SEATWAVE CASE STUDYCrisis communications: managing The Great Ticket Scandal

BACKGROUND»Ballou PR was asked to develop and implement a crisis communications strategy for online ticket hub Seatwave. The company was set to appear on Channel 4’s Dispatches current affairs programme – which had sent an undercover reporter to masquerade as a Seatwave employee. The reporter surreptitiously filmed and recorded Seatwave staff in preparation for an episode devoted to the UK’s secondary ticketing market.

WE WERE TASKED TO ...»Design a communications approach that would mitigate reputational damage to Seatwave»Find ways to cut through the programme polemical approach and elevate awareness of the benefits of Seatwave’s USP – and the secondary ticketing market in general – to fans and customers»Limit the amount of Seatwave-specific content that would appear in the episode »Flip the issues raised by Dispatches as points of engagement with fans, customers and Seatwave stakeholders

THE CHALLENGE

» Ballou PR analysed the probable content of the episode, based on communications with the producers, industry contacts, the undercover journalist’s scope of access to Seatwave, and our knowledge of the main, anti-secondary ticketing activists.

» We controlled the conversation in advance of broadcast communicating directly with staff, fans, customers, board, and shareholders. Appropriate content was created for each audience, and propagated via traditional email and social media to extend audience and engagement.

» Letters were developed and distributed to staff, customers, and stakeholders on a staggered priority schedule.

» A series of blog postings from Seatwave Founder and CEO Joe Cohen were developed to address the main issues. Twitter and relevant hashtags were used to drive #Dispatches viewers to the blog.

» Social media channels were monitored during the broadcast and suggested tweets created where appropriate, referencing the longer, more considered responses on the Seatwave blog.

OUR APPROACH

» Ballou PR was able to shift the emphasis of the programme to Seatwave competitor Viagogo. The first 43 minutes of the episode focused on Viagogo, versus only 10 minutes at the back end of the programme devoted to Seatwave.

» 39 pieces of significant media coverage appeared before and after the episode, primarily neutral or positive to Seatwave, with 3-4 pieces of negative coverage.

» Significant Twitter activity in direct response to Joe Cohen’s @SeatwaveJoe blog-related tweets during the programme. The tone of Twitter comment was split roughly evenly, with our strategy ensuring that sceptics and a few highly vocal anti-Seatwave trolls didn’t own these conversations.

» A number of Tweets specifically complimented Seatwave’s handling of the situation.

» Ballou PR was able to ‘turn’ one journalist who originally took a negative view of Seatwave prior to broadcast, but later published a pro-Seatwave piece after an interview with Joe Cohen.

RESULTS

London – Paris – Berlin

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