Feature
Seeing is
believing
EN meets See, the ticketing company
combining flexibility with scalability
F
ew sectors in the events
industry have changed
as much as ticketing has in
recent years. Once a fairly
straightforward service provider,
the average ticketing supplier
now needs the high-quality
service, technical knowhow
and data-handling capability to
provide a comprehensive service
to event organisers.
One company making
significant in-roads into the
consumer show ticketing market
is See, which is combining a
number of long-standing, loyal
customers, such as Media 10,
with recent new business wins
such as Upper Street Events.
“It all starts with
understanding where the
organiser wants to get to and
what they need to achieve,”
commercial manager Matt Evans
tells EN. “From there we can
advise how best they do this and
between the two parties form a
plan to exceed their expectations.
“The full service we offer
includes white-labelled customer
journeys, where the brand of
the event prevails, and a fully
integrated live reporting suite
that gives your event’s various
departments access to the
information they need, whenever
they need it – day or night.”
The largest independent
ticketing agency in the UK,
See works with more than 125
exhibition clients and sells for
over 250 exhibitions throughout
the year. It also partners with
festivals such as Glastonbury
and Boardmasters and is active
during the Christmas season
with involvement in events like
Christmas at Kew and The Mayor
of London’s New Year’s Eve
Fireworks.
“The majority of the time we
sit in the background, behind the
brand of the show,” continues
Evans. “Having the ‘See’ brand
exposed isn’t important to us, so
it’s not always obvious that we
are the ticketing partner.”
Another selling point for the
company is its sizable database
of event attendees, which spans
regions and demographics,
allowing organisers to gain extra
exposure to the most relevant
potential consumers.
“We do this by segmented
marketing campaigns, talking to
the right audiences, at the right
time, in the right language,”
says Evans. “We offer full onsite
support and walk-up sales
function. All scanning is live,
and that scan data is captured by
the reporting dashboard for ops
managers to be able to keep track
of how many people have walked
through the gates.”
Rob Nathan, marketing
director at Media 10, tells EN:
“If marketers
think that
the process
of ticketing
is just a
function,
then they
are sorely
misguided” -
Rob Nathan
“In an ever-evolving world of
suppliers in the events industry,
one of the few constants in my
20-plus year career has been See.
“Ticketing may seem like a
simple business, and many may
be of the opinion, ‘why not just
go for the cheapest supplier
because it’s only a process?’
Experience tells me that
nothing could be further from
the truth; the selling of tickets,
the marketing of your product
and the point where customers
transact with your brand is
incredibly complex and need
experts to make sure that this is
being handled effectively.
“See provide exceptional
customer service, unrivalled
marketing support and I have
always felt that they really care. If
marketers think that the process
of ticketing is just a function, and
that the choice of which agency
to use is not a variable in sales,
then they are sorely misguided.”
Evans agrees that a genuine
partnership is high on the
agenda: “We can partner with
an event from day one of setup
through to post event analysis.
We find ourselves in a unique
place with the market; we have
the size and scale to cope with
any event but are still flexible
and bespoke to cater for even
the most intricate of customer
journeys or client requests.” EN
May — 33