This is a guest post from Rory Nicolson, Social Media Manager at rugbystore.co.uk where he dissects a few nifty ticketing strategies based on geographical audience targeting used by the event organisers of some of the world’s largest sporting events.

As you’re undoubtedly aware, the 2015 Rugby World Cup is fast approaching with some tickets still up for grabs and others becoming available through resale.

To give you an idea of the magnitude of the ticket sales targets for the event, it was reported that the organisers of the Rugby World Cup were tasked to cover the Rugby Football Union’s £80 million hosting rights expense.

To help meet those lofty targets, event organisers are being urged not to solely rely on methods from the old school which are largely focused on reselling to those who have purchased in the past.

Instead, reaching out and engaging with new audiences has proven effective for a number of sporting event organisers in recent times.

The marketing team at the NBA’s Washington Wizards is a prime example.

 Geo-targeted search marketing: Washington Wizards, NBA

The Washington Wizards breathed new life into their supporter base after breaking a 5-year playoff hiatus in the 2013/2014 season. They managed to replicate this in the recently completed 2014/2015 season where they reached the Eastern Conference semi-finals.

Responding to this surge in on-court performance, the Wizards’ marketing team decided to seize the opportunity to target new supporters based on geographical Google AdWords targeting.

Until this point, their marketing activities were based heavily on the old school methods of print, radio and local news. They decided to start an AdWords campaign based on the geo-targeting of Washington Wizard related Google searches performed outside their usual fan catchment area.

The results were nearly too good to be true. By simply targeting a new geographical area with tailored ticket pricing, the Wizards were able to achieve an average return on ad spend of 293% for the 2013/2014 season (a figure definitely worth writing home about!)

Even better, of the fans who purchased tickets as a result of this campaign, 72% had never before been to a Wizards game, so continuing to engage with these new ticket holders will prove invaluable to the Washington Wizards well into the future.

What can we learn from the Wizards’ ticketing strategy?  

Due to the stature of the NBA, it is important to keep in mind the exorbitant budget that was available to this particular team of marketers. However we can see that a simple tweak to the geographical targeting of your audience could result in a significant increase in ticket sales, especially to audiences who you have previously not been engaged with.

This lesson is invaluable to event organisers and should be considered whenever you are attempting to reach out to new audiences.

Reaching new audiences through venue change: The Ashes & Australian Rugby League

Another strategy to increase ticket sales and audience engagement metrics is the changing of traditional event venues. It goes without saying that a great way to increase customer engagement is to make your product more accessible to the user. If your product is live sport, how can this be achieved?

The most obvious approach to this is currently being addressed by the evolving world of sports telecasting and online live-streaming services. But what about physically taking the live sport experience to a new audience who is hungry for your product?

The Ashes

The event organisers tasked with the promotion of the cricketing world’s fiercest rivalry, the Ashes, relocated the first test of the 2009 series to Cardiff, Wales. They’ve again hosted the first test in Cardiff in this year’s series, signalling the success of the 2009 experiment.

Changing venues from one of traditional heritage to an emerging market tends to generate a great deal of hype within the given international sporting community. This hype, on top of the valuable opportunity to engage with new potential ticket buyers, can give event organisers leverage to work with in terms of driving ticket sales.

Australian Rugby League: NRL and State of Origin

The same strategy has been used within Australian rugby league. The world’s premier club rugby league competition, the National Rugby League (NRL), have held regular season matches in a number of new venues across Australia. These new geo-targeted areas tend to be traditional strongholds of competing codes (particularly the Australian Football League).

Also in an attempt to broaden the audience of the annual State of Origin series contested by Queensland and New South Wales, the NRL have scheduled one match to be played on neutral territory every 2 years. Despite angering some travel-shy loyal supporters, the NRL continue to successfully build their market by taking some of their best live products to new geographical areas.

What can we learn from the Ashes’ and NRL’s ticket targeting strategies?

Again, we can see that event organisers are in favour of geographic tweaks to their ticket sale strategies. By being flexible with the selection of hosting venues for high profile sporting events, event organisers are able to reach new, valuable audiences who are crying out to be engaged with.

It’s important to remember however that by employing ticketing strategies similar to those described, you run the risk of stepping on the toes of your existing loyal customer base, so tread carefully.

How has all this impacted the 2015 Rugby World Cup?

In a similar strategy to those highlighted above, the Rugby World Cup’s organisers have been smart about targeting new audiences in different geographical areas by sharing the love.

For example smaller, regional stadiums such as the Brighton Community Stadium and Exeter’s Sandy Park are set to host a number of matches across the event (even if the teams scheduled to play at these stadiums aren’t likely to feature in the finals).

Blackburn RUFC are also on board with supporting the Rugby World Cup – launching a social media campaign designed to bring local rugby clubs into the public eye. With rugby legends backing the #MoreThanRugby campaign, organisers are hoping to harness the popularity of the Rugby World Club and use it to grow support for local clubs – by networking across social media.

By bringing rugby into the digital eye, it’s hoped that the #MoreThanRugby campaign will break down the barrier between local and worldwide talent – uniting rugby lovers from all around the world.

In another attempt to bring fans closer to the action, the Web Ellis Cup Trophy Tour is currently on a 100 day tour of the UK and Ireland – connecting fans and players from amateur to elite level and immersing them in the world of rugby.

More ways to get your geographical targeting right

 If you you’re planning a sporting event, endurance race or competitive tournament (in fact any event at all), then how do you find out the best places to locate your event, or which regions you should specifically target your marketing to (such as Adwords, social media or PR)?

One method would be to check out your Google Analytics reports for your website (or event page) and see which regions, or cities, your traffic is coming from. This will help you understand the geographic spread of interest (and even if you have an international audience).

However to get a really accurate picture of your event’s audience, you’ll want to see where people buying tickets are located. This is easily done using Eventbrite’s analytics dashboard, which will give you a map overview of where your ticket sales are coming from.

Armed with this information, you can more effectively target your marketing campaigns at those areas that are most profitable; and also learn about new areas you can host future events in by seeing where there is existing demand.

Summary

At some point, if you want to grow your event – whether it’s a huge international sporting tournament or a first-year obstacle race – you’ll need to look beyond your existing customer base, and one of the smartest strategies is to find attendees in new locations.

Remember what Phil and Kirstie say: it’s all about location, location, location after all!

About the author

Rory Nicolson is a graduate of the University of Stirling and is currently Social Media Manager at rugbystore.co.uk. A long suffering supporter of the Scotland and Edinburgh rugby teams, he creates content for blog.rugbystore.co.uk and other social channels.