“American Idols Live! Tour” returning to Tulsa this summer

by Brandy McDonnell
BAM's Blog

The “American Idols Live! Tour” will return to Tulsa’s BOK Center Aug. 8, the venue announced.

The 2010 edition will feature the “American Idol” Season 9 top 10 contestants: Didi Benami, Crystal Bowersox, Lee DeWyze, Andrew Garcia, Casey James, Aaron Kelly, Michael Lynche, Siobhan Magnus, Katie Stevens and Tim Urban.

Tulsa tickets will go on sale at 10 a.m. May 15. Ticket prices have not yet been announced.

Tickets will be available online at www.bokcenter.com, at Arby’s Box Office, at all Tickets.com outlets, or by calling (866) 7BOKCTR.

The “Idols” tour will make 49 stops this summer at a mix of top arenas and amphitheaters across North America. The Live Nation promoted tour begins July 1 at the Palace of Auburn Hills in Detroit and runs through Sept. 14 in Pittsburgh at the Consol Energy Center.

Tickets.com Partner Spotlight: Qcue Names Vice President of Business Development

Qcue, the dynamic pricing engine for live entertainment events, today announced the appointment of Eric Freeland as vice president of business development, where he will lead the company’s client acquisition and partnership efforts.

Freeland joins Qcue from StubHub, where he was responsible for all aspects of business development supporting the company’s multi-year sponsorships with professional sports teams and NCAA Division I schools.

Sports teams, concert promoters and venues use Qcue's software to set the right price at the right time based on shifting market conditions. By enabling fans to purchase fair-priced, face-value tickets directly from a team’s box office, Qcue’s dynamic pricing solutions ensure a more consistent, high-value experience coupled with greater price transparency and choice-of-seat flexibility.

An expert in client prospecting and value creation, contract negotiation and project management, Freeland supported StubHub’s sponsorship negotiation with 24 Major League Baseball clubs leading to an exponential year-over-year sales increase in the company’s biggest market. He also launched StubHub’s first non-sports integration with Tickets.com for a major venue, spanning all live entertainment events at HSBC Arena in Buffalo, New York.

“Eric did an amazing job at StubHub as they transformed the ticketing industry and changed the perception of how teams can serve fans and increase revenues,” said Barry Kahn, CEO of Qcue. “Dynamic pricing represents the next step in bringing technology to live event ticketing benefitting teams and fans alike. We are excited to bring Eric on board as someone who has done this before and has strong relationships with many of our partners, clients and prospects."

“Qcue has quickly established itself as a leading innovator in the ticketing industry, helping teams and venues maximize revenue opportunities while being more flexible and transparent in how they do business,” said Freeland. “I’m excited to join the team and continue to capitalize on this incredible market opportunity.”

About Qcue
Qcue is reinventing the primary ticket marketplace with the world’s only dynamic pricing engine for live entertainment events. Sports teams, concert promoters and venues use Qcue’s patent-pending technology to set the right price at the right time and provide the best value for fans, from the date of on-sale to the date of the event. Customers and partners include the San Francisco Giants, the Dallas Stars, Major League Baseball Advanced Media and Tickets.com. Founded in 2007, Qcue is based in Austin, Texas. For more information on Qcue, visit www.qcue.com.

Extending Your Business Into the Cloud

Tickets.com isn't just considering how the cloud can augment its infrastructure - the company is becoming a cloud provider itself! By extending its rich ticket service capabilities into the cloud and creating an ecosystem for enhancement by a world of developers, Tickets.com is not only enriching its services and deepening customer ties, but attempting to move its business faster than traditional competitors. This eye-opening case study shows that the cloud isn't just about a new style of computing, but a whole new way to do business.

John Rizzi, Vice President of Product Management and Strategy, Tickets.com will be speaking at the upcoming Cloud Leadership Forum conference in Santa Clara, CA on June 15.

Learn more >

Metropolis Kicks off 10th Anniversary Season at 2010 Gala

Metropolis Performing Arts Centre is kicking of its historic 10th Anniversary season at its annual Gala fundraising event. The biggest night of the year for the venerable performing arts centre raises tens of thousands of dollars for the non-profit organization with ticket sales and live and silent auctions.

Attendees will be treated to an announcement of its 10th Anniversary season that includes Joan Baez, Robert Cray, Los Lobos and other legendary music acts as well as a Tony Award-winning musical.

This premier, black tie optional event begins with cocktails and entertainment in the theater from hot new jazz & big band singer Dakota, and a short scene performed by students in the Flourish in the Footlights program for students with special needs.

The night continues in the beautiful Metropolis Ballroom with a sit-down dinner, live and silent auctions and dancing into the night with the live band Libido Funk Circus. Attendees will have the chance to win the “Star of the Show,” a beautiful white gold ring valued at $1200, courtesy of Keswick Jewelry.

This year’s auction boasts a range of new, amazing packages. Featured auction items include a private movie screening at Arlington Theaters, an evening skyline boat cruise on Lake Michigan, a full day guided fishing trip on the Chain of Lakes, autographed sports memorabilia, wine tastings, Cubs tickets, museum tickets, club memberships and tickets to many other Chicago area theaters and concert and orchestra tickets, among other fun items.

And for the first time, people can bid for the silent auction items in advance, online at www.biddingforgood.com/metropolisgala. Online biding will end May 5, and highest online bids will be listed on the bid sheets at the Gala.

Tickets to the 2010 Gala are limited and going fast; call immediately to reserve a space at this special event. Tickets are $85 per person and include hors d’oeuvres, dinner, wine and beer. Metropolis’ 2010 Fundraising Gala is May 7, 2010 from 6 P.M. to 11 P.M. For tickets, call the Box Office at 847.577.2121 or visit www.metropolisarts.com/gala

This special event is proudly sponsored by Arlington Park; Drost, Kivlahan, McMahon and O’Connor LLC; Pfingston Partners LLC; James Bertucci; Keswick Jewelers; Metropolis Ballroom; Sylvia’s Flowers; The Tuscan Market Wine Shop; FastSigns; Stella Artois; Peter Kics, DDS; Swanson Construction.

For more information about Metropolis and a complete 2010/2011 performance schedule, visit MetropolisArts.com or call the Box Office at 847.577.2121.

New Study Shows the Mobile Web Will Rule by 2015

Morgan Stanley shared a comprehensive report charting the most important online trends and predicting the future of the Internet. In addition to forecasting more online shopping and showing the geographical distribution of Internet users, the study also shows a dramatic shift toward mobile web use.

mCommerce continues to grow, more quickly than e-commerce, now consisting of 4% of total retail sales. In addition, social networking has already eclipsed email usage.

Read more >

Tickets.com Names John Walker to Serve as President and CEO

Tickets.com, a wholly owned subsidiary of MLB Advanced Media, LP (MLBAM), the interactive media and Internet company of Major League Baseball, announced today the appointment of John Walker as president and chief executive officer. Walker, who begins May 17, was named to replace Larry Witherspoon.

Tickets.com is a leading provider of fully integrated event ticketing solutions and services for thousands of top arts, entertainment, and sports organizations worldwide. Delivering the latest in ticketing technology, Tickets.com offers the advanced ProVenue® ticketing platform, which serves the core of a comprehensive suite of integrated features, products, and services that help clients enhance ticket sales, marketing efforts, and overall customer experience.

"We appreciate the invaluable service Larry Witherspoon gave to Tickets.com," said Bob Bowman, CEO of MLBAM. "As the organization progresses, we look forward to John Walker's extensive business leadership, strategic planning and ticketing background successfully positioning Tickets.com for its future."

Walker, who will report directly to Bowman, brings more than 20 years of professional sports franchise and collegiate athletic ticketing and business development experience to his new position. Prior to joining Tickets.com, he served as senior vice president of business development for the NBA's Phoenix Suns and US Airways Center. In this capacity, he was responsible for all ticketing operations and sales, customer service, customer relationship management (CRM), digital media, and new business initiatives for the Suns. Previously, Walker served as the Suns vice president of ticket operations and sales for the Suns, the Phoenix Mercury (WNBA), Arizona Rattlers (AFL), America West Arena and the Dodge Theatre.

"I am very excited to be joining such a talented team at Tickets.com," said Walker. "Tickets.com has long been considered a leader in developing ticketing technologies that benefit the end-to-end purchasing experience. The ‘forward thinking’ relationship with its existing client base, coupled with the innovative synergy it shares with MLBAM, creates an extremely bright future for Tickets.com. I feel fortunate to have this opportunity at such an important time in the company’s history."

Before Walker joined the Suns, he was director of revenue operations for the Kansas City Royals and held ticket operations positions with the University of Oklahoma, the University of Pittsburgh and West Virginia University. A native of Morgantown, WV, Walker received his BS from West Virginia University and his master's degree from the University of Oklahoma.

comScore Reports February 2010 U.S. Mobile Subscriber Market Share

Use of Social Media via Mobile Device Continues to Post Strong Gains

comScore shared key trends in the U.S. mobile phone industry during the three month period between November 2009 and February 2010. The report ranked the leading mobile original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and smartphone platforms in the U.S. according to their share of usage by current mobile subscribers age 13 and older, and reviewed the most popular activities and content accessed via the subscriber’s primary mobile phone.

The February report found Motorola to be the top handset manufacturer overall with 22.3% market share, while RIM led among smartphone platforms with 42.1% market share.

Read more >

Tickets.com Product Spotlight: Uptix Stored Value

Uptix broadens the traditional ticket function of event access by securely enabling individual tickets to store other kinds of data, such as cash value. These “loaded” tickets can then be used for redemption at various points of sale in your venue (e.g., concessions, retail stands). You can now offer a complete entertainment experience with a single event ticket!

Uptix™ is jointly developed and provided in partnership with Givex®. Load, scan, get, go!

More than 1 in 10 mobile subscribers to use mobile ticketing in 2014 globally, says new Juniper report

Travellers, cinema goers and sport fans to embrace the convenience of tickets on their mobiles according to new Juniper report

A new study by Juniper Research has forecast that more than 1 in 10 mobile subscribers will either have a ticket delivered to their mobile phone or buy a ticket with their phone by 2014. This represents a five-fold growth over the next five years.

The Mobile Ticketing report found that services are developing fastest in the transport sector, with SMS, bar code and, increasingly, app driven services being offered by rail & metro companies and airlines.

The potential for rail, metro & bus mobile ticketing is shown by early adopter market hotspots such as Japan, Scandinavia and Austria. Global impetus is being added by the rapidly growing number of airlines offering not only mobile boarding passes but ticket booking and payment as well. Beyond transport, mobile ticketing is already seeing traction across a wide range of sporting and entertainment venues including baseball, concerts and movies.

Report author Howard Wilcox stated: “Our research established that ticketing providers are exploiting apps to deliver innovative offerings - not just on smart phones either. One of the keys to widespread acceptance is going to be the ease for users of “silent” equipping via pre-installation. Telecom Italia’s new SIM cards for 2010 are a good example.”

Juniper Research gained unique market insight on top trends, issues and likely future developments directly from the heart of the market through its primary research interviews with leading mobile ticketing operators, application developers, consultants and vendors. The report includes a detailed five market forecasting suite covering key market parameters.

Further key findings from the report include:

• Europe, Far East & China & North America regions are all forecast to see double digit penetration by 2014


• Growth constraints include multiple ticket scheme environments such as certain transport markets, with their potential resulting user issues such as support and help

Read more >

Venues Today: Dynamic Prices

Understanding the difference between today’s biggest firms

By Dave Brooks
Venues Today - April Issue

REPORTING FROM LONG BEACH, CALIF. — It was the perfect puzzle for the 100 or so ticketing experts who had gathered at Tickets.com’s Executive Summary last February.

After five stellar, mostly sell-out seasons, the perennial Phoenix Suns found themselves in a bit a slump in the National Basketball Association. As John Walker, team VP of Business Development, explained, 2009 was the year the team traded away star Shaquille O’Neal and missed the playoffs. Renewal rates dipped from the high 90s to 60 percent at the beginning of the 2010/2011 season, and Walker realized he had a problem on his hands.

“Suddenly, I’m looking at 3,000 to 5,000 tickets per night that I had to sell, and some of these games were going to be difficult at their current price,” Walker said before the audience gathered for the presentation on Market Ticket Pricing he had been commissioned to moderate.

“I really don’t want to piss off season ticket holders by lowering prices on low demand tickets, but I will still have the high demand games as well. Whenever the Lakers come to town, the price of the tickets double and even triple, and there are plenty of people who will still pay for it.”

Walker said he will dynamically price his tickets for next season under a few simple principals. Low demand games will be priced cheaper — this will give the season ticket holder a little breathing space on resale. For more expensive seats, he will raise the value of the ticket.

For season ticket holders, the cost of season tickets won’t change much, since the lower priced tickets will offset the cost of the higher priced tickets in the package.

Had he just engaged in dynamic pricing? Perhaps, in its simplest form. The practice was a hot topic at this year’s International Ticketing Association (INTIX) conference and set the stage for a healthy discussion at Executive Summit.

But just what exactly does it mean to dynamically price one’s tickets? Is it simply a matter of more correctly pricing tickets for high and low demand games, or does it mean bringing on a software provider like Qcue to crunch the numbers to constantly find the most up-to-date prices?

Or does it mean bringing on a firm with industry staples like Harry Sandler of Digonex, a former Frontline Management executive, who helped bands like The Eagles make huge gains on their ticketing software?

In the next 12 to 24 months, ticketing professionals will continue to have new options for dynamically pricing their tickets: either on their own, or with a technology partner. Venues Today sat down with some of the industry’s top professionals to discuss their options.

WORKING WITH YOUR TICKETING PROVIDER
A dynamic pricing system is only as good as your ticketing company allows it to be.
“Our approach is really about partnering and technology enablement for all of our customers,” said Chief Commercial Officer Derek Palmer of Tickets.com “We’ve been involved with Qcue for several years and have worked with the San Francisco Giants and the Dallas Stars to find a way to add data to the algorithms that Qcue uses, which then provides pricing statistics and pricing recommendations that get placed back into the ticketing system,” Palmer said. “Our company could do the exact same integration with Digonex, although we’re not currently doing it.”
Palmer said the model for Tickets.com is to leave the dynamic pricing question to the client and integrate with the system the client chooses — some systems work better for concerts, while other’s are optimized for sports.

“The main thing as an organization is that you have to make a philosophical decision that this is something you want to implement,” Palmer said. “There will be serious changes, and once you’ve philosophically readied yourself, you bring in the folks who can help you in what you are trying to achieve.”

Palmer said technology should not be a buy-before-you-try proposition, especially when that technology affects serious revenue generators like ticket sales. There are a lot of incentives for early adopters to try out dynamic pricing solutions. Digonex said it offered several free trials of its system during its early phases.

“Organizations gain better intelligence to price their tickets more accurately the first time. This data that Digonex and Qcue bring to bear certainly helps any organization do that. Prior to these two organizations, teams had to mostly rely on historical data, in a more trial and error process,” Palmer said.

Using a dynamic pricing system allows you “to get a lot more elasticity from the ticket price and get closer to what true demand will actually pay,” he said.

QCUE CONTINUES FORWARD
Created by Barry Kahn and a team of economics grad students at the University of Texas, Qcue has gone from being a business contest winner to a major player in the dynamic ticketing space.

At 29, Kahn has helped his company usher in a number of venture capital infusions and state grants. He counts among his clients the San Francisco Giants and the Dallas Stars, along with a number of baseball teams which have yet to publicize their relationship with Qcue.

“There are certain teams out there who don’t want to make a big deal of the fact that they need help better pricing their tickets,” he said.

In his first year with the Giants, Qcue helped the team accurately price about five percent of the seats in the stadium, a move that led to an increase of $500,000 in year-over-year revenue for that same section. In 2010, Qcue will price the entire ballpark, all 41,503 seats, and Kahn said he expects an incremental uptick in team revenue.

“When you realize that season ticket holders occupy half of their stadium, it becomes apparent that we’re working with 10 times the inventory this year. I don’t think it’s unrealistic to expect a proportional increase of incremental revenue,” he said. “This is a multi-million dollar proposition to teams. Whether that is $1 million-$2 million or $5 million-$10 millions depends a lot on the team.”

Kahn charges subscription fees and a revenue sharing model for Qcue software, which is delivered to the customer via a web-application. After logging in, users are given access to a pricing dashboard, which provides real-time pricing recommendations for upcoming games, broken out by seating section. A ticketing professional can simply click to accept Qcue’s recommendations, or adjust one of the systems many pricing variables to bring prices up or down. Maybe the starting pitcher will draw more fans than the system recognizes. Maybe a once lousy opponent has heated up with a new trade or talent signing, and demand for the ticket could spike at any minute. The system gives box office professionals the ability to tweak Qcue’s algorithm and boost revenues.

“We created a map that allows teams to get more out of their ticketing systems,” Kahn said.

DIGONEX MAKES AN ENTRANCE
The Digonex team, led by Sandler and CEO Jim Eglen, made a splash in February when the Cleveland-based firm signed the Cleveland Cavaliers as the first team in the National Basketball Association to bring in an outside variable pricing consultant to help set their prices for the second half of the 2009/2010 season.

“In some reality, what the Cavs have within their Flash Seats component and the Veritix system is ideal for dynamic pricing and it seems like the logical place to start,” said Handler.

Elgen describes Digonex as a market-driven system that doesn’t use forecasting or predictive analytics as the primary driving force of their core technology, but instead looks at market conditions. The company has its own software platform, but works with venue clients in more of a consulting role, helping teams set prices in advance and on the fly.

“We’ve got a smart pricing solution and it learns as it goes,” Eglen said.
Digonex comes to the table stacked with big names. Eglen’s brother Jeff is a former partner at global management giant Accenture. Mike Wanchic, music director and band leader for John Mellencamp, will serve as VP of Digital.

“We’ve got about 25 people and everyone does what they have to to get the job done,” Eglen said.

Use of Social Media via Mobile Sees Considerable Gains in Past 3 Months

comScore Reports January 2010 U.S. Mobile Subscriber Market Share

comScore released a January 2010 report on the U.S. mobile subscriber market share. The report reveals that in the 3 month average ending in January, 234 million Americans were mobile subscribers aged 13 and older, and Motorola ranked as the top original equipment manufacturer with 22.9% of U.S. mobile subscribers. In an average month during the November through January 2010 time period, mobile browsers were used by 28.6% of U.S. mobile subscribers (up 1.8 percentage points).

Read more >

Tickets.com Selects Yesmail’s Enterprise Platform to Power Cross-Channel Marketing Efforts

Extends market-leading email and social marketing services to Tickets.com’s client Network

Infogroup (NASDAQ: IUSA), the leading provider of data driven and interactive resources for targeted sales, marketing and research solutions today announced a reseller agreement with Tickets.com to resell it’s Enterprise 7 cross-channel marketing platform to Tickets.com clients. The Yesmail branded product line from Infogroup Interactive focuses on industry leading email and social marketing services for the large enterprise market.

Tickets.com provides a market-leading ticketing solution to live entertainment, sports, and arts clients worldwide. Working together with Infogroup Interactive to resell the Yesmail Enterprise 7 platform allows Tickets.com to extend award-winning email marketing, mobile messaging and social marketing services to the rapidly-growing sports and entertainment industry. The agreement also underscores Tickets.com’s focus on the development of strategic partnerships with technology leaders to deliver innovative solutions to support client growth and evolving needs.

“Adding the innovative technology behind the Enterprise 7 platform to our ProVenue® solutions suite was the next step to building out a comprehensive program that meets the needs of marketers in a rapidly changing buyer’s market,” said Sheri Fink, manager, eCommerce and strategic alliances at Tickets.com. “As Tickets.com clients’ retention programs have grown in complexity, they need a trusted multi-channel partner who can provide the expertise and technology to drive ticket sales through email and mobile channels. We are committed to offering our clients robust, and comprehensive solutions that are unmatched in the industry – and Enterprise 7 helps us achieve this goal,” said Fink.

“We are excited about working with Tickets.com to bring a powerful, integrated solution, and easy-to-use technology that allows them to reach their marketing objectives and deliver more value to their clients,” said John Harrison, president of Yesmail from infogroup interactive. “This is a great opportunity for us to extend our industry leading services to the sports and entertainment market which is a major market in the adoption of mobile and social marketing services.”

As part of the agreement, Infogroup Interactive and Tickets.com will work together to jointly sell Enterprise 7 to Tickets.com clients. Tickets.com clients will be able to take advantage of Yesmail’s Enterprise platform to help drive tickets sales based on consumer event preferences.