The War For Innovation – StubHub vs. Ticketmaster

By Ashley Bening, SFAMA (Interim) Blog Manager

Two ticket distributors, StubHub and Ticketmaster, are duking it out in the fight to be leaders in mobile and social innovations. These big trends are something the leaders in the digital world are taking seriously. The winners of this race are finding ways to implement these tactics into their marketing structure. StubHub and Ticketmaster are competing to drive sales using cutting edge mobile and social trends.

StubHub

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On August 30th,, Padres vs. Giants at AT&T park, StubHub partnered with the Giants and launched a mobile ticket. Using the StubHub application, tickets are scanned at entry and then a small ticket is printed out to insure re-entry. Mashable was invited to test out the new mobile innovation. From a user experience standpoint, the tickets should help the patron get into the game faster, easier and with less hassle. The app gets bonus points for saving trees and preventing loss of tickets. An interesting fact, one of the driving factors of the mobile ticket is to gather information and gain customer insight. What they do with this information would be a good question to ask. Overall, the service makes life easier and utilizes the mobile trend.

Ticketmaster

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Ticketmaster introduced a Facebook plug-in called Seat Tagging. This social innovation allows the consumers to tell their friends where they are sitting. When purchasing tickets a digital floor map with the Facebook profile pictures of their friends is displayed. The coolest feature is the ability to tag friends for whom you purchased tickets. It is a fun concept and has generated additional revenue for Tickemaster.

“Each time a ticket buyer shared with Facebook friends that he was attending an event, Hubbard said, that alert generated $5.30 in additional ticket revenue.” – Fast Company Magazine

In the end, the war for innovation is ongoing, but both ticketing sites can learn something from each other. StubHub would benefit from implementing a social aspect to their mobile application, giving a digital map of friends attending the game. Ticketmaster would benefit from mobile tickets, giving customers the capability of knowing when friends arrive at the event. The mobile ticket and seat tagging innovations are great inventions, but they still have ground to cover to win the war on innovation.

Do you want to know what a sports marketing professional thinks of these new ticketing innovations? You can find out the answer and more at the SFAMA Sports Marketing Panel at AT&T Park on 9/20!

REGISTER Now!
Online registration closes at 12 noon on 9/20; after that time only walk-ins will be accepted.

Picture Credits: Mashable, Fast Company Magazine