AEG launches digital marketing effort for axs.com
Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) has begun a digital marketing campaign for its consumer ticketing Web site axs.com, as the company looks to ramp up sales.
Specific details of the initiative were not disclosed, but the company said this week that it plans to concentrate on search engine marketing (SEM) efforts. International digital marketing company iCrossing will develop the campaigns.
“The axs ticketing platform is new, so getting exposure within search is key,” said Todd Sims, AEG’s digital division senior vice president, in a statement released late yesterday, November 14.
AEG will use “connected paid search” efforts to drive consumers to the site and build customer relationships for future sales. The company plans to simultaneously run an undisclosed number of campaigns based around various venues or events.
The first two campaigns recently promoted events at Denver’s Ogden Theatre and Bluebird Theater. But AEG intends to launch more than 25 new campaigns based on events at other venues in the coming weeks.
“AEG recognizes the importance of being visible where its customers are, and engaging with them in ways they want,” Brian Powley, president of iCrossing’s North American division, said in a statement.
The iCrossing search engine campaigns also will include e-mail marketing, online advertising and social media initiatives.
The axs site is AEG’s retail ticketing response to Ticketmaster.com, the nation’s dominant ticket seller. AEG launched the site over the summer in an effort to complement its white label ticket selling solution with Outbox Technology.
The AEG/Outbox effort allows venues to create their own, branded ticket-selling Web sites and control their customer relationships and data. Axs.com will give those venues another centralized Web site from which they can sell tickets.
Former Ticketmaster CEO Fred Rosen, who joined Outbox last year, is overseeing the white label effort. Rosen could not be reached for comment today, November 15.
“There’s an entry point through the venues, and an entry point through axs,” Rosen previously told TicketNews in August. “They can build the overarching brand of axs, while also building the local brand through the venue, so consumers can easily find the attraction they want.”
