Reach out. Stand out. Sell out.
February 3rd, 2013
By Andrea Usher-Jones
You’re welcome AEG. No problem O2 Arena. It’s our pleasure Cirque de Soleil. No worries Evenko.
Now that the Pollstar 2012 rankings are out, do you know what these top promoters, venues and artists from all over the world have in common? They all have Outbox technology to thank when it comes to helping them sell their tickets.
Outbox offers the best ticket-selling tool in the world. With signature interactive seat maps, 3D customized venue plans, one page checkout – Outbox is key when it comes to helping their clients reach out, stand out and sell out. Quite simply, no one is better at making it easier and more seamless for the public to get the seats of their choice. And, as of February 1st 2013, the Staples Center in Los Angeles will benefit from the Outbox advantage.
Recent rankings prove that Outbox is a common underlying factor, or silent partner, in most of last year’s entertainment success stories. With AEG, The O2 Arena, Cirque de Soleil, The Bell Centre and Evenko as clients, it becomes clear that Outbox is the stroke behind their splash.
When it comes to integrated, specialized solutions, it’s clear that Outbox believes great clients need excellent solutions. Webshopper has been labeled the “best ticket-ordering interface ever”. Eventshopper is the on-line consumer purchasing power-tool for the busiest shows in some of the largest venues in the world. Outbox also provides non-transferrable, paperless ticketing, as requested for example, on AXS.com by The Lumineers at the Ogden, to ensure fans profited from the show, not scalpers. More commonplace at large venues, this ticket-selling technology transposed effortlessly and flawlessly to a smaller venue and is ready for a repeat performance.
Leave it to the producers, performers and the promoters to find and promote the talent, but clearly Outbox is a solid supplier of the brainpower behind the ticket sales. Outbox is happy to help its clients shine in the spotlight of the recent Pollstar rankings, and is a proud supporter of the music, the arts and, of course, the sales. Destined to stay out of the limelight, Outbox is perhaps both a global leader and a best-kept secret. So next time you sit back and enjoy the roar of the crowd, just remember Outbox technology could be responsible for filling every seat in the house.
January 20th, 2013
Montreal Gazette, January 20, 2013
Bernard Perusse
The Bell Centre is the top arena in North America – and fifth worldwide – according to Pollstar, one of the industry’s leading trade publications.
Based on last year’s gross receipts of events, and covering venues with 15,001 to 30,000 seats, the Top 10 list places the Bell Centre below only London’s O2 arena, the Manchester Arena, Mexico’s Palacio De Los Deportes and Dublin’s O2 arena.
The Palais Omnisports de Bercy in Paris and the Staples Center in Los Angeles ranked at Nos. 6 and 7. The O2 arena in Hamburg and Berlin were at Nos. 8 and 9, respectively, with the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Ill rounding out the list.
The Bell Centre’s promotion associate, Evenko, landed Pollstar’s No. 8 spot worldwide in the category of ticket sales, and its hallmark festival, Osheaga, was named the top music festival in Canada (No. 11 worldwide).
To add to the honours, music-biz bible Billboard ranked Evenko as the fifth largest promoter in the world in its Dec. 22 issue.
January 9th, 2013
The Lumineers worked with AEG to implement paperless ticketing for their show at the Ogden, powered by Outbox’s outstanding technology
Denver Westword, By Dave Herrera, Tue., Jan. 8 2013
The Lumineers are virtually inescapable these days -- in the world of music, obviously, but also in the realm of pop culture: From being in constant radio rotation across the nation to being name dropped as a part of incidental plot lines on TV shows like Nashville, the Denver-based, Grammy nominated act has received an enormous amount of exposure since its album was released last spring. As a result, the band is now extremely high demand, and so are tickets to its shows, particularly when they're sold out. So it was odd, then, not to see a single scalper hawking tickets on Colfax outside the act's recent shows at the Ogden Theatre -- odd, but not by chance, we've discovered.
For their New Year's Eve run at the Ogden, the Lumineers specifically requested paperless, non-transferable ticketing for these shows. While this isn't exactly a new approach -- flash tickets are commonplace at places like the Pepsi Center, and several other well established acts have explored paperless ticket entry in an effort to circumvent scalping -- it is one that you don't typically see at smaller concerts like this. Generally this is something you see employed at arena shows, and at that level in the venue is usually equipped with handheld scanners to help facilitate the process. At the Ogden, AEG's Axs ticketing platform facilitated the entire process.
"It's a two-edged sword," says Don Strasburg, vice president and senior talent buyer for AEG Live Rocky Mountains. "It obviously has a tremendous impact on the ability to resell tickets, if it's implemented in a forum that requires no transfer. However, it can be very difficult because there are two major issues that come up with these things."
One of the potential drawbacks Strasburg is speaking of is an added requisite that requires the person who purchases the ticket to actually be on hand for admission. If you're that person, and you're going to the show, no problem, obviously. But say you purchased a block of paperless, non-transferable tickets for you and your buddies, but then, for whatever reason, you couldn't make it. You'd still need to be present for the tickets to be accepted -- or, you'd need to send the credit card that purchased the tickets with your friends.
"Think of it like getting on an airplane," Strasburg explains. "An airplane is a paperless -- or it's basically a non-transferable ticket. You can't go on in mom's name. The difference is is that your mom can buy you a ticket. You couldn't buy a ticket for another person," unless, of course, you plan on going to the show, or sending along your credit card. But even that last option is a concession on the part of the promoter to help make the whole experience easier on the fans while still accommodating the band's request. Whereas a stricter approach would've gone a step further and required fans to present an ID that matched the credit card.
Logistically speaking, things went really well for the Lumineers' show. “The new Axs ticketing we have at the Ogden worked flawlessly for this," notes Strasburg. "A lot of effort was put into it, and it worked flawlessly. We were thrilled with how smoothly this non-transferable paperless ticketing went with the Axs ticketing system. We took a great deal of pain to make it easy on everybody -- talking to them, really working it through; we had extra staff and everything like that...
But even though this approach was successful for this show, there's no immediate plans to convert to this system for upcoming concerts, unless the show itself calls for it, and then it will be considered. "For shows coming down the pike that are kind of special underplays at the Ogden and venues like that," says Strasburg, "We will probably look at using it again."
