Performing Arts Boosted by Social Video Ticketing Partnerships
AccuList USA’s performing arts marketing clients have more tools this year for reaching ticket buyers, fans and supporters via partnerships that link online ticketing and social media videos.
Using Social Video Pages to Sell Tickets
The latest entry in the competitive social media ticketing race is Google-owned YouTube, which has partnered with Ticketmaster to show viewers upcoming U.S. tour dates and nearby concert listings on artists’ YouTube videos and then allow viewers to jump directly to Ticketmaster to purchase tickets. YouTube is actually a latecomer to the social media ticketing world. Ticketmaster started promoting ticket sales on Spotify and Facebook in 2016. YouTube’s end-of-2017 move is one reaction to Spotify’s growth in the streaming market with integrated data and artist information. For Ticketmaster, its global roster of concerts and lock on the concert-ticket industry can only be enhanced by access to YouTube’s 1.5 billion user base, driving more fans to pay Ticketmaster prices and service charges. But competitive social video ticketing is a win for performing arts promotion, too.
Why It’s Good News for Performing Arts
YouTube is leveraging one of its strengths with the ticketing partnership; music videos account for 30% of all time spent on YouTube and represent 94% of the 250 most-viewed videos on the platform, per the Video Advertising Bureau. And that means performing arts promotions can look forward to generating additional ticket sales from the platform’s added feature. The YouTube ticketing feature also addresses a running feud between YouTube and the recording industry. Some record labels have argued that YouTube hasn’t paid enough in fees for music videos hosted on its platform, but now ticket sales will provide another revenue stream for labels to monetize and boost royalties. This kind of partnership may even help cut down on the sales drain from pirating since the increased ability to monetize videos via ticket sales is likely to push performing arts promotion to drive as much traffic as possible to official videos and to be more proactive in flagging unofficial channels. (See the story in Direct Marketing News.)
U.S. Marketers in Europe Wrestle GDPR Data Compliance
AccuList USA supplies data and direct marketing services to organizations with international as well as domestic reach. Starting this May, any U.S. marketer targeting actual or potential customers in the European Union (EU) countries must navigate a changed data landscape thanks to the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). It doesn’t matter if the brand, marketer or data processor is based in the U.S.; strict compliance is mandatory. And shrugging off new data rules is a very costly mistake. Noncompliance can mean a fine equal to 4% of global annual revenue!
GDPR Seeks to Protect Personal Data
The intended purpose of the regulation is protection of non-anonymized personal data, and compliance is required of any company (or organization) that stores or processes that personal information about individuals (“data subjects”), who are defined as European citizens residing in an EU state. The protected personal data includes:
- Name, address, and phone number
- IP address and cookies
- Racial identity
- Religion and religious affiliation
- Health and genetic data
- Biometric data
- Sexual orientation and gender preference
Individuals Have New Data Rights
GDPR’s regulated “data controllers,” who determine data processing, or “data processors,” who handle data on behalf of data controllers, must respect key rights with regard to personal information. For example, there is an individual’s right to access, to knowing what personal data has been collected and how that data has been processed. There is a right to accuracy, and restriction of data processing in the case of inaccuracy. There is a right to “freely given” and “explicit” consent for processing and storage of personal data. Plus, consent may not be regarded as “freely given” where performance of a contract is made conditional on consent, or is unnecessary to performance of a contract. The data subject also has the right to data portability, meaning the ability to request and receive personal data in a format easily transferred to another data controller. Finally, there is erasure or “a right to be forgotten,” which allows individuals to withdraw their consent for data use or storage and demand that personal data be erased and no longer processed. Not sure it applies to you, direct marketer? Consider this GDPR wording: “Where personal data are processed for the purposes of direct marketing, the data subject should have the right to object to such processing, including profiling to the extent that it is related to such direct marketing, whether with regard to initial or further processing, at any time and free of charge.”
How Are U.S. Brands Handling GDPR?
Obviously, GDPR has big impacts on business strategies in the European market. For one thing, if you are handling personal data on a large scale or processing particularly sensitive data (such as health, race and religion), GDPR may require you to designate a specialized Data Protection Officer (DPO) to report to senior management. In terms of strategic response to the regulation, 64% of executives at U.S. corporations reported that their top strategy for reducing GDPR exposure is centralization of data centers in Europe, according to a report released by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Just over half (54%) told PwC they plan to anonymize European personal data to reduce exposure. A significant minority are even cutting European market efforts, with 32% of respondents planning to reduce their presence in Europe, and 26% intending to completely exit the EU market.
For a definitive guide to GDPR and explanations of key terms, see this Direct Marketing News article.
Drive Response by Integrating Direct Mail and Social Sharing
AccuList USA began its life 20 years ago this June as a traditional direct mail list broker and manager but has adapted to marketing trends and client demands to become today’s omnichannel data and services provider–including social media marketing, of course. We’ve seen the response power of taking social media and direct mail from parallel tracks to integrated teamwork. For those who are scratching their heads over mail-social integration, we recommend a Target Marketing magazine article by Summer Gould, including two case studies as templates.
A Basic Formula for Success
Gould boils a successful mail-social marriage down to a simple formula: Use the power of social sharing to expand mail response. Basically, start with an existing direct mail campaign that is working well. Create landing pages for the target audience to visit and direct recipients to those pages in the mail piece. Ask the audience to provide the information that you want on the landing pages. Finally, to get your offer, ask people to share with others.
Addressing Key Plan Elements
Marketers don’t have to reinvent the wheel to get this done, but they do need to remember to include vital spokes! Gould starts with the basics: Define objectives and the target market. Then adjust direct mail design to include landing pages and social media sharing. Make sure that the offer is the same for both direct mail and social media, and be sure to effectively incentivize sharing. Focus carefully on data capture, including social media accounts so you can reward those who share the offer! Decide what other information you really want to collect to receive the offer. Finally, make sure you have the social media monitoring software to track results, as well as the direct mail response tracking.
Case Studies That Inspire Emulation
Gould’s article offers two case studies that should inspire emulation. First, Chick-fil-A, which wanted to both build its customer database and increase store traffic, launched a direct mail campaign of 5,000 plastic postcards that included social sharing. Thanks to the viral impact, the campaign gained a 279.8% response! Second, Stein Mart wanted to increase store redemption through a referral program. The discount retailer mailed 20,000 postcards with a social sharing component, and the campaign gained a total response of 150.58%. For links to the case studies for details, read the Target Marketing article.
