Kroenke Sports & Entertainment has partnered with Evento to increase engagement and fan ticket sales on social media. Evento’s SitNearMe platform allows fans to see which events their friends are going to, where they are sitting, and then purchase nearby tickets, all without leaving Facebook.
“It doesn’t redirect you outside of Facebook because, if you redirect, there is about a 42 percent bounce rate,” said Evento Founder & CEO Ophir Zardok. Evento is in the process of launching a mobile app, which Zardok said will lead to higher conversion rates above the about 70 percent that SitNearMe already achieves.
“The data has always told us that Facebook users generally want to stay within the four walls of Facebook — to upload photos, comment on posts, scroll through status updates, share funny memes or interesting videos or breaking news — rather than viewing and interacting with content on external sites,” said Jared Harding, director, social media and digital marketing, KS&E. “Now our fans will be able to buy tickets to our games through our official ticketing partner, Altitude Tickets, all without leaving Facebook.”
Zardok said that one of the keys of SitNearMe is that it doesn’t crowd the user’s Facebook wall with content. When the user goes into the app, it writes on their activity wall “in a very gentle way.” Content won’t automatically be shared on the user's wall; however, they are given the option to share their activity.
Evento also provides analytics that allow companies, teams or venues to not only track the success of SitNearMe, but to also recognize the fans who bring friends to events.
“For example, the Denver Nuggets can see exactly how many people got into the app and shared the event with their friends, and how many people came as a result,” said Zardok. “They can reward their fans for being ambassadors for the event.”
Rewards can be things like merchandise, food and beverage credits, or even upgraded seats to recognize fans for sharing and promoting the event.
“We have over 1.2 million Nuggets Facebook fans, one of the most active and engaged followings in the NBA,” said Che Vialpando, Denver Nuggets Sr. VP of Team Sales. “By implementing SitNearMe into our Facebook page, we’re not just utilizing the social site for information sharing and engagement, but it is now an integrated piece of our overall strategy to help get more fans into the arena.”
Teams and venues working with any ticketing platform can implement Evento’s SitNearMe. In order for Evento to integrate into a ticketing system it takes about six to eight weeks. Once Evento is integrated into any ticketing system, it only takes a day or so to set up SitNearMe.
“I think at the moment we’re offering a unique model because it doesn’t matter which ticketing agency you work with, we can build a social layer on top of your existing platform,” said Zardok.
Currently, Evento is integrated with Veritix in the U.S. The Israel-Based company’s SitNearMe platform has also used API integration to work with Maccabi Haifa FC of the Israeli Premier League, the Israel Football Association, and professional Welsh rugby team the Scarlets in Llanelli, Wales, as well as other companies in Germany, the United Kingdom and the Middle East.
There is a set-up fee to implement SitNearMe in order to brand the application, but the ongoing cost comes only if the app works to sell tickets.
“We have a fee based on the performance of the app, so only if you sell tickets, you pay us a certain percentage,” said Zardok, who added that charging in this way minimizes the risk of implementing the platform. Evento plans to expand the SitNearMe offering to other social networks and, when that happens, will introduce the ability to all existing customers.
SitNearMe is cloud-based, so preexisting customers will automatically be upgraded with the latest version.
“Our intention is that our clients sell as many tickets as possible with our platform,” said Zardok. “At the end of the day, it’s better for us the better they do.”
Interviewed for this article: Jared Harding, Che Vialpando and Ophir Zardok, (610) 538-6700 x1621