Bringing Live Events Back into the Spotlight with Mobile Ticketing Apps

Enjoying a Friday night at the cinema or watching your favourite football team seems like a distant memory. Attending live events has become more challenging since lockdown was introduced making the entertainment industry one of the sectors that have suffered the most during the pandemic.

With strong funding initiatives from the government and England’s Arts Council, the events industry is trying to bounce back and find new ways of adapting to the current scenario. However, the proposed schemes are not comprehensive, leaving many businesses without any support while battling the pandemic.

So, what can be achieved to help the industry get back on its feet? With 61% of businesses having 6 months left to survive according to a Feast It study, the events and entertainment industries must look for new ways to help ensure customer safety whilst strengthening loyalty to encourage as much repeat custom as possible moving forward.

There’s still hope, and we firmly believe technology can play a pivotal role in helping grow visitor numbers when the time comes for venues to reopen and audiences to return. According to a Juniper study, the rise of mobile ticketing is an opportunity to rejuvenate the sector, by successfully addressing safety concerns and restoring consumer confidence.

When digital tickets replace printed versions, entertainment venues eliminate unnecessary touchpoints and the queues caused by collecting paper tickets at the box office. We got a taste of this turning bad during the Cricket World Cup last year when people missed the first wicket of England’s opening clash against South Africa after being forced to queue outside of the game to collect tickets. But now we’re talking about a much more serious situation, where overcrowding can cause the virus to spread, subsequently delaying recovery and impacting customer service.

Mobile ticketing is the ideal solution to help tackle the current challenges as it offers a direct communications channel to each individual customer, which in turn can help deliver a safer and personalised customer experience. Customer visibility is key in implementing contact tracing among participants and mobile ticketing technology can also help with maintaining social distancing by informing about arrival and start times (known as virtual queuing), helping to stagger queues as well as speed up the check-in of guests at the gates. This can easily be done with a digital “flash pass”, which is unique thanks to the display of a dynamic word, colour and image of the day; QR codes on a mobile ticket or an NFC (near field communications) tag enabling mobile ticket activation and validation. All these facilitate rapid throughput with automated turnstiles and enable data gathering for the development of better business models and stronger customer relations through data-driven insights.

In addition, bespoke integrations with maps, transport networks, and any other data points can be accessed easily through a digital ticket app to provide visitors with the most optimal journey to the venue and even a map for when they arrive, helping them reach their seat swiftly and avoid crowds.

Capacity management and knowing the exact number of attendees (and most importantly who the attendee is) is extremely important for social distancing as it enables venue staff to better manage the flow of people in addition to delivering a personalised experience as well as rewards depending on loyalty. The presence of a digital mobile ticket can therefore become invaluable, helping the venue or event welcome guests back quicker and safer with added value.

With our Core Engine technology, all of this can become a reality and help contribute to the industry’s recovery. Our commitment at Corethree is to ensure a safer place for both participants and staff members while bringing back live experiences. We look forward to partner with theatres, stadiums, festivals, and concert venues to explore how mobile ticketing technology can help us go back to some sort of normality, with customer experience at the heart.