Ticket Pre-Sales Are Born This Way

With a little pre-planning, creativity and the right ticketing software, any venue can have successful ticket pre-sales just like Lady Gaga. We look at the ticket pre-sales for one stop on Lady Gaga's 'Born This Way Ball' world tour and show how any venue or event can use the same methods.

Tiered Access Timeline

Ticket pre-sales are both an art and a science. When done well they generate revenue early in the sale window (science) and at the same time organically create word of mouth advertising for the event (truly an art). Super star entertainer Lady Gaga is no stranger to success; her current world tour has consistently sold out every performance. The sold out shows are not from mere chance though, as there is a very sophisticated ticket pre-sale strategy at work behind the scenes that's contributing to the tour's success.

Yesterday, the ticket pre-sales for Gaga's 'Born This Way Ball' tour stop at Bryce Jordan Center on the Penn State University campus began. The Penn State college students are not the only ones excited to see Lady Gaga, the legions of Gaga fans, affectionately known as "little monsters" are too. In anticipation of very high demand, the venue issued a press release detailing the way in which tickets will be sold:

Tickets [are] $69.50, $99.75, $149.75.  VIP seating is also available.  Tickets go on-sale Friday, November 30 at 10:00 a.m. at the Bryce Jordan Center, Eisenhower Auditorium, Penn State Downtown Theatre, Altoona Campus ticket outlet, online at www.bjc.psu.edu...Fans will have first access to ticket pre-sales via LittleMonsters.com on Monday, November 26th. To receive an access code for this exclusive pre-sale, sign up for free at LittleMonsters.com and RSVP to the concert that you wish to attend.

Note the segmented timeline with tiered priority access. Ticket pre-sales are for devoted fans first, then Penn State students, then "VIPs" and then finally standard sales to the general public.

A quick review of the Little Monsters website shows the exact order, dates and time of day, the pre-sales are going to occur. Gaga fans are being given priority access above all the other pre-sales:

Fans First

Lady Gaga management company is to be commended for putting the fans first. The rewards do not stop with giving the Gaga fan club first crack at tickets. The tour has been working closely with internet VoIP and video conferencing provider Sykpe to enhance the ticket pre-sales even further, transcending the science of ticket sales into the art of word-of-mouth advertising aka the shared experience.

Skype has installed video booths at many of the tour venue box offices during the ticket pre-sales. The booths are part of the "Blue Carpet" marketing promotion for the entire 'Born This Way Ball' tour. As Gaga fans buy their tickets during the pre-sale, they have the opportunity to sit in the Skype video booths and record a message about how excited they are. The recorded message is then broadcast on the Blue Carpet YouTube channel for the ticket buyer's friends (and the entire world) to see.

Lady Gaga's masterful command of the social mediums continues on from there to include event aware amplification out to Pinterest, Twitter and Facebook. Most noteworthy of all, the Skype video booths return for each stage in the pre-sale timeline, every tier getting its moment in the spotlight culminating with the ticket sales to the general public, assuming there are any tickets left!

Sales Agent's Lasso

Ticket pre-sales like Lady Gaga's are obviously big budget operations with hundreds of people working on them. The Gaga example shows that segmented ticket pre-sales can be performed to benefit both the fans and those with a vested interested in the event. The venue must work closely with the tour management company, who in turn work closely with the performer(s). Add to this dynamic, the 3rd parties who function as sales agents (in the Gaga example, the 3rd party sales agent is Citi).

Where in pre-sale timeline the sales agent is placed can be a point of contention, as detailed in a previous ThunderTix post. Priority disagreements aside, ticket pre-sales are a prime opportunity for authorized ticket sales agents to make money for themselves and increase ticket sales velocity. Venues can accelerate the time it takes to reduce their ticket inventory to zero by including 3rd party sales agents in the pre-sale and can go so far as to give the sales agent their own exclusive "window of opportunity" in the timeline.

Proper Tools

Before attempting something as sophisticated as ticket pre-sales with tiered access and segmented timelines a venue or event organizer must have the proper tools. Specifically online ticketing software capable of organizing a pre-sale, tracking the commissions of any sales agents, and enable social sharing by the ticket buyers.

ThunderTix prides itself on being the online ticketing software for every venue and event of any size. The same big-budget ticket pre-sales used by superstar entertainers like Lady Gaga can be applied to your venue or event. We offer you the tools to make pre-sale announcements, create tiered priority access, track commissions and let patrons share their ticket-buying excitement. Plus we do not charge you per-ticket fees and the funds from your ticket pre-sales are available immediately.