Ticketfly, a social ticketing platform, announced on February 8 that it is forming a partnership with ScoreBig, a ticketing distribution channel that offers discounted tickets through its “make an offer” platform. The relationship, which is geared towards casual fans, will give both companies the opportunity to build and efficiently serve their client base.

Ticketfly, founded by the team that introduced ticketing to the Web, is a cloud-based platform that provides ticketing websites, social marketing, and analytic tools to help venues and promoters increase ticket sales and encourage communication among consumers.

Ticketfly’s latest partner, ScoreBig, was recently named to Forbes‘ list of “Most Promising Companies” of 2011. The ticketing company offers sports, concerts, and theater organizations with an outlet to move unsold inventory at a discounted price that does not negatively impact their brand.

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Ticketfly and ScoreBig join a list of others in the ticketing industry that have partnered with similar organizations as a way of reaching more consumers. In January, TicketNews discussed the partnership between Twitter and the music intelligence platform The Echo Nest, which will allow application developers to incorporate “tweets” from music artists into their application in order to build artist-to-fan interaction. Ticketmaster announced the development of its new Facebook app that will combine users’ Spotify history with their geographic location to recommend relevant concerts.

In an email to TicketNews, CEO and founder of ScoreBig Adam Kanner said, “Undoubtedly, this makes both companies stronger and more attractive to
industry partners and consumers alike.”

ScoreBig’s “make an offer” platform provides members with savings between 10 and 60 percent off of retail prices. Members of ScoreBig search for an event, choose the number of tickets and general seating area, and make a reasonable offer. If the offer is accepted, users are encouraged to share their purchase with friends on Facebook.

“We make it very easy for our members to share the great deals in sports, theater and music and we encourage them to share the experiences that our channel enables,” said Kanner of ScoreBig. “Going to a live event is a social endeavor and it’s fun — exactly the kind of thing that people love to tell their friends.”

While reduced ticket prices will undoubtedly attract more consumers, the word “discounted” is still something that many promoters are not yet comfortable with because it may associate negativity with their brand.

However, ScoreBig and Ticketfly reassure their clients that the unique channel eliminates the pitfalls of traditional discounting strategies and effectively makes use of supply and demand.

“We know that many promoters aren’t yet comfortable with discounting, but ScoreBig is approaching things in fresh ways that we feel will resonate with our clients and help them move more inventory,” said Gannon Hall, senior vice president of marketing for Ticketfly in a recent email to TicketNews.

Nearly 40 percent of live entertainment tickets are unsold. The partnership will give Ticketfly’s venues and promoters access to a broader distribution channel and a unique sales approach that works to fill empty seats while ScoreBig’s consumers will have the opportunity to browse live events from an increased inventory.

“Overall, this represents another step in the evolution of the live event industry towards more sophisticated approaches to marketing and pricing,” said Kanner of ScoreBig.