Structured CouponingMaking a business case

Every chorus has these business needs• Need for a ticket engine that includes, but is not overly dependent

on, singers• Need to expand the ticket sales window well beyond the final week

or two before a performance• Need to capture patron contact data• Need to constantly expand our audience• Need to balance the sometimes conflicting objectives of attendance

and revenue, so that we attract the largest audience while generating the largest amount of revenue

How do you meet these needs?

• Pump lots of money and time into marketing and marketing research• Or try what we tried …

STRUCTURED COUPONING

Advantages of Structured Couponing• Easy to control because the coupon must be redeemed online• Always get full and accurate information because contact information

is entered at least 50% of your audience• Singers HATE being sales people and record-keepers; now they feel

like they are giving something away, not asking for something• The headache of keeping up with singer tickets, accounting for

money, and hounding them goes away• Gives you a way to objectively evaluate the effectiveness of your

advertising

More advantages

• Money comes in weeks earlier, before the expenses are incurred• Creates early buzz• Improves your ability to predict attendance so you can do something

to impact attendance, trim costs, etc.• Shifts your primary relationship away from SingerAudience to

OrganizationAudience. This is CRITICAL to your future success.• It helps you capture new audiences who, in their initial exposure to

you, are extremely price sensitive

Our Solution: Structured Couponing

8 wks out 7 wks out 6 wks out 5 wks out 4 wks out 3 wks out 2 wks out 1 wk out Concert0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%% of Tickets Sold

BOGOEmail only

Must redeem online

$5 Off Email / Print / Flyers / Broadcast / EVERYWHERE!$10 Off from Chorus Members Only

Must redeem online

NO COUPONS

Ancillary things we did

• RAISED the prices of tickets as we implemented this • Issued paper coupons to the singers (as well as emailing them)