Warwick Arts Centre (WAC) stages over 1,600 performances each year. It has an Internet savvy, university-based audience and uses specialist web marketing support agency. So why has it delayed the implementation of online ticketing? It?s all a matter of new media marketing priorities, explains Mark Walmsley.
Online ticketing became a real possibility in the UK around 1998, which was when WAC Marketing Director Rob Macpherson and I first explored the possibility of online ticketing. We wanted to be first off the blocks, but the early attempts at online ticketing that we studied were not inspiring. Issues of security, usability and user-ability had not been properly accommodated and our impression was that thousands of pounds were being spent on ?sledge hammer? solutions, with users resorting to the telephone in frustration. Anxious not to waste valuable resources, we decided to wait until other organisations had smoothed this path and until live links with box office systems were viable.
Having decided that online ticketing could wait we were, in the meanwhile, able to allocate resources to studying and analysing visitor data, which resulted in a strategy to improve the channels of communication with the audience base. Our challenge was to maintain audience growth while reducing the amounts spent on printed publicity. We saw the website and email as vital elements of the solution. At www.warwickartscentre.co.uk visitors are presented with up-to-the-minute information about current performances and shows. The marketing team maintains the information using a simple web browser interface. They can do so from their desks at the Arts Centre and remotely via a password protected web page. Special offers and press releases are updated frequently and immediate response is made to audience feedback. This remote content control facility came into its own when the screening dates and times for ?Lord of the Rings? change unexpectedly over the Christmas break. Rob was able to update the site from his home computer on Boxing Day.
But perhaps the most successful development is the addition of a highly targeted and personalised email notification system for subscribers. Visitors to the website can subscribe to the Arts Centre?s email list and specify the types of performance or event they would like to hear about. The system is highly automated, with advanced tracking and reporting features. Subscribers can manage their own profiles and change their preferences and email addresses. Messages are prepared and sent out to selected groups resulting in a significantly improved level of relevance for the recipients. The ability to reach carefully selected groups of people at very short notice has already reaped rewards. WAC is able to trace additional ticket sales back to a well-timed email shot ? and receive instant feedback from patrons taking up the offers.
Mark Walmsley is Managing Director at WebProjects t: 01737 768127 e: mark@webprojects.co.uk, w: http://www.webprojects.co.uk. http://www.warwickartscentre. co.uk