Ticketek expands consumer services with ECAL calendar partnership

Ticketing agency Ticketek Australasia is increasing its range of services to customers through a new partnership with Melbourne-based global calendar marketing and communications technology company ECAL.

Ticketek will integrate ECAL’s ‘Sync to Calendar’ technology on its website and email communication— from event search and discovery to waitlist and post-purchase scenarios.

Customers can, with a few clicks, add their music and entertainment events and favourite sports and teams into their personal calendars to keep updated on ticket on-sale dates, ticket offers and other event details.

They also have direct access to purchase via their personal calendar.

A recent online ECAL survey reports that 70% of Australian adults rely on their digital calendar most to manage their life, with over 47% reliant on their mobile calendar.

ECAL’s smart calendar marketing system enables events to bypass the inbox and sync directly to a calendar.

Geoff Jones, CEO of Ticketek’s parent company TEG notes that the new ‘Sync to Calendar’ feature adds to the suite of innovation under the Ticketek Ignition program.

“The ECAL platform will enable Ticketek to help our partners engage in exciting new ways, gather invaluable consumer insights, continually learn and refine the calendar communications service to optimise sales,” Jones says.

“This represents a new media channel that is ideally suited to the sports and entertainment market, given that event dates, start times and venue details are the most relevant pieces of information when it comes to the show.”

Ticketek Ignition opens Ticketek’s internal network and systems to enable multiple ticket purchasing experiences across multiple platforms and partner systems which include sports, venues and entertainment promoters.

Adds Jones, “The new ‘Sync to Calendar’ feature is a wonderful initiative by our product and marketing teams, and reinforces our commitment to deliver the most personalised, connected and intelligent ticketing experience for today’s modern, mobile consumers.”

Ticketek has over 150 venue and sport partnerships and issues 28 million tickets per year.

By ticket sales volume that puts it in the top three ticketing companies in the world.

Its website has 26 million impressions monthly and a leader in mobile commerce with over 1.3 million app downloads.

ECAL (visit here) was founded by technology entrepreneur Patrick Barrett in 2010, and is the world’s first purpose-built ‘calendar marketing’ platform for users’ personal calendars.

Barrett, its CEO, says, “ECAL is thrilled to partner with Australasia’s leading ticketing platform in Ticketek, to work hand-in-hand with TEG Analytics to uncover insights into purchase behaviour, and further develop our smart data and ‘decisioning’ platform.

“We are looking forward to delivering a highly beneficial service for entertainment fans, and more sales and support for sports, venues and promoters, with ECAL’s in-calendar marketing logic typically working at up to double the normal ‘purchase rate’.”