A new ticketing and event management solution hopes to change the way venues in the UK and the U.S. sell tickets by providing them with an easy, low-cost platform to manage everything from sales to backend operations.
The company is called Ticket ABC and the platform was launched in the UK in March. Ticket ABC’s parent company, Ticket Text, was started in 2006 as a mobile ticketing agency. By delivering e-tickets and bar-coded SMS tickets, the company built a client base with its digital services. When these clients began voicing desires to take their ticketing in-house—without having to pay hefty licensing fees for software—Ticket Text developed the platform that would become Ticket ABC.
“The traditional model is to license software,” Ticket ABC founder Mark McLaughlin told TicketNews. “There wasn’t a platform that matched the venue needs. The solution was Ticket ABC.”
There is no up-front fee to use the platform. A fee of 5% of the value of the transaction, plus 50 cents per transaction, is charged when a ticket is purchased. McLaughlin says this fee pays for administrative costs like hosting and credit card processing.
Clients can create and sell tickets to events using Ticket ABC but also manage their operations with customer service features like refunds and complimentary tickets. Sales and customer data is easily accessible and owned by the venue. By connecting operations and venue management to ticketing, McLaughlin said his company created a “one-stop shop as simple to use as Facebook.”
Ticket ABC operates in the UK with clients like the Luminaire in London and the University College, Dublin. McLaughin says he plans to bring his platform to the U.S. soon. McLaughlin was quick to mention key aspects of Ticket ABC that give it an edge over competitors in the US.
In addition to being a one-stop shop, McLaughlin believes Ticket Text’s experience with mobile ticketing gives it a head start in an industry that is already going mobile (Juniper Research reported that by 2011, 2.6 billion mobile tickets will be delivered to 208 million mobile phones). He mentioned that data collected by mobile ticketing offers new possibilities for revenue.
“What can we do with those numbers? How can we make money? That’s why the mobile side of things is so crucial,” he said.
McLaughlin says a U.S. launch is expected, though he did not offer specific dates. Until then, he and his company continue to refine Ticket ABC based on customer feedback.
“We want to be the best backend possible. We can make clients more money not just with tickets but through venue management.”
