Guide 1 September 2015 Event organisation model A REVISION OF THE BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS APPLIED TO EVENTS Value proposition of your event What should I offer my customer? Page 5 Customer relationships and marketing. Do my customers know me? How will they stay loyal? Page 7 hello! Introduction By Javier Andrés. It s your first event and you don t know where to start? Are you an organiser needing a bit of help? Have you had an issue with a previous event that you would like to avoid? If your answer is yes to any of the above, keep reading, this guide is written especially for you. Javier Andrés CEO y Founder Founder of Ticketea My passion is to learn about technology and people Looking for simple solutions in all I do. Ros Mayo Communication & Content A music fanatic with a passion for communication and technology. Here at Ticketea we like to offer reliable technological solutions to those who organise events and we have spent a lot of time perfecting our methods over the years. On a daily basis we come across thousands of events on our platform: professional functions, music festivals, staged plays and school Christmas productions to name a few... a never ending list. They differ in content but have one common denominator: all their success lies in the planning. We have reviewed various theories, such as The Four P s of marketing, to find a process that can help with your event planning. Although this theory is interesting, what truly matters is its application. This is why we use the Business Model Canvas, by Alex Osterwalder; a tool with nine business model building blocks. We have adapted this model to the world of events using our two favourite characteristics here at Ticketea: simplicity and usefulness.
2 Guide n. 1, October 2015. Event Organisation Model Before we begin... Before planning your event, you need to consider the objectives you are looking to achieve. If you are a professional event organiser, it is clear that you want to earn money, however there are many more objectives that are equally as important. Based on our experience, all events consist of at least one of the following three objectives: 1. Revenue The most obvious objective for professional event organisers is to make money; charging for a concert, training or workshop for example. 2. Brand awareness All good marketing professionals know the importance of having direct contact with their customers. You can organise a product presentation to help with this. The presentation may not generate direct sales but the increase in brand awareness will boost sales further down the line. 3. Lead generation Lead generation comes in many shapes and sizes, from online browsing to attending themed professional events. Themed events allow for interaction amongst potential customers who can then be approached using direct marketing techniques. Google is a prime example, they organise free seminars to enhance their customer database. Once you have set your goals, you can start drawing out your master plan. Take a look at the following model - it will give you a better understading of the 9 key areas of your event and the relationship between them. Your events objectives: Income Brand awareness Lead generation
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4 Guide n. 1, October 2015. Event Organisation Model Customer segment Who do I direct my efforts towards? The first thing to do is define who your target audience is as this decision will determine the rest of your actions. When you organise an event for everyone, you run the risk of not reaching out to anyone at all. Take some time to consider all the potential audiences of your event and decide which has the most potential. You may base this decision on who needs your event the most, the audience you are mostly familiar with or the audience that has the most accessible communication channel. At this stage, it would be useful to try and answer the following questions: Who is the event for? Which audience segment is most important? What are the characteristics of this segment? Are we aiming for the general public, a mass market or a specific niche? Are there various interrelated segments? We will dedicate more time to segmentation in future guides, but rememeber that clearly identifying your audience comes before considering what differentiates you from competitors. Arquetipo de clientes:
5 Guide n. 1, October 2015. Event Organisation Model The events value proposition What does my event offer and how do I make it possible? The next step is to define your value proposition, or in other words, the experience you are going to offer to your customer. To achieve this, first answer the following question: What customer needs can I offer? An event normally covers one of these 3 needs: Enjoyment Learning Networking When you know what needs you are going to cover, it will be a lot easier to form your event. Every type of event has its own specific elements; it s not the same organising a music festival as it is a wine tasting session, but there are three basic variables they all share: What: What is the event about? Who is the act or artist that will interest your customers the most? Where: Try and find a venue with the appropriate installations, this will vary depending on the type of event that you want to organise. The originality of a venue can make a difference for certain events. When: Study your competition to set an appropriate event date. There are two types of competition: direct and indirect. Direct competition is an event that has the same characteristics as yours, e.g., if you are a music event organiser, avoid a date the Rolling Stones are playing, whilst indirect competition are events with different characteristics that could diminish your attendees, e.g., if your audience are football fans and your event is during the World Cup.
6 Guide n. 1, October 2015. Event Organisation Model Once you have defined your event s core, focus on the life and soul of your event. What experience does it offer? To do this, put yourself in your customer s shoes and answer the following questions: What can you offer me so I choose your event? What added services can you offer me? What makes your event different? Distribution channels What is the best way to reach my clients? Events are a peculiar type of product. Why? They are based on intangible experiences that cannot be packaged and sold via traditional distribution methods. There is one crucial element that materialises this experience (or at least makes up for it): the ticket. Define a distribution strategy for your audience and understand the requirements of different segments. An audience over the age of 50 would prefer to purchase tickets through physical sales methods, while a younger audience may prefer online methods to buy tickets, such as social networks. Online distribution channels: Ticket seller s webpage Event organiser s webpage Facebook fanpages Offline distribution channels: Physical sales (CD stores, shops, etc.) Box office
7 Guide n. 1, October 2015. Event Organisation Model Interacting with your customers Do my customers know me? How can I make sure they stay loyal? One of the main factors that contributes to an event being successful is a marketing and communication strategy. Ticketea helps with all stages of event planning, from announcing the launch of your event to generating preference and need to buy. It s important to tune your messages and media in marketing to your target audience. There are numerous amounts of theories with ways to plan and carry out your marketing and communication strategies. Here at Ticketea we are strong believers of the Get - Keep - Grow model which we have summarised below: On the following page we have provided a series of marketing campaigns you should consider when laying out your global marketing and communication strategy.
8 Guide n. 1, October 2015. Event Organisation Model A quick recap of some well known marketing campaigns Online Marketing SEO (Search Engine Optimisation): Also known as a web positioner, its job is to improve the position of your event s web page on search engines such as Google. SEM (Search Engine Marketing): This is a paid position on search engines. It helps you to position your events web page on a short term basis, you only pay for the clicks you receive. SMM (Social Media Marketing): This is the process of gaining traffic through social media sites. It combines traditional marketing objectives like improving brand awareness or preference with other specific communication aspects of the web such as conversation and engagement. Some of the most common techniques are competitions and raffles as influencers or prescribers. Display: Known as the internet s conventional publicity, they are graphical objects used to attract the attention of the user. They are inserted on traditional media sources with a cost per impression (CPM) or cost per click (CPC). Affiliation marketing: This technique looks to attain results from websites, affiliated calls and publicised advertisement and the issuer only then benefits if the user carries out a given action, known in marketing as cost per action (CPA). Retargeting: A technique in which the issuer shows a determined user advertisement based on their previous actions. e-mail Marketing: This is a marketing tool directed at a specific group of people via e-mail. Content Marketing: A technique that consists of creating and distributing relevant content for clients and potential clients. The objective is to not only draw them towards the business but to connect with them at the same time. Offline Marketing PR & Communication: Is the practise of sending information to the media and influential people in the hope that it is publicised and impactive amongst desired audiences. Below the line/ Above the line: A huge feature is a marketing campaign that differs in function; whether to use conventional communication or not. Sponsorships: An agreement, normally economical, where the sponsor and the sponsored are bound together.
9 Guide n. 1, October 2015. Event Organisation Model Revenue streams How do I make my event profitable? Although it may seem obvious, designing a price strategy to identify all sources of revenue is essential. The price has a strong psychological component, so it s important to know your customers when it comes to setting a ticket price. Price strategies are those of penetration, price and prestige with a point of reference to competitor prices. You can even play with prices using upselling and cross-selling. Aside from ticket sales, an event can generate revenue through secondary sources, such as external brand sponsorships, selling by-products, merchandising or a bar (concerts and festivals). Common sources of revenue during a music festival: Tickets Bars Sponsors Merchandise Subsidies Database of leads
10 Guide n. 1, October 2015. Event Organisation Model Key activities Which activities are indispensable in order to achieve my value proposition? To get your value proposition running it s important that you identify the required activities as they will take up a lot of your work load during the organisation of your event. Normally, all events have the following key activities: Bookings Contracting the presenters and artists who will form the centre of our value proposition. Pre-Production, the production and the event logistics An event s production has many decisive activities. If we organise a concert, we would include the technical requirements, such as the backline, rider, the assembly and disassembly. Marketing As we previously mentioned, the target audience you are trying to reach needs to know about your event, prefer it to alternative events offered by competitors and attend it.
11 Guide n. 1, October 2015. Event Organisation Model Key resources What assets do I have to make my event work? In this section you will have to arrange your available resources to get your value proposition running. Economical resources What is your initial budget? Can you put down some kind of deposit? These questions are indispensable because you need to finance these activities and your resources just as much as you would with your marketing campaign. Your brand Are you new to the market or an old player amongst your audience? This factor can help you a lot should you not have a large initial deposit. Human resources How many people make up your team? Who are they? What do they bring to the table? A good team could be the difference between an event being something truly special or one just like the rest. Your team s know-how is a fundamental aspect. Data base Finding a way to contact your attendees regarding add-ons for your event could prove to be a powerful tool to carry out email marketing that has a high conversion rate.
12 Guide n. 1, October 2015. Event Organisation Model Partners Who will help with my value proposition? The following section is dedicated to your partners and commercial relationships but can also link in with the experience you offer to your clients. The main difference between the two is that your partners tend to seek a win-win in which all concerned parties benefit, reducing cost. At this stage, take some time to answer the following questions: What brands/companies do I have as partners and what benefits do the offer to my clients? Example: If you organise an event on the outskirts of a city it may be a good idea to affiliate with a transport or taxi company so they can offer some kind of discount. This way you offer an added value but the demand for the other company rises also. Who are my suppliers? It is essential to localise all suppliers that depend on your value proposition. What key resources can my partners provide? For instance, if you get hold of a powerful sponsor, their brand image alone may be a key resource. What key activities can my partners help with? You can subcontract some or all tasks, seeking some kind of cooperation. For example, externalising the promotion of your event using a shared revenue formula.
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14 Guide n. 1, October 2015. Event Organisation Model How can Ticketea help with your event? Ticketea would love to be a partner that helps organise your event. Take a look at the ways we can help: Distribution of tickets: Selling from your own website You can sell tickets from your own website in just 5 minutes and there is no need to have any prior technical knowledge, all thanks to the ticket sales software we provide. Selling from Facebook You can create your own ticket office on your Facebook fan page and sell tickets or create inscriptions from here directly. It is easy to do and free with Ticketea, all you need to do is create a fan page and download our app. BoxOffice BoxOffice is a free app for ipad that allows you to sell your tickets created with Ticketea in a physical environment such as a theatre, exhibition or concert s ticket office. Promotion & Marketing Viral promotion on social networks Your fans could be the best PR for your event. You just have to make it simple. We can give you the tools to make this happen for free. You can also make the most of our marketing expertise Search engine positioning Your attendees need to find your event easily on Google and other search engines. All this is possible thanks to the SEO positioning strategy we use on our website. Available free of charge. Reach out to millions of qualified users Ticketea is an ideal shop window for your event considering the millions of qualified users we have. We also have a network with hundreds of affiliated members who are informed of the most interesting events. Segmented email campaigns Your event can appear in Ticketea s themed newsletter that is sent out every week to thousands of potential attendees who seek information on new events. Generating a data base. It s your data We give you the possibility to not only create and control your own data base but to integrate it within your customer relationship management (CRM) using simple methods. This will help you get to know your audience and gain loyalty amongst them to promote your future events with more success. Access control with Ticketea CheckPoint Our tickets have a unique barcode and a QR code that guarantees agile, quick and safe access control to your event. For small events (up to 1000) we provide a Ticketea CheckPoint, a free app for Android and ios, and for larger events we provide PDAs and bar-code readers. Looks good right? Visit features.ticketea.com/en to find out more!
Ros Mayo hello@ticketea.com @ticketeapro