So, who actually pays full price for Broadway tickets anymore?  I asked our friends at Telecharge some pretty straight forward questions about the use of discount codes on their ticketing system.  The information we received may surprise you.

First, I …

I’ve received over ten emails about Broadway ticket discounts during the 4th of July weekend. It’s probably safe to say that somewhere between five and ten million emails were sent about Broadway offering ‘special’ discount offers over the 4th of …

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Let’s pretend I’m the Producer of a show and ‘Jeff’ is a travel agent who sells Broadway tickets. Like most shows do, I send out an email blast with a special discount offer of 2 for 1 tickets to a …

What kind of Internet searcher are you? A few weeks back, AOL made a major boo-boo by releasing the search records of over 600,000 members. In short, it provided data that showed how and what these members searched for. Well, …

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It’s a very important topic and one that the theater world needs to address as we continue to rely on email marketing to drive ticket sales.

Consider the fact that a typical show can send over 500,000 emails before first …

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What is the discount price that tips prospects into paying customers? There is no blanket answer to this question but there are trends we see in response rates that we believe can help us maximize our marketing efforts. Months back, we tested a campaign for a Broadway musical and wanted to share some of our findings that could help shed some light when formulating your next discount ticket offer.

The scenario:
A Broadway musical was looking to fill select performances that they felt were weak in attendance. In order of priority, we were focusing on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and select Thursdays. It closely resembled the airline industry’s approach of selling airfare.

The solution:
To target building sales for select performances on the official website. A tiered discount was offered on eight performances. Four performances were for $65 orchestra seat tickets. Four performances were for $75 orchestra seat tickets.

The results (after 7 days of the campaign):
$65 Ticket
Total of 4 available performances on a Tues or Wed
# of tickets sold: 115 tickets

$75 Ticket
Total of 4 available performances on a Wed or Thurs
# of tickets sold: 16 tickets

$101.25
All non-discounted performances
# of tickets sold: 41 tickets

Our conclusion:

• The discount price ruled over all other variables.
• There was no movement on the second-tier price ($75). It seems as though people either wanted the best price or the most convenient performance to attend.
• People were willing to purchase tickets for an immediate performance with the discount.

Moving forward:
What we felt was most interesting about the campaign is that this helps support the theory that discounting specific performances based on demand (similar to the travel industry) has legs. A Tuesday of this week could be $65 and next week could be full price if the market conditions support it.

Each show has different buzz levels, audiences, marketing channels, etc., so it’s difficult to draw one final conclusion moving forward. But, for now, it’s something to consider when putting together that next discount mailing.

The following is an excerpt from an article that Jack Aaronson wrote in which he touches on the topic he calls “Pavlovian Marketing“.

I included this piece simply because it’s a very interesting comparison to Broadway marketing tendencies. You can …

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- Out of the top travel websites, Expedia significantly outperforms both Orbitz and Travelocity in both unique visitors and conversion rates. Read this study. (more)

- In a study about mothers using the Internet, the vast majority of Moms surveyed, 86.6 percent, said they sign up for newsletters and promotions in order to receive coupons or special discounts. (more)

“Media consumption across all categories, except reading magazines, is higher among men by an average of seven hours per week. The report says men are 60 percent more likely to research financial data than women. Women, however, are more inclined …

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Boy, oh boy, I wish there was a way we could streamline an affiliate model for theatrical productions. I want to develop an easy, efficient system that empowers smaller ‘influencers’ the ability and incentive to sell tickets to our productions. …

Click here to view a good primer on what and how affiliate marketing works.