Part 5: Alan Gibson, Edinburgh Festival Fringe & Gavin Dutch, Kotikan

Technology Solutions for Tourism Conference 2012

Thursday 23rd FebruaryPart 5: Case Study – Alan Gibson, Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Gavin Dutch, Kotikan

Monetising the Fringe Festival App

Wednesday, 14 March 2012

Monetising the Fringe Apps

Alan Gibson & Gavin Dutch

Technology Solutions for Tourism


2,452 shows

258 venues 21,912 performers

41,689 performances

1,877,119 tickets issued

In 2011

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the largest, open-access arts festival in the world.The Fringe Society exists to: • Advise, support and encourage all participants at the Festival Fringe• Provide comprehensive, accurate and up-to-date information and

ticketing services, to its participants and the public• Promote the entire Fringe as a festival in the context of Edinburgh

and other festivals.


Why Invest in Mobile?• The Fringe

programme– Print run 400,000

copies– Expensive to

distribute– Environmental impact– 68% use as their main

source of information


A Brief History• 2009

– Festivals Edinburgh partnership– A listings app to help navigate

Edinburgh’s summer festivals– Cost £1.69– 1,650 downloads



– Fringe branded– Free to download– Exclusive Half Price Hut feed– Store favourites and planner calendar– 22,519 downloads - 369,000 sessions



– Support From Virgin Money/Arts & Business Scotland

– Develop for Android platform to increase reach to smart phone users

– Develop mobile ticket purchase on iPhone and Android as additional sales channel to edfringe and box office


The Techie Bit• Platforms

– Why not mobile web– Why Android?

• Challenges– Keeping listings current– Creating a positive user journey– Multiple box office systems– Transaction security– 2 months to deliver


Design• Usability is paramount in

delivering a positive app experience– Optimizing experience for

mobile– Text input is painful on a

mobile– No need for shopping

baskets– Account management for

new and existing Fringe customers


1Wednesday, 14 March 2012

To achieve that one tap


Transaction Processing• Box office integration

– Using Red61’s VIA box office system– Robust handling of poor connections

• Security considerations– PCI compliance on mobile?– Financial partner required additional

assurances– Critical functionality tested as early as

possible


Demo


Results• Downloads

– iPhone: 32,062– Android: 13,022– Total: 45,084 (730,000 sessions)

• 7% Fringe attendees used it as their main source of information – predominantly 15–44

• 9,475 transactions sold 21,000 tickets


Added Value for Fringe • Additional ticket sales channel• Marketing tool to attract younger

audiences• Fringe Society well positioned to

capitalize on the forecast rapid growth of mobile use

• Robust mobile platform for future years


Thank you


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Part 5: Alan Gibson, Edinburgh Festival Fringe & Gavin Dutch, Kotikan

Technology

Transcript of Part 5: Alan Gibson, Edinburgh Festival Fringe & Gavin Dutch, Kotikan