As the event world reopens with a post-pandemic boom, audiences have more pent-up excitement than ever for concerts and festivals. That surge in demand has been met with an increase in supply and a flurry of announcements for shows, making it more difficult than ever to cut through the noise.
All-in-one event marketing platform Audience Republic believes that this represents a big opportunity for festivals, promoters, and artists. “Right now we have a unique window in time, which probably will never be repeated,” says CEO Jared Kristensen. “There’s this huge pent-up demand, which can be leveraged to build an audience you own, setting you up for 2022 and beyond.”
Audience Republic’s presale registration platform helps promoters harness this moment, rather than letting it go to waste. Previously invite-only, the presale registration platform is now available to all promoters, festivals, and artists globally.
“The presale registration platform has been one of our secret weapons,” says Kristensen. “It’s like putting gas on the fire. In many cases we’ve seen double or triple the number of total presale registrations, as a result of the referrals from our platform.”
But it’s not about selling more presale tickets according to the company. “You don’t need help selling more presale tickets. It’s really about leveraging the announcement to build up a massive audience you own,” says Kristensen. “That helps you sell the remainder of the general on-sale, and generate & gauge demand for additional dates. That way, you can announce and sell out those dates, just by sending an email or a text message. But more importantly, using that audience to drive ticket sales for future shows for years to come.”
So how do you achieve these explosive results? Before tickets go on sale, fans sign up for presale access through the registration link shared by the promoter or artist. Fans earn points for referring friends to sign up for presale access via Facebook Messenger, Instagram DMs, WhatsApp, and other platforms, subscribe to receive text messages and email, as well as complete other actions. The top point scorers are rewarded with prizes that include money-can't-buy experiences such as VIP and side-of-stage access, backstage passes, and meet and greets with headline artists.
Promoters and artists have full control over customizing the points and rewards system for their event, giving endless flexibility in targeting current fans and increasing word-of-mouth to reach new audiences, to help stand out among the glut of competing show announcements. And when it comes time to send out links to ticket sales after the registration period, Audience Republic is designed to work with all major ticketing platforms, with promoters using their existing services like Ticketmaster, AXS, Etix and others, with promoters or artists keeping the audience data they’ve captured.
Audience Republic’s CRO, Brian Arnone, reflects, “After a challenging year for the music industry, we’re excited to play our part to bring audiences back to the live music experience.” This is a unique moment in time for the music industry, and unprecedented demand has to be met by unprecedented attention to fans’ expectations and providing a memorable experience, in 2021 and for years to come.
