What is the number of people that attend Broadway theatre more than once a year?
What percentage of phone calls to Telecharge convert to ticket sales?
As the primary ticket selling agent for Broadway, Telecharge is one
of the few players in the industry that has a complete grasp on how
tickets for the entire industry are bought and sold.
We sat down with Jennifer Tattenbaum, E-Commerce Manager at
Telecharge.com, to help us get some insight on the state of Broadway
ticket buying patterns and what's happening over at
Telecharge.com. Please note that the answers to her questions are
just estimates based on a large sampling of shows. These are not
exact figures so please don’t hold her or me to these statistics.
:)
(theSITUATION): The Telecharge email blast is one of the
most effective direct response vehicles for shows coming into
Broadway. What is the average response rate for a typical
Telecharge email blast?
(JENNIFER TATTENBAUM): For
emails, we generally see that between .5% and 2.5% of the people
who open the email and look at the offer wind up buying tickets.
(tS): What percentage of visitors to Telecharge.com convert into ticket buyers?
(JT): 7-10% of website visitors to Telecharge.com turn into buyers.
(tS): What percentage of phone calls made to Telecharge ultimately convert to sales?
(JT): We generally find that 1/3 of phone calls turn into orders.
(tS): Can you tell us about a typical Telecharge phone call?
(JT):
Most customers call with a specific show or a handful of shows in
mind. However, often the final decision comes down to
availability, so if a customer can't get the dates or seats they want
for their preferred show, they will ask for suggestions for other shows
which might interest them.
(tS): Are there any myths or misconceptions of Broadway
marketers in regards to online ticket buying? (etc. “Only younger
people buy online”, “etc.)
(JT): Interesting
question. I am not sure what the myths are, exactly, but we
certainly find that all types of customers purchase online by this
point. I think the biggest myth is that there are a large number
of people out there who go to the theatre more than once a year.
In fact, the number is pretty small (around 300,000 people in
the tri-state area, around 500,000 people if you include the
rest of the country).
(tS): Are there any services that Telecharge.com can offer producers that you feel may be currently under-utilized?
(JT):
One relatively new program is our wholesale ticket sales to travel
companies like Expedia, Orbitz and many others. Shows establish a
wholesale price for their tickets, and those tickets are sold at a
marked up rate as part of a travel package. This program also
serves as a branding opportunity for participating shows, because the
shows receive millions of impressions on these sites. Expedia, in
particular, is the 11th most visited site on the web. We also
provide customized reporting services for shows which are interested in
getting a deeper understanding of their sales patterns, their customer
demographics, etc. We work with a show to generate a list of
questions about their sales, and then put together a thorough sales
report which includes charts and analysis.
(tS): What enhancements can we expect from Telecharge.com in the near future?
(JS):
We are beginning to plan for a site redesign which will include new
features as well as improvements of existing features. These
improvements should make it easier for customers to find the tickets
they want. We are also going to beef up our gift certificates so
customers can redeem them on our website. These improvements are
in the 1-2 year time horizon.
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