Ticketmaster Meets 60% Of Fans On Mobile -- And That Number Is Growing

In this series, professionals attending the TAP conference share their insights on the mobile and on-demand economy. If you're in New York on Sept. 29, join the conversation live: Tickets are still available at tapconference.com. Read the posts here, then write your own. Use #TAPCON16 somewhere in the body of the post and @mention TAP conference panelists when sharing. Every day Ticketmaster strives to be present at even more moments of inspiration, to make it more seamless than ever to purchase, and to ensure the safety of that oh-so-precious ticket to get into the event itself. We recognize that Fans’ desire to watch their favorite team, dance through the next mind-blowing EDM show, or be dazzled by theater’s brightest stars isn’t limited by platform, and in a world of constant connectivity and social media saturation, it’s more complicated than ever for businesses to connect their message to the right audience in a timely manner. With more than 60% of Ticketmaster “Fans” (what TM calls our customers) visiting via mobile, and 75% of concertgoers discovering the live event through digital means, we are investing heavily in the opportunities and challenges that mobile commerce provides. Mobile sales increased 47% YOY in Q2, and our pace of innovation is increasing. We have already released our apps more than 20 times this year, and are especially focused on the impacts and benefits of payment methods like Apple Pay and Android Pay. It’s imperative that when we have an engaged audience, we convert with speed and efficiency. Meanwhile, it’s the off-platform mission for my Distributed Commerce team at Ticketmaster to tap into moments of inspiration for Fans where they may not even expect it, partnering with businesses that are complementary to the live entertainment industry. The outcome is to enable Fans to buy and sell tickets at the moment of inspiration, on all of their favorite mobile or desktop platforms. You can already buy Ticketmaster Verified Tickets directly within apps like Facebook and BandsinTown, and we power the purchase throughout major platforms like Groupon, Goldstar and Scorebig. Central to Ticketmaster’s strategy is to open our platform along, while leveraging great consumer experiences. To accomplish this, we will partner both with publishers that drive highly engaged audiences across devices, but also with cutting-edge technology companies like Button that help make sense of the disconnectedness we all feel in the digital ecosystem. Then, when we find those Fans, it’s critical to make it dead simplefor them to accomplish their goal. In our  Fans’ case, it’s buying tickets, and transitioning users from a native content experience into our Ticketmaster optimized iOS and Android purchase experience is, simply, better for the user. The deep link is the new Google search. Ticketmaster is hard at work every day improving our mobile app experience, both for purchase and discovery, and being able to capture intent and seamlessly transition from app to app opens up a whole new world of distribution partners that we will be able to work with, all while doing what’s best for the Fan. Hopefully by being able to capture that moment of inspiration, Fans won’t miss their chance to conveniently buy a secure, verified ticket to an experience they won’t soon forget.