and cost effective payment method.There are also a number of opportunities to bundle ticket sales with other value-added services consumer might purchase at a later stage – for example a flash promotion on an exclusive digital album download at the end of the Bruno Mars concert.

DCB can step into the limelight as an attractive alternative to existing online and mobile payment methods, especially where low cost purchases combine with a need for speed. The increased conversion rate of DCB also offers robust strategies to move distressed inventory.

Increased security

PSD2 has put somewhat of a spanner in the works when it comes to consumer demand for frictionless payment. This is partly because of the higher security standards that make online payments safer and more secure. Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) will be necessary for all electronic payments initiated by the customer above €50 or €300 per month on subscription (unless the payment qualifies as low risk).

In practice, this means that consumers will have to provide at least two separate elements out of something they know (password or PIN); something they own (bank card or mobile phone); or something they are (fingerprint or iris scan).

However, layers of verification disrupt the frictionless payment experience. Customers will have to wait for an authentication code to come through and then type it in before being taken to the next stage in the payment process. For merchants, it increases the risk of shopping cart abandonment as distracted consumers navigate away from completing the transaction.

Frictionless payment

However, digital tickets purchased through carrier billing will be exempt from the two-step authentication process that PSD2 introduces. This presents a unique opportunity for more services to adopt this payment method and takes advantage of the exemption. It will allow merchants and operators to offer a much lower-friction payment method to customers – one that already delivers up to 10 times higher conversion rates compared to card payments.

When buying parking tickets for example, consumers currently have to put up with complicated voice-controlled mobile card payment systems. First-time users can spend up to 10 minutes providing personal and financial information before the payment is made by which point they will be behind schedule, possibly missing a train or appointment. Carrier billing can reduce this friction by removing the need to provide credit card details altogether.

In order to benefit from this new opportunity, mobile payments providers must work together with operators and merchants to streamline carrier billing services – offering a single, simple payment option that consumers demand and therefore, driving revenue for all parts of the value chain without compromising on PSD2 compliance.

If you would like to hear more about how to use Direct Carrier Billing for frictionless ticketing payment methods, please contact. Mark Robinson at Infomedia on mark@infomedia.co.uk or call him on +44 (0)1604 498900