Is an iPad a Mobile Device?

By Mike Duffy, Director, Product Design – Product Management & Strategy

Is an iPad a mobile device? Most people I have asked start to give an immediate answer of “Yes” but then they hesitate as they really think about what I am asking. Google (or insert favorite search engine) the question and you will see that there is no consensus on the answer.

Digging deeper you will discover that the answer to the question changes depending upon why it is being asked. The iPad is a device that you can carry with you so it is “mobile” but many companies that support both a mobilized online site as well as a traditional PC site have chosen to serve the PC version and not the mobile version to iPads. A usage report for these sites would probably include iPad traffic in the non mobile category. For this situation the answer to the question is now “no”.

As we define our future online ticketing experience it is critical that we focus on how our customers will be interacting with our systems. We look at customer’s physical location, their device screen size, their device’s interaction capabilities (touch screen, mouse) and their market expectation. A tablet’s screen size is closer to a small laptop but includes a touch screen like most smart phones. Stretching a smartphone interface to fit the larger screen tablet does not make efficient use of the increased screen real estate. In some cases shrinking the traditional PC interface to fit the tablet may make better sense in the short term but doesn’t capitalize on the tactile interaction between the user and the device, or the mobility of the device. Solutions include the creation of a mobile application specifically designed for the tablet interface (see our other blog entries) or the creation of a device specific online interface.

As you can see from the graph below, the iPad and other tablets are changing the definition of “mobile” as their use becomes more prevalent. As the technology continues to evolve we will need to define a more granular device classification system. The real question should be; “How do we optimize our customer’s experience for whichever device they choose to use?”

Planning Your Mobile Image

By Ed Gow, VP Sales & Marketing, Tickets.com


According to the International Association for the Wireless Telecommunications Industry, at the end of 2010 there were 302.9M wireless subscriber connections in the U.S. Considering that the population of the U.S. at that time was 308.7M, the market penetration for wireless devices is simply staggering. Add to that the fact that the percentage of wireless-only U.S. households is climbing at 26.6% and most importantly, the revelation that the sale of smartphones has now eclipsed the sale of PCs.

What does all of this mean for the ticketing industry? Well, simply put, venues, arts organizations, attractions and teams must consider their mobile image when developing marketing plans and sales strategies. Organizations can no longer be satisfied with how their websites look, they must now take into account how the experience translates to a mobile user. Print at home is great, but mobile delivery must be an option …nothing short of an end to end mobile ticketing experience will do the trick.

So do you develop an app or a mobile site? That’s really up to you, but with the number of available apps growing on a daily basis, users are becoming much more selective about what they choose to download.

My two cents? Build a mobile site that can be integrated into an app.

Tickets.com, Inc. Signs Up as Rugby Expo 2011 Sponsor

Tickets.com, Inc. has been recruited as the official sponsor of Rugby Expo 2011, which will take place at Twickenham Stadium in London on November 23-24.

The global ticketing giant will provide an integrated ticketing system for thousands of visitors to Rugby Expo and will also lead a plenary conference session dealing with Dynamic Ticketing on the opening day of the event.

"These are exciting times for rugby around the world and we are delighted to be part of the major global forum designed to facilitate exchange of information and promotion of professional best practice in rugby," said Derek Palmer, managing director and international executive vice-president of Tickets.com.

Rugby Ventures chairman John Hockey added: "We are delighted to welcome Tickets.com back as sponsors of Rugby Expo. Not only do they play a vital role by providing the event ticketing system but the company is committed to the future success of rugby and to developing new approaches to helping clubs in rugby to maximise revenues from ticket sales."

Hockey said: “Rugby Expo 2011 has a fresh new look after assessment of feedback from last year's event. Day One will focus on the issues facing the professional and international game while Day Two will be dedicated to community rugby, with complimentary Day Two tickets being made available through County Unions." For more information about Rugby Expo 2011, visit www.rugbyexpo.com or call +44 (0)845 0740752

Mobile As A Sales Channel

By Tim Snyder, VP Service Delivery, Tickets.com, Inc.

In case you haven’t already heard… mobile is the “social” of 2011. While fully functional websites are important to engage and inform your customers, a mobilized website can be just as critical in closing a sale. When people want tickets, they want tickets. ProVenueMobile™ is an ideal way to optimize your existing website for mobile ticket sales.

Over the past 3 years, Tickets.com has deployed over 40 mobilized websites. Our clients include several Major League Baseball teams, the Tulsa Performing Arts Center, and Ticket Star Online. It doesn’t matter if you’ve got a sell-out event, or dressing the house… ProVenueMobile requires zero added effort to make your tickets available by iPhone, Android, or even your grandma’s phone.

Don’t worry - you won’t need any technical resources to bring this product online either. Tickets.com will assign a Project Manager to help you identify your most important content – probably directions, parking, and contact information. After that has been identified, we’ll work with our partners to develop your new mobilized website that is focused on selling tickets. The sales flow is fully functional, including the ability to choose your section, price point, and delivery method. Check out the Wolf Trap's mobile site. You’ll even be able to track how many sales are generated in this growing channel.

After a couple weeks of working behind the curtain, we’ll ask you to browse the demo-site on a couple of devices to make sure formatting and content are correct. You should also purchase a few tickets, just to make sure everyone in your organization is familiar with the mobile sales flow.

Once the site is approved, we’ll make it live. The final step is putting a redirect in place so that customers can easily find your mobile site. We’ll provide you a couple of options, and even code snippets to make is easy on your Web Master.

What delivery method would Captain Kirk choose?

by Doug Lyons, VP of Product Marketing & Strategy

Common lore is that the styling for today’s mobile phones – in particular the flip models – is directly attributable to the “Communicators” used on the original Star Trek TV show (see “How William Shatner changed the world”).

Perhaps we should ask Gene Roddenberry’s descendents how he envisioned people buying and exchanging tickets - and entering the event venue. Or maybe the Trekkies out there know from some obscure episode– did some dude in a red uniform (aren’t the guys in red the ones that always get killed?) stand outside the auto-sliding doors of the venue and scan attendees communicators with his Tri-corder?

All I do know is that Klingon sporting events almost surely had UK-Football style rules preventing away fans from sitting in home sections……

Mobile App vs. Mobile Browser for mCommerce?

By John Rizzi, SVP Product Marketing and Strategy, Tickets.com

The explosion of Smartphone usage and everything mobile is well-documented. Trying to capture a piece of the m-commerce juggernaut can be intimidating and is filled with choices and buzzwords: native app or mobile browser, iOS, Android, Blackberry, and don’t forget all the carriers and their ad-ons. With all the hype, it’s easy to think you’re missing the boat and you have to do something – NOW! While it’s true that mobile commerce is exploding; mobile purchases accounted for only 1% of ecommerce sales in 2010¹. And, even though the growth in m-commerce is exponential, estimates are it will still only make up 7% of e-commerce sales by 2016¹.

So - it’s not too late.

The first decision you need to make regarding your mobile strategy is between a site optimized for a mobile browser or an application written specifically for the Smartphone; such as the iPhone, Android or Blackberry. There are three reasons that make this decision an easy one:

1. Broader reach – mobile browser will work on any phone that has internet – period. No worrying about picking the “right” mobile platform.
2. App saturation – with hundreds of thousands of mobile applications available, there is growing evidence that consumers are becoming overwhelmed by the number of apps on their phones.
3. Faster and cheaper – it’s much easier and less expensive to build and maintain a mobile optimized site than build native apps for one or all of the major mobile platforms

So if you haven’t “gone mobile” yet, I strongly encourage you to consider the mobile browser approach.


¹Forrester Research http://www.internetretailer.com/trends/sales/

Teams Unite for Children of Joplin

The St. Louis Cardinals announced that their charitable foundation Cardinals Care raised $200,000 to help the children of Joplin recover from one of the most destructive tornadoes in Missouri history.

The fundraising was part of the joint “Teams Unite for Joplin” effort with the Kansas City Royals, Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association which dedicated the three-game series at Busch Stadium (Friday, June 17 –Sunday, June 19) to raise awareness and money to help Joplin.

“We appreciate our fans generously supporting this important effort,” said Cardinals President William DeWitt III. “We also appreciate our players, manager, front office staff and our business partners doing their part to help Joplin.”

The Cardinals broadcast partners Fox Sports Midwest and KMOX 1120AM helped raise over $100,000 through first-ever broadcast auctions of once-in-a-lifetime Cardinals experiences. In addition to Cardinals Care volunteers collecting money at the gates, the team’s concessionaire Sportservice sold commemorative “Teams Unite for Joplin” patches, the team’s ticketing partner Tickets.com assisted with taking phone donations and Major League Baseball Advanced Media helped with collecting on-line donations, as well as conducting an on-line auction of autographed and game used items from the weekend that wrapped up on Sunday.

The May 22nd twister that hit Joplin was classified as an EF-5 tornado, the most powerful tornado possible. The storm left 153 dead, put more than 500 people into shelters at its peak and destroyed nearly 7,000 homes, businesses and schools.

While the recovery needs in Joplin are multiple and extensive in the wake of the tornado, Cardinals Care established the Joplin Recovery Fund to help the thousands of Joplin area children impacted by the disaster.

In the meantime, fans can still help by donating on-line at cardinals.com/Joplin or by texting the word JOPLIN to 32020.

Ticket Availability During Public On-sales

By John Walker, President & CEO, Tickets.com

Tickets.com Just completed a series of successful on-sales for several stadium shows coming to the Midwest this summer – and although our systems performed as expected, and our FIFO (First-In, First-Out) virtual waiting room added to the quality of the consumer experience online, many fans were left with a bad taste in their mouth due to the amount of inventory actually made available for the “public” on-sales. We in the industry are always looking for ways to improve upon the experience for ticket buyers – perhaps more transparency from the outset regarding what/how much inventory is available (especially when we know in advance that demand will exceed supply) would better manage expectations.