Ticketmaster is Using Brand Partnerships to Drive Sales

Leading online ticket sales and distribution company Ticketmaster is turning to relevant brand partnerships as a means for driving customer engagement and transactions. Ticketmaster is working with partnerships software company Impact, and in particular its Partnership Cloud, to drive leads to its website and app. For example, Ticketmaster has partnered with Spotify to help drive sales of concert tickets. The Ticketmaster-Spotify partnership works like this: You're listening to your favorite artist on Spotify when you're presented with a button to press to buy concert tickets for that artist when he or she is in your area. Within Spotify, the Ticketmaster page pops up and you can easily buy your tickets to go see your favorite singer all within the same app.

In an exclusive interview with Total Retail, Dan Armstrong, senior vice president and general manager, distributed commerce at Ticketmaster, discusses the company's use of brand partnerships, including what it looks for in a potential partner, how it measures the success of brand partnerships, and more. 

Dan Armstrong, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Distributed Commerce, Ticketmaster

Total Retail: Why has Ticketmaster targeted partnerships as a key tactic for the company to drive revenue?
Dan Armstrong: Ticketmaster is constantly looking for new and innovative ways to connect artists with their fans and make it easy to see them live. Over recent years, Ticketmaster has steadily expanded its inventory and network of third-party partners in an effort to better serve venue clients, artists and their fans across our global footprint in 28 countries. We recognize that demand and enthusiasm for live events is global and multidirectional. By integrating with marquee streaming services, e-commerce sites and global social platforms, including Facebook, Spotify, Groupon, Amazon Alexa, BandsinTown, Samsung, and YouTube, Ticketmaster helps fans connect with their favorite artists, teams and performers. These integrations help artists that work with Ticketmaster sell incremental tickets.

TR: How has working with Impact, and in particular its Partnership Cloud software, made this strategy easier to execute?
DA: As we've worked with best-in-class platforms around the globe, from Facebook to Spotify and more, the ability to operate and manage our 300-plus partner accounts in a single platform has streamlined implementation concerns, reduced operational overhead, and created internal alignment that allows us to spend more time on managing and coordinating with partners rather than the day-to-day minutiae that would represent friction in the business relationship.

TR: Can you share an example of a recent partnership or two, and why you believe it/they have been a success for Ticketmaster?
DA: Our partnership with YouTube has been an example of how great live event content merges seamlessly with fans on the platforms where they revel in their fandom. We've been able to cater to YouTube’s significant user base, who flock to the channel to check out Ariana Grande’s latest video, and enhance relationships between artist, fan, YouTube and Ticketmaster by informing them about relevant tour dates near them. It’s been a significant awareness driver, and the ability to quantify the impact of that awareness through Impact has been meaningful.

TR: What criteria is Ticketmaster evaluating when it's considering potential partners?
DA: At Ticketmaster we have a basic affiliate program for most complementary publishers that have an authentic user base of fans that want to learn about live events, whether that be in music, sports, or even theater and family events. However, we work in a strategic fashion with best-in-breed partners that value the unique content that Live Nation and Ticketmaster represent, where that unique value creates a compelling consumer proposition on the partner platform, while their scale helps our artists and content holders sell incremental tickets.

TR: How is Ticketmaster tracking conversions from its various partnerships?
DA: We use Impact for conversion tracking for our partnerships, although the company leverages other tracking methodologies, such as Google Analytics, to centralize our views of direct, paid, free traffic, etc.

TR: What advice would you have for retailers and brands that are looking to leverage partnerships as a bigger part of their businesses going forward?
DA: The most valuable partnerships are built on trust and having an eye towards a win-win for all the parties involved. Particularly in a space where our content is so unique — your favorite artists, team or performance creates a special emotional connection with you as a fan — we have a recognition of the power our brand content represents. Furthermore, we have a similar respect for the reach and unique engagement propositions of our partners. Finding the meeting point between both is where we find magic that can enhance the live experience.