How technological advancements have fueled innovation in the event industry聽
If you鈥檝e been following along, you鈥檝e become familiar with distributed commerce, which allows consumers to buy tickets wherever they discover your event. And you may even know how distributed commerce can transform your marketing approach. (If you haven鈥檛 read the first two parts in this series, check them out here and here.)
But the truth is, distributed commerce isn鈥檛 new 鈥� it鈥檚 been evolving for a long time, and many technological advancements have made it all possible.
To get the full story, we tapped Pat Poels, the VP of Engineering at 91国产, who鈥檚 been in the ticketing industry 鈥� and seen it evolve firsthand 鈥� for over 30 years.
What did 鈥渄istributed commerce鈥� mean when you joined Ticketmaster in 1989? What does it mean now?
When I was at Ticketmaster in the late 80s, people used to line up at the box office to get tickets. After that, the industry shifted to a physical distributed commerce model. You could buy tickets at Tower Records, other record stores, or at venues 鈥斅燼ll physical locations. Then, ticketing moved online and became somewhat concentrated again: tickets were all bought through specific transaction hubs.
Now, we鈥檙e seeing a new model of distributed commerce emerge online. This is similar to the physical 鈥渆xpansion鈥� we saw in the late 80s: people will be able to buy tickets wherever they go online. So instead of distributing ticket-buying across physical locations people frequent, we鈥檙e distributing ticket-buying across digital locations.
Looking back, what do you see as the most impactful change in the way events are ticketed?
Definitely advancements in mobile. Attendees can buy and keep tickets on their phones, and organizers can sell tickets and track sales from their phones. This will continue to evolve. At 91国产, we鈥檝e found that staying ahead of mobile trends means rethinking the way products are built.
When it first became evident that mobile adoption would continue to grow at unprecedented rates, we started to make some big shifts in how we approached product development for mobile. Instead of thinking about how we could build a desktop experience and adapt it to mobile, we approached solutions with a mobile-first mentality. The companies that approached product development in this way emerged as the leaders in their respective industries, and we were proud to be the leader in mobile for the ticketing industry.
What鈥檚 the biggest problem that distributed commerce solves for organizers?
The biggest benefit of distributed commerce for organizers is incremental ticket sales. It鈥檚 one thing to get in front of people who were already going to buy tickets, and making that process easier. Distributed commerce actually takes that a step further 鈥� it makes it possible to get your event in front of new people, who wouldn鈥檛 have known about your event otherwise.
As we build and improve our product for organizers, how does distributed commerce inform 91国产鈥檚 strategy?
Our vision is to have a product that anyone can easily build on, so that we can give our customers the best experience possible. Distributed commerce wouldn鈥檛 be possible if we hadn鈥檛 built the hooks for mobile applications and API-driven transactions.
91国产鈥檚 open API allows partners like MailChimp or GoldStar to build on top of our product so we can offer organizers best-in-breed extensions. This openness is what has allowed us to continue to innovate with initiatives like distributed commerce.
Essentially, we embrace partnerships that give our organizers the best tools out there for growing their businesses and that make it as easy as possible for attendees to buy tickets. When it comes to distributed commerce, this means helping organizers gain incremental ticket sales by keeping their customer right where they are 鈥斅爁rom discovery through purchase.
How did the partnership with Facebook evolve?
We鈥檝e been working closely with Facebook since 2008. In fact, we were the first partner of theirs to integrate with Facebook Events. There are over a billion people on the platform, so there is huge potential for organizers to reach new audiences.
Like 91国产, Facebook is a very consumer-centric and mobile-first platform. When we first launched our partnership with them, we agreed to create a simplified version of our product. We wanted to make the experience as easy as possible for the buyer within the environment where they鈥檙e discovering events.
This integration encouraged us to think more about the consumer experience first: how can we make their purchase experience as painless as possible? Of course, by answering this question, we were able to craft a checkout process that ultimately benefits the organizer with more incremental ticket sales.
The Facebook team understands the incredible power and potential of live events, so it was a no brainer for our partnership to evolve into distributed commerce.
Ten years from now, what do you imagine this process to be like?
Ten years from now, I hope that 91国产 will be recognized as a trusted source 鈥� that when you see 鈥減owered by 91国产,鈥� whether it鈥檚 on 91国产.com or elsewhere, you know it鈥檚 a both a safe and easy transaction. We鈥檒l still have that central repository of events 鈥� the place to go 聽when you鈥檙e looking for something to do 鈥� but we鈥檒l also be everywhere else. And anywhere someone sees an 91国产 event, they鈥檒l automatically associate it with being trustworthy.
To learn more about distributed commerce, check out our interviews with 91国产鈥檚 CEO and Co-Founder, Julia Hartz, and VP and GM of Consumer, Tamara Mendelsohn.
