Audience relocation from manual ticketing to online ticketing platforms is strongly being felt as sports and entertainment centric events steadily burgeon nationwide. Offering consumers easy access to all forms of ticketed entertainment with multiple payment options across retail, mobile, social and box-office distribution channels, online ticketing platformsoutgun manual ticketing simply by enhancing the purchase experience while democratizing access for consumers to world-class events.
In India, Kyazoonga is one such online ticketing company that has managed to brave its way to the major league through a sea of similar platforms. Besides qualifying as a finalist for an Olympics ticketing bid, it is also the only ticketing company in the subcontinent to have ticketed a major international event – the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011.
Neetu Bhatia, CEO, Kyazoongais of the opinion that “online ticketing is soon going to wipe clean every other existing alternative”. Observing the transformation in the event ticketing industry,she talks about traditional mindsets and futuristic solutions.
Q-What are some of the challenges when providing online ticketing solutions for a large-scale sporting event?
A- Sports and leagues that are seeing success with live audiences will contribute to the online ticketing pie. Demand often exceeds supply and hence people flock online to ensure they have booked their spot in their favorite match. For example, last year most of Pro Kabaddi tickets were sold online. If the event is hot, tickets will get sold out online in no time. In such cases, geography or demographics of a particular region does not matter. Of course convenience and paucity of time are other major drivers.
However, there remains a final frontier to be captured– and that is smooth and seamless access using Print-at-Home technology or using the barcode on your phoneto gain access to events. This is generally constrained by the regulatory environment that insists on paper tickets and the lack of robust access control infrastructure at the venues.
While we have successfully developed and implemented our systems to work effectively with these challenges, fundamental changes in some of these areas will help in realizing the true potential of the market.
Q-How do you market Kyazoonga for a wider reach?
A-Our major brand asset is our name and what is represents. The founding team figured that having a ‘different’ sounding name would stick with customers and result in greater brand recall.
Over time, the Kyazoonga brand has associated with high profile events like the Cricket World Cup, the Sachin Tendulkar 200th Test match, the CPL, the IPL or the Jaipur Lit Fest, the Bryan Adams concert, the Guns ’N Roses concert, and also smaller events such as the local Cathedral School reunion or the MIT alumni club get-togethers. The name gives us the flexibility to operate the business and build to scale while customizing individual experiences rather than a “one size fits all” approach that a pedestrian name may signify.
We continue to push the envelope on ATL and BTL alike.
We are also constantly analyzing our database, north of 5 million users, with the use of big data analytics tools as we are on the constant lookout for trends in customer behavior and buying patterns.
Q- But why should an event organizer sign a ticketing deal with one platform while it can have itself featured on numerous platforms through ticket selling?
A- I fervently believe that if a ticketing platform is centralized end-to-end and enables all the complex requirements of event ticketing, it obviates the need for another platform to be used simultaneously. In fact, doing so will make the ticketing less seamless as the inventory would then not reside in one place centrally and in fact would necessitate offline inventory management which is not desirable if one wants to optimize supply and demand.
Furthermore, ticketing isthe first customer touch point for an event and is a key revenue source for an organizer. Hence it is in the best interest of the organizer that they pick the one platform that caters to all the ticketing requirements for the event. With one able platform the effort is focused and the message to the end customer is unambiguous and it also allows the event organizer undivided focus on the content and quality of the event.
Q- How has the method and procedure of ticketing in sports and entertainment events grown over the last decade?
A-Ticketing continues to grow ever more complex at the back-end in an effort to keep it simple for the end customer. The introduction of real-time social media interactions and feedback has necessitated that ticketing systems be fully real-time and accurately predict the status of demand and supply. As events grow in size, so do their complexity levels. Traffic conditions for large events as we saw during the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 and the Sachin Tendulkar farewell 200
th Test Match reach peaks that demand scalability of server and cloud infrastructure, accelerated content delivery networks, and the ability to sustain peak demand for limited inventory residing on the database.
Q-Are there any significant changes in the ticket system technology being used in India and abroad?
A-Speaking only forKyazoonga in this matter, since inception, it has been our endeavor to offer world-class services and products to our customers and clients. To that end, our products compare with the best in the business globally. Our making it to the very shortlist and being a finalist at the Rio Olympics ticketing program is testament to the fact that we are leading the pack in terms of technical, system and operational capability and have been validated at the highest levels by a global body that runs the most complex ticketing exercise on the planet. This is also testament to the fact that we’ve leapfrogged some of the legacy systems of companies operating in more mature markets of the West while others in emerging markets have yet to catch up.
Q-What changes do you foresee in the online ticketing space in the next 5 years?
A-Online ticketing is still only about15-20% of the overall pie, which means that we are only scratching the surface. A recent Bain report mentioned that every month India is adding 5-6 million Internet users and about 650 million users are estimated to be online by 2020 – of which 250 million will shop online – spending over $50 billion. The report also suggests that mobile phones will dominate 70 per cent of the total number of Internet users. We believe that these are extremely positive trends and that online ticketing will become the norm in 5 years. We are well positioned to capitalize on this trend both domestically as well internationally.
