Marketing and advertising expert Amanda Pekoe to Speak at Ticket Summit

Amanda Pekoe has long been involved with the theater: prior to starting The Pekoe group, a full-service theatrical marketing and advertising company, she was a theater performer and then an intern with various arts management companies in New York. After receiving her MFA in performing arts management, Pekoe moved into the theatrical marketing world and soon realized she wanted to move out on her own and create her own marketing company. Less than a year ago, she started The Pekoe Group, and her clients now include the Tony-nominated musical Rock of Ages.

Pekoe will be speaking at the upcoming Ticket Summit, January 13-15 in New York City, and TicketNews corresponded with Pekoe to get her thoughts on her work, the ticket industry, and what attendees can expect from her at the Ticket Summit.

TicketNews: How does your work at the Pekoe Group connect you with the ticket industry?

Amanda Pekoe: As a marketing company for theatrical events we interface with several different ticketing companies, including Ticketmaster, Telecharge, Smarttix, Ticketcentral, and Ovation Tix. We work with the production teams and box offices to set up promotional offers and codes through the ticketing companies. We also occasionally purchase advertising on the various ticketing sites in the form of web banner ads and e-blasts. Additionally we often provide the copy and images to the ticketing services for our clients' show pages.

TN: Do you see any challenges ahead for the ticket industry?

AP: I think that the ticket industry has kept up with the changing landscape of ticket-buying trends extremely well. People are now buying most of their tickets online and searching for promotional offers before purchasing their tickets. I think that this trend will continue and the ticket industry will need to keep up with the ever-changing fast-paced needs of the events to get new information built into their pages.

TN: Any emerging players/companies making an impact on the industry?

AP: I have been hearing about Ticketwise lately - but not sure if this is a company looking to break into the theatre industry.

TN: What do you plan on discussing at the show?

AP: I plan on talking about marketing strategies for different types of theatrical events - how certain aspects of a marketing campaign tend to remain the same for theatre as a whole, while other shows require a different type of strategy for getting the word out.