SPEAKER PREVIEW: Creating beautifully simple ticketing solutions for customers
The Applauze mobile ticketing app is billed as the “simplest and most beautiful way to find events”.
The app brings together over a thousand different ticketing partners in the US and Canada, whose events are displayed to the buyer in an intuitive and simple way.
With plans to launch in the UK this summer, we will look at the technology that lies behind this kind of user-focused ticketing app, and are delighted to welcome David McKay, Head of Music Ticketing & Product at Applauze.
We caught up with David to ask him a few questions about the ticketing innovation:
Hi David, can you explain to us Applauze’s mission statement?
We are obsessed with our users. As a result, Applauze’s mission is to provide our users with the best end-to-end ticketing experience – from discovering an event, to planning it with their friends, all the way through to purchasing tickets and attending the event.
Applauze raised $7.2M from several investors for its ticketing app – just six months after its launch in March 2013. How is Applauze different from other ticketing apps on the market today?
Some events apps are going after last minute event discovery. Some are trying the flash-sales / discount model. Some help you find the cheapest tickets in the venue, while some just select a small group of curated events in one or two major markets.
Applauze is taking a different approach – we’re live in more markets, have more events, and have more ticket inventory than the apps that many would consider our biggest competitors.
What have you learnt about customer behaviour since the app’s launch in 2013?
There were many things that we had assumed about the behavior of ticket buyers coming into the industry – based on data we’d seen released from other ticketing companies. It was entirely different, however, to see that information first hand.
For example, one stat we had seen was that 30% of ticket purchases happen from a mobile device. However, we launched one of our first artist exclusives and saw 77% of customers purchase from their mobile device – either in app or on mobile web.
I think the biggest thing we’ve learnt, as a company isn’t on the data side at all. Instead, it is the importance of a personal connection with the customer. A huge part of our team is our customer support staff – and I don’t think that’s something we really grasped coming into this business.
How do you see the app developing with changing expectations of its customers?
As recommendations become a more important element of Applauze, then I think our customers will likely expect us to learn their personal tastes and preferences. As the search feature continues to grow, then I think our customers will likely expect us to have more events available to discover. And as a user has more friends who actively use Applauze, then I think they’ll expect more social features native to the app.
There are features for which we can anticipate and prepare, but one of the benefits of being a startup is also that we’re extremely flexible and open to taking the product in new directions.
What will the delegates of Ticketing Technology Forum 2014 take from your presentation?
There is an incredible amount of data surrounding the ticketing industry – from fluctuating pricing, to user demographic information, to new mobile purchasing habits. In my presentation, I’ll be focusing on how we’re using that information both to improve the overall customer experience and to make the industry smarter.
Additionally, we’re a ticketing company that does an incredible amount of business in the secondary ticketing market – which has historically been a very public enemy of the music industry. I think – through the use of data and improved ticketing technology – the music industry can start to see the value in the secondary market – both as a source of revenue and as a valuable source of information.
I’m really looking forward to presenting at Ticketing Technology Forum and introducing the UK to Applauze for the first time.
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