The official events program launched in May as part of the announcement of dates for On The Run Tour: Beyoncé and Jay Z.
Everyone wants to make it official. Whether you’re looking to be the official song of the FIFA World Cup, the official beverage of the Super Bowl or the vendor of choice for your local semipro hockey team, being official has its benefits.
That might explain why Live Nation and Facebook recently made it official by teaming up to launch their “Official Events” space. Using Ticketmaster’s massive database, events promoted by Live Nation will now be automatically imported over to artists' Facebook pages as “Official Events,” which will give fans a direct link to Ticketmaster to buy verified tickets.
“If you get to the root of this partnership it’s about improving the experience for fans and ensuring that they find the right information for events and you remove as much friction as you can from the discovery and buying process,” said Cole Gahagan, EVP of North America for Ticketmaster. “We discovered, with Facebook’s help – after working closely with them for several years to understand the behavior of fans – that by doing our best to make that discovery and buying process easier we found that many pages and profiles on Facebook were misleading fans. Or, if they were not intentionally doing it, they were unintentionally providing inaccurate information or a link that didn’t go to the right place for the events the users want to attend.”
Making it official has helped clean up that noise and ensure that when users see that special designation they know they are viewing accurate, trustworthy information that will get them as quickly as possible from the discovery to purchasing stage.
One of the upsides for purchasers is that once a fan “joins” or “saves" an event, it will then automatically send out a notification for onsales and other relevant event information. The program launched in May as part of the rollout of dates for the On The Run Tour: Beyoncé and Jay Z.
Not only was that stadium outing the first tour to use the new collaborative space, it was also the first time a single event was used by multiple artists to speak directly to their fans in the same space on Facebook. Since then, Gahagan said it has been employed for many more concerts and tours, with plans to continue ramping up on a daily and weekly basis.
Because many major artists have millions of Facebook followers, the “Official Events” designation will help those fans more easily discover and join the acts’ official Events pages on their desktops and mobile applications. In addition, now the four closest shows to a fan will be displayed on mobile directly on the artist's page.
The decision to launch this new program came largely based on observations made by Facebook and Ticketmaster about the number of pages that had wrong information or misrepresentations, sometimes made by unscrupulous actors looking to exploit music fans. Gahagan said it wasn’t clear at this time what percentage of those phony pages or links led users to buy bad or wrong tickets.
“We've heard from artists and fans that it should be easier to find concerts on Facebook,” a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement. “We're partnering with Live Nation Entertainment & Ticketmaster to provide fans with reliable and up-to-date ticketing information for artists' music events on Facebook. This means people will see a redesigned "Event" tab on artists’ Pages, where they will be able to see ticket price ranges, a ‘Tickets Available’ button to easily find and buy tickets, and a "Save" button to check out the event later.”
The spokesperson said the company could not comment on any future partnerships for these kinds of events or give any specifics on users and increased engagement. “We certainly hope to continue to bring a great events experience for everyone on Facebook,” the spokesperson added.
Gahagan said the plan is to ensure that both parties are putting the user on the path toward having more information and being as informed as possible. Fans will not only be able to buy tickets through Ticketmaster using “Official Events,” but also through secondary market resellers such as TicketsNow and others.
“The satisfaction of knowing a fan is well-informed means there’s a higher probability that that will convert into a sale, whether they buy on the primary market or a resale ticket,” he said. “All stakeholders are interested in getting the fan across the finish line.”
Ticketmaster launched this effort with Facebook based on their long-standing relationship and a preexisting seat map integration that helps users post their intentions to buy a ticket to an event or note their seat location on their Facebook profile. “That’s not to say that one day you won’t see us working with other social platforms as well,” Gahagan said.
While the “Official Events” is currently being rolled out for live concerts and tours, he said the plan is to expand to other Ticketmaster clients in the future, including sports, family genres and theatre. “We’re starting now with all concerts that can be found on Ticketmaster.com,” he said. “Not just Live Nation shows, but anything that you can find on Ticketmaster.com.”
Gahagan said there was no economic arrangement between TM and FB that he could discuss, but he said both sides are in this not necessarily to the benefit of either one, or both, but to better the experience of the fan and user. “It’s about the fan and user, but also the content holder, the artist, the team, the theater, the venue – who are [all] trying to boost awareness and make sure that fan comes to their front door versus going elsewhere,” he said.
At press time Gahagan said it was not possible to tabulate if the new feature had an impact on ticket sales for the events that have employed the “Official” tag to date.
Contacts: Cole Gahagan, (310) 867-7000; Facebook, (650) 543-4800
