Tuesday, March 17, 2015
Protecting Full Price Sales
Shubert Ticketing Blog: As much as shows focus on coded offers – everyone loves the clarity of the attribution –sales of full price tickets are far and away the most important contributor to the wrap and ultimately the weekly gross for a show. Most shows cannot survive let alone repay their investors on sales of tickets at deep discounts. And it is hard to imagine it is in Broadway’s long run interest to push the full price of a ticket up solely to generate a higher base price for a deeply discounted ticket.
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4 comments:
I agree that shows need to make there money but I know that I benefit all of the time by getting discounted tickets to see Broadway shows. The theatre should be something that EVERYONE should be able to see. Not just the rich and the people who are able to afford the full price of the tickets. It is important that everyone gets a chance to see theatre at an affordable price because if you don't then you are limiting your audience. The range of people who will come to see the shows will be a lot smaller. I am a college student who is looking forward to a career in the theatre and the performing arts. I love to go see live theatre all of the time and the only way that I can go see these shows is by getting discounted tickets.
What’s interesting is that when I first saw this article, I thought it is was going to be related to resale websites that elevate the price of tickets to way above the original listing price. Part of me respects the ticketing companies by standing with their policies and goals to recuperate their costs. However, I do not think the problem that the article addresses lies in losing money from discount and promo codes. Rather, I think ticketing and theatre organizations should gear their advertising toward specific audiences with specific pricing points. Someone like a college kid that just wants to get see as much theatre as possible, so why not develop a program that students can sign up, pay a discounted rate (still close to original), and not have the best seat in the house. You have to know the market and the audience. Some audiences are willing to pay much, much more, so adapt to that.
I think there is always a smart way of discount tickets. My dad is in advertising and he's often explained to me that one of the most effective ways to get people in the door is to tell them that they are getting a deal or getting something by putting in the effort to go that they wouldn't otherwise. one of the biggest things to know is that would that person buy your product without enticing them, if the answer is no then you are losing money anyway. with theatre especially if you can sell a ticket to a person half price with every full price ticket, that is better then having 2 empty seats that those two people wouldn't have bought due to that 25% of the 2 full priced tickets. In the end putting on a show costs the same whether you have one person watching or a thousand. It's up to the theatre to find that medium that gets people/profit into the door. who knows they might like the theatre so much they wont hesitate to pay full price next time, but get them in the door.
While I understand how the discount tickets would make the theatre have to up the prices on the full price tickets in order for them to pay off their debts, I agree with everyone else that there are a heck of a lot of people who are only able to see the shows if they are discounted. I think there are definitely strategies to advertise that will help make the discounts less. I think it is really good that they do the discounts based on the seats with this website so you know that the ticket will be discounted based on the seat and not as much based on the time you bought the ticket. Though I think it is also very important that the theatre not worry so much on the fact that they have to discount the seats and just make sure that they fill the whole house.
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