or they can be picked up at anyone of the following three locations. 72 E. Randolph in Chicago

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1 Jasmine Guy, Angelica Delgado, Joe Diener and Makenzie Dolnick Janine Marino Box Office Management October 7, 2014 Hot Tix Group Project Hot Tix is a rare company on the third party vendor market, as it has existed for 35 years, but responded to the internet age by adapting their business model online to take advantage of new opportunities and new ways to sell their products. Through existing partnerships and efficient usage of new technologies, Hot Tix is a key part of the Chicago theatre market place. Hot Tix was founded in Hot Tix, a program of the League of Chicago Theatres, sells half price tickets to a wide variety of theatre productions for the current week as well as future performances. Hot Tix discounted tickets are available at our three outlet locations in downtown Chicago as well as online. As a service of the non- profit league of Chicago, Hot Tix has operational costs. The service helps Hot Tix continue to offer half price deals and helps further enable the league to support, promote, and advocate for the Chicago Theatre Community. For these reasons, there is a small service fee applied to each discounted ticket. Service fees are not included in the prices listed online. However, when you purchase Hot Tix online, there is a small additional fee of around $ 3.00 per order. All fees are subject to change and Hot Tix reserves the right to correct pricing, availability, and performance times at the point of purchase. Tickets can be delivered via E- mail or they can be picked up at anyone of the following three locations. 72 E. Randolph in Chicago

2 is located between Michigan Ave and Wabash Ave, across the street from the cultural center, and is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10am- 6pm and Sunday from 11am- 4pm. 163 E. Pearson in Chicago is located at Michigan Ave, in the Water Works Vision Center and is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10am- 6pm and Sunday from 11am- 4pm. The final location is at 108 N State in Chicago, which is part of thirty seven shops on State St, located on the first floor of guest services. This location is slightly different from the other two, as it is open every day from 10 AM to 6 PM. While some people may assume that half- price tickets are being offered because the shows aren t selling well, the way Hot Tix is set- up avoids many of those feelings. This is because Hot Tix works directly with the League of Chicago Theatres, and offers tickets for both current and future performances, so it doesn t feel as desperate. Instead, this is designed in a way in which just about every theatre is represented. With such a wide array of potential shows, this keeps the public from having a set perception about tickets being sold for half off. You also do not have to sign up to see ticket offers, as half- price ticket offers are available to anyone who goes to the site, while they also have a partnership with Ticketmaster, which offers links for many of the tickets that Hot Tix is offering pricing for on the main Ticketmaster site. You can sign up for an eblast, which highlights one specific show and then notes a few specific shows going on in that time span, which is usually a weekend. So, users can get specific notifications or just go to the site and explore what shows they have offers available for. Hot Tix sends about four s a week for the blasts in order to be able to advertise last minute ticket offers. The tickets are always half price from most expensive listed

3 for each particular show, unless the theatre gets new section of tickets that weren't previously listed then half price for the new tickets. For some of the tickets listed Hot Tix offers a discount code for its users so they can still get the tickets that they want for a great price. Guests can choose their seats depending on what the theatre that provides the tickets agrees on. Most of the time the theaters will have general admission tickets for sale on Hot Tix to make it easier for guests that want to purchase them without the hassle of having only the left over bad seats up for sale. Some theaters do sell assigned seats to Hot Tix they release a few seats or while sections of seats for sale then guests have to check in at the box office to receive their tickets. Guests getting to choose their seats all depends on which kind of tickets they have for sale, which they get from the theatre. In examining Hot Tix, we identified many areas for our SWOT analysis that could have an effect on their sales in the future. Their strengths include the following: Their partnership with League of Chicago Theatres offers wide array of potential shows, which gives them many potential revenue sources. Their pricing structure allows Hot Tix to be competitive with many different types of customers, which can be very important given the normal prices of theatre tickets. Finally, the way the system is set up allows guests to choose tickets for a general admission show which tend to sell out fast, so it is very helpful for the theatre buffs that don t have the money to get subscriptions or memberships for local theatres. Instead, they can pick and choose from any local theatre, picking only the specific shows that they are interested in seeing. But, there are also some areas of weakness that could come back to bite Hot Tix in the future. The most important weakness is their pricing structure, as it adds some risk, with Hot Tix

4 only making money off of the service fees. Despite the fact that each show has a set number of seats sold to Hot Tix, good selling shows could cut into their potential income, as theatres may not be willing to offer Hot Tix tickets for those shows in the future. Finally, not all shows allow customers to select their specific seats, which shines poorly on Hot Tix because guests only have the opportunity to buy the best of the remaining seats, and often for good selling shows, that leaves Hot Tix customers buying nose bleed seats where they won t have a chance to enjoy the same theatre experience. Hot Tix also has a lot of opportunities for future success that they should focus on to continue to grow down the road. The large group of potential shows opens up options for customers from all over the place, from college students to families. This large potential customer base allows Hot Tix the chance to offer their service in many different ways, from focusing on cheap enjoyment options for poor college students or offering group packages to get in families. Along the same line, Hot Tix could work directly with schools to offer ticket opportunities for students, getting the word out to a customer base that might not have even heard of Hot Tix previously. Hot Tix also has an opportunity through possible partnerships with other ticket sites to make sure that they have the best seats. One of the weaknesses is their poor seat options for some shows, so by strengthening that weakness, Hot Tix should have a chance at reaching a market of customers that is focused more on the show experience than the pricing points. But, there are also areas that Hot Tix needs to be aware of, as they could potentially hurt the business down the road. The most important threat is other sites working out a deal with the League of Chicago Theatres, as cutting off that ticket source would hurt Hot Tix a lot,

5 as they have constant revenue through the offers the LoCT provides every year. Another potential threat is due to the fact that Hot Tix brand is based on the strengths of existing theatres, so if any of those are closed down, Hot Tix has fewer potential areas of potential profit, which could be deadly to the bottom line. One final threat is the service fee that they charge for purchases, as many customers disagree with those sort of fees and could potentially choose another site. They aren t quite as bad as TicketMaster fees, but it could still be troubling for potential customers. Hot Tix has been a part of the Chicago marketplace for 35 years now, and did a very good job of adjusting to the new opportunities of the internet age, using their website to probably double their potential customer base. Through partnerships with the League of Chicago Theatres and their 200 associated theatres, Hot Tix has gotten into a good place in the market, selling half price tickets for almost every show. They also do a very good job in getting the word out, with consistent eblasts that market just about every type of theatrical performance. There are some potential areas where their bottom line could be in trouble, but based on how quickly they adjusted to the online market, it bodes well for the future of the company.