SOR 54: Should You Use Discount Services Like Groupon and Goldstar To Move Tickets

What are the pros and cons of using an online service that will promote deeply discounted tickets to a potentially very wide audience?

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Some very successful discount aggregating services have popped up over the last few years, and they offer an interesting outlet to reach a new audience for your shows. As you might imagine there are both pros and cons to working with them, so when you balance all those out are these services a good solution to selling tickets?

In this episode:

• what’s a discount service – when your own marketing efforts aren’t enough to fill your seats, a discount service can reach a different group of people by distributing discounted versions of your tickets
• psychology of who uses a discount service – these bargain hunters get a thrill from finding a deal, and that rush is part of the entertainment experience for them
• cannibalizing your existing audience – if you consistently offer your tickets at a discounted price, your current audience can gravitate towards those deals and stop paying full price
• your first experiment – your initial test will often be very positive, whether the long term results are going to be positive or not
• how your audience grows with discount services – even if you keep all of your current audience paying full price, you are only growing your audience with people who are accustomed to paying a fraction of that
• who has the keys to the kingdom – if your marketing plan is dependent on a third-party (any third-party), you are at risk if anything happens to them

Items mentioned:

• Goldstar – a discount service that focuses specifically on events in the United States
• SOR 14: Scott Cramton – among other things, Scott shares his insight from having successfully used (and watched people unsuccessfully use) Groupon to sell tickets

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Thanks, Lawrence, for the question. And thanks to all of you for downloading and listening.