experience , the quality of the sound and sight lines , but also the facilities available to production staff and artists .
“ It was game changing ,” says Langford . “ It completely changed the way tours are booked in Europe because , without a doubt , any arena tour coming through Europe anchors itself first with the availability of The O2 . It added a whole new level of customer service and a focus on the artists that we had not seen previously outside of North America .
“ The arrival of The O2 revolutionised the way the business was done and underscored the fact London could be the greatest live music market in the world .”
The arena ’ s launch involved a ground-breaking naming rights deal with telecoms group O2 . It not only ensured the availability of highend digital connectivity in the venue but resulted in an innovative ticket pre-sale initiative .
AEG Global Partnerships executive vice president Paul Samuels was integral to the creation of the £ 6 million-per-year naming rights deal for the venue back in 2005 when he was head of sponsorship at O2 . At O2 , Samuels negotiated sponsorship deals with the likes of
Rebranding as The O3 for
Drake ’ s shows
Arsenal Football Club and the national England Rugby Union team but a multi-faceted naming rights partnership with a venue such as The O2 had not been attempted before in the UK .
Gareth Griffiths director of partnerships and sponsorships at Virgin Media O2 has been working with The O2 for the past decade and oversees the relationship . He says his proudest moment was successfully negotiating a 10-year extension to the naming rights deal to 2028 .
“ Back in 2005 you didn ’ t have naming rights deals at venues , so it was a very innovative and brave step for the business ,” he says . “ It took some convincing over many , many months , with Paul taking lots of trips to America to look at venues and speak with AEG . There were also lots of conversations with our shareholder Telefónica in Spain , because it was
such a big commitment .
“ It is easy to look back now and see what a huge success it ’ s been but at the time it was a big investment and a big risk . We got kicked back a couple of times internally but got there in the end and signed the deal in late 2005 and the venue opened two years later .”
O2 ’ s customer reward scheme Priority was born out of the partnership with AEG . It now involves an array of offers but was launched as Priority Tickets , an offering providing O2 customers with an exclusive 48-hour window to buy tickets for shows at The O2 before they went on general sale . Pre-sale ticket offers are widespread now but when Priority Tickets launched nothing like it existed in the market .
“ From a promoter perspective ; suddenly you had a partner that was able to market tickets on your behalf and that game changed the way
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