Lots of parties, lots of learning

Having over ten thousand (new) people from more than 25 countries sell, resell, share, gift, and use our tickets was a new level of application and usage for us.

Over 11.000 tickets were sold, all to be processed at 12 events within four days. This rate of events taking place was a first for us, and required scaling and creativity from development, scanning and support teams, which is exactly what we are going for.

The dynamic, young and international ADE audience was also a very welcome change from other audience groups that we have come to know from many theater shows or concert. Different audiences means different wishes and behaviour, as we noticed in the following metric:

For our ADE events, between 19–42% (varied per event) of ticket holders resold their tickets. That is a huge number, way higher than any averages we have seen in the hundreds of events we have ticketed previously.

This can be for any reason of course: last-minute changes of partyplans (due to releases of line-ups at other parties for example), cancelled or adjusted travelplans, or just some good ol’ fashioned failed attempts at scalping.

The number of tickets sold for one of our ADE events over time.

The hectic nature of the hundreds of events also delivered some valuable insights directly from ticket buyers that have helped us evaluate our next steps as far as development and user experience. The big one being that we want to give ticket holders more control in the ways they can sell their tickets, as well as improve how this is displayed and communicated. We are glad to have learned these lessons.

Decentralisation = bad (wait, hear me out)

As devoted followers of either GET or GUTS will probably know, GUTS Tickets has taken pride in being able to eradicate the possibility of tickets to be resold on any external secondary platforms. Here’s a gentle reminder if you were not yet aware of this:

Unfortunately, ADE regulations require that a percentage of all tickets for the events that took part in the conference were to be put up for sale through the ADE website that made use of a different ticketing company that doesn’t regulate reselling.

These tickets could then, of course, be resold through any of the many platforms that scalpers enjoy using because they can make infinite monies from them. In some cases, certain folks use these platforms to take money from people without even sending any tickets to them — a.k.a. fraud, which we are all very concerned about, but somehow lack the time to actively prevent.

Pretending that scalpers and frauds won’t take advantage of the possibilities provided to them is a ridiculously naive opinion, proven absolutely incorrect time and time again. It’s expressed most often by those who have already achieved their target sales numbers and no longer require to pretend to care about consumers.

Personal bitterness about the state of the ticketing world aside, this forced distribution leads to situations such as the one where tickets for an event that was originally ticketed by GUTS, were up for sale through four different services and platforms — which of course was very confusing.

It also meant that some people who bought their tickets through GUTS saw tickets for the very same event on sale through TicketSwap for 20% below the original purchase price, while they couldn’t change the price they wanted to sell their tickets for, due to the way GUTS works with one price for tickets in the primary and secondary markets— which of course was very confusing.

Furthermore, it meant that some people bought tickets for these events at the ADE website through a different ticketing provider, who then came to GUTS with support questions because they read everywhere that GUTS was the ticketing partner for the event — which of course was, yes, absolutely confusing.

We are proud of our successful solution to ticket fraud and scalping, but of course constantly search for real-life feedback, which arrives through instances and experiences — such as the ones laid out above — to make our system easy and enjoyable for everyone who uses it.

This helps us now adjust our focus and development goals in the (near) future that completely suit the wishes for ticket holders of all demographics and behavior. We can’t wait.

By the way, adoption much?

Jochem Myjer charity sale makes nearly €100K in one night

Popular Dutch comedian Jochem Myjer wanted to do a special charity event to raise money for a foundation centered around finding a cure for narcolepsy — a disease that affects him personally as his daughter suffers from it. Over the past months, Jochem has opened up about his daughter’s struggle and what it means to live life with this disease.

Picture by Bob Bronsof.

This exposure was followed-up with the announcement of a one-of-a-kind event; a special edition of his popular Adem In, Adem Uit tour, to raise money for the Wakker Worden Wakker Worden (Wake Up Wake up) foundation.

For this sale, the GUTS seating system was used to assign custom pricing to newly formed sections. The highest-priced tickets also included the chance to come up on stage with Jochem for a selfie after the show.

Jochem and his management had total control over the sale, as they set the custom prices and monitored the sale in real-time for desired results and feedback from ticket buyers in the shape of demand.

To Jochem’s own amazement, the sale for this one show made nearly €100.000. This achievement also made it to several news outlets, like this one and this one.

Jochem also posted on his socials about the event and its result.

These type of ‘unusual’ sales are not only exciting for us because of the obvious good they do for the world, but also because they provide data and results about consumer behaviour.

Events like these with the specific goal of generating an optimal amount of money for a charity also provides a valuable usecase for potential clients who are looking to do the same, or it might inspire other artists to follow in Jochem’s footsteps.

Kensington chooses GUTS for album release party

Without a doubt one of the most popular current bands in The Netherlands and quickly making a name abroad, Kensington has been on our radar pretty much since we started selling tickets.

This past month we finally got the chance to ticket an event of theirs, when the sale started for the release party of their upcoming album, titled ‘Time’.

The band proved their popularity; as all tickets were sold-out within 4 minutes.

To all those who missed out..

We have been in touch with the band and their management for years. Both sides have expressed a desire to work together for a long time. Unfortunately, goodwill and a strong desire from an artist or event organizer doesn’t mean anything with the ticketing market being what it is. Long-running contracts and harsh demands from venues / labels / any other parties.

That’s why we are glad to finally get this first ‘pilot’ of sorts on the books. Now we hope to build out this collaboration in the future!

Close, but no Eurovision cigar

We were honored and very excited to be invited to come pitch for the Eurovision Songfestival, which is being held in Holland in 2020.

Unfortunately, we did not end up being selected as the ticketing partner, mainly due to a lack of proven track record. (Which is somewhat fair — but still, come on...)

It was a great sign to be invited to go up against the big ticketing companies (there were four others in the race) that have been around for ages and be able to put up a good fight.

This was one of many signs we have been getting as of recently that GUTS is now a force to be reckoned with in the ticketing space. We are now officially playing with the big boys, all of which ticket at least 10 million tickets per year, some way more.

We are now only hungrier to prove ourselves further and start taking business from the giants that have ruled the ticketing world for too long.

We can’t wait.