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.