As the event world reopens with a post-pandemic boom, audiences have more pent-up excitement than ever for concerts and festivals. That surge in demand has been met with an increase in supply and a flurry of announcements for shows, making it more difficult than ever to cut through the noise.

All-in-one event marketing platform Audience Republic believes that this represents a big opportunity for festivals, promoters, and artists. “Right now we have a unique window in time, which probably will never be repeated,” says CEO Jared Kristensen. “There’s this huge pent-up demand, which can be leveraged to build an audience you own, setting you up for 2022 and beyond.”

Audience Republic’s presale registration platform helps promoters harness this moment, rather than letting it go to waste. Previously invite-only, the presale registration platform is now available to all promoters, festivals, and artists globally.

“The presale registration platform has been one of our secret weapons,” says Kristensen. “It’s like putting gas on the fire. In many cases we’ve seen double or triple the number of total presale registrations, as a result of the referrals from our platform.”

But it’s not about selling more presale tickets according to the company. “You don’t need help selling more presale tickets. It’s really about leveraging the announcement to build up a massive audience you own,” says Kristensen. “That helps you sell the remainder of the general onsale, and generate & gauge demand for additional dates. That way, you can announce and sell out those dates, just by sending an email or a text message. But more importantly, using that audience to drive ticket sales for future shows for years to come.”

So how do you achieve these explosive results? Before tickets go on sale, fans sign up for presale access through the registration link shared by the promoter or artist. Fans earn points for referring friends to sign up for presale access via Facebook Messenger, Instagram DMs, WhatsApp, and other platforms, subscribe to receive text messages and email, as well as complete other actions. The top point scorers are rewarded with prizes that include money-can't-buy experiences such as VIP and side-of-stage access, backstage passes, and meet and greets with headline artists.

Promoters and artists have full control over customizing the points and rewards system for their event, giving endless flexibility in targeting current fans and increasing word-of-mouth to reach new audiences, to help stand out among the glut of competing show announcements. And when it comes time to send out links to ticket sales after the registration period, Audience Republic is designed to work with all major ticketing platforms, with promoters using their existing services like Ticketmaster, AXS, Etix and others, with promoters or artists keeping the audience data they’ve captured.

Audience Republic’s CRO, Brian Arnone, reflects, “After a challenging year for the music industry, we’re excited to play our part to bring audiences back to the live music experience.”  This is a unique moment in time for the music industry, and unprecedented demand has to be met by unprecedented attention to fans’ expectations and providing a memorable experience, in 2021 and for years to come.

www.audiencerepublic.com

Event marketing software company Audience Republic has appointed former Patron Technology President and CRO Brian Arnone as Chief Revenue Officer. 

“We’re thrilled to have Brian onboard,” says Audience Republic CEO Jared Kristensen. “With over two decades of experience, including leadership roles at Ticketfly, Showclix and Patron Technology, Brian will play a critical role in continuing our growth in North America, Europe, United Kingdom, and our other markets globally.”

“Audience Republic is the answer to a question people have been asking me my whole career: ‘How are you going to help me sell more tickets?’” says Arnone “I’ve had to answer that question more times than I can count.”

Arnone’s work at Patron Technology included leading Sales, Marketing, and Account Management teams of 250 people. He served on the company’s Senior Leadership team, acquiring companies in the realms of ticketing, mobile apps, experiential marketing, logistics software, and cashless RFID.

Prior to Patron Technology, Arnone served as President and COO of Pittsburgh-based ShowClix, growing the company’s revenue by 240% within three years through his direction of the company’s Sales, Marketing, and Client and Customer Success teams. Arnone credits his success there to the talented team of people he worked with. In 2017, this growth led to the successful sale of the company to private equity firm Providence Strategic Growth.

As SVP of Sales for Ticketfly, Arnone fostered major growth in his sales team of 50+ people, which played a key role in the company’s successful sale to Pandora in 2015. Arnone describes Ticketfly as “a special group. It was incredible. Everyone worked hard and had each other’s backs.”

The work Audience Republic has done in building a platform specific to events makes it a logical next step for both Arnone’s career and the industry as a whole, and Arnone is excited to be part of it. “What’s been missing in the industry for a long time is an actual Event CRM,” he says. “I think with Audience Republic, what’s critical is we’re not doing it against anybody; we’re actually doing it in conjunction with partners throughout the industry. We’re able to work together as a collaborator rather than a disruptor, for the better of the client.”

As a trusted leader in the field, Arnone brings his ability to forge and maintain relationships while significantly growing company revenue as he helps Audience Republic continue to fulfill their mission of being the number one platform powering the marketing for all events.

“For Audience Republic, we’re targeting fast growth,” he says. “As we continue our expansion, we’ll be opening ourselves up to additional segments in music, sport and entertainment, as well as growing our teams in North America and Europe.”

For Arnone, Audience Republic’s growth potential is inextricably linked to the collaboration at its core. “I look at Audience Republic as an opportunity to partner with a lot of people that I respect,” he says, noting that his career to date has been largely based around building a diverse network of technological innovators and event organizers. 

Audience Republic stands out as a leader in the space. “I love the idea of making it as easy as possible for the artist or the promoter to truly own, understand and actually use their audience” he says. “As far as how the Audience Republic platform looks to the consumer and the results that the promoter or the artist gets, it’s incredibly valuable, especially as the industry weans itself off so heavily relying on social platforms to drive ticket sales.” 

Arnone sees an exciting time ahead for Audience Republic, and the industry as a whole as the world opens back up, about which he is optimistic – “Probably the most optimistic ever, actually,” he says. “The next two to three years for the event industry will be pretty magical.”

Social platforms come and go, but audiences are everything for event promoters. If Facebook or Instagram disappeared tomorrow, what would happen to ticket sales? That is where Audience Republic comes in, a marketing platform designed specifically for promoters, festivals, artists, and venues, to rally their fans and harness their data to sell more tickets.

With social media algorithms constantly shifting under their feet, event promoters are often left stranded, with no direct access to the fans or attendees they know are out there. “Many are just so over-reliant on social media to sell tickets,” says co-founder and CEO Jared Kristensen. “However, people are waking up to the fact they don’t own the followers they’re building up on social media.”

Audience Republic puts events on solid ground, as an all-in-one marketing platform that helps events of all kinds sell more tickets. Designed to work with all ticketing platforms, Audience Republic’s Fan CRM is a single place to bring together sales and audience data from the platforms event professionals already use. 

“We offer a way for them to actually use their data to sell more,” says Kristensen. “That includes tickets for physical events or livestreams, as well as merch, album launches, and memberships.” This is achieved through their email marketing platform, text messaging platform, and advertising network integrations, all specifically tailored for promoters and artists.

One of Audience Republic’s secret weapons, however, is their Presale Registration platform. The straightforward name hides a gamified process that delivers explosive results. Fans are rewarded for referring their friends using a points-based system that lets them earn prizes. Rewards have included exclusive, money-can't-buy experiences such as backstage passes, meet and greets with headline artists, personal video messages for fans, and even NFTs. 

“The pre-sale announcement is a high-impact moment. You need to make the most of it,” says Kristensen. “The results we see through this process are exponential.” This has led to success stories like EDM festival Lights All Night, whose recent ticket presale in June sold out in just thirty minutes. Lights All Night is one of the longest-running independent music festivals in the US, with over 40,000 attendees expected at this year’s two-day event that returns to Dallas, Texas for a massive year-end celebration on December 30-31. 

As venues reopen and promoters strive to channel pent-up fan demand, making use of this unique moment in time is crucial. ”It’s about more than just selling presale tickets,” he says. “It’s about using the announcement to build an audience you own, to help sell the remainder of general onsale, to gauge and generate demand for additional dates, and to sell future shows. That’s the secret.”

“Everybody wants to be that person who knows about something before their friend,” notes Brian Arnone, Chief Revenue Officer, who brings 25 years of expertise in event technology to the company. “Audience Republic systematically gives fans the power to do that as you register for a campaign.” By giving promoters insights into customers’ spending habits and brand loyalty, Audience Republic allows them to identify and reward top customers and announce new events with a bang. 

Kristensen’s experience of losing $20,000 on his second event as a new promoter in 2009—his first having been an instant sold-out success—is one he often calls on as a reminder of how challenging the business can be. “Every promoter has a similar story,” says Kristensen. “It’s a stressful job. If we can help reduce the risk, help future proof their ticket sales, reduce the spend on paid ads and reduce some of their stress levels by saving time, we are doing our job.”

For Audience Republic, the key is giving users direct ownership of their audiences. “Our core belief is that you should own your audience,” says Arnone. “What Audience Republic brings is really the platform and the marketing expertise,” he says, “giving you better, quicker insights into your customer database and then an easy, self-service way of promoting to your fans.” 

“Everybody has asked their ticketing provider, ‘How are you going to help me sell more tickets?’” Arnone recounts. “‘How are you going to help me get more people in the door?’ Now, their answer is Audience Republic.”