Just a few short days ago, we were comparing the landscape of the music streaming business to that of a world map for the game of “Risk.” Now, we find yet another company is moving around the “game board.” This time though, it is not a music streaming service. Ticketfly, the San Francisco founded, data-driven, ticketing and marketing platform, announced this morning what is essentially their “first move” into international territory; establishing a permanent presence in Canada.
Ticketfly’s expansion does not just translate to erecting a new building and starting business. The major changes and decisions executed by the company are three-fold and intended to set up Ticketfly to hit the ground running in Canada’s event market, rather than starting from scratch.
Two major Canadian venues and promoters, Collective Concerts and Union Events, have negotiated agreements with Ticketfly, giving it the authority to run the main marketing and ticket related business both the companies. The third component of Ticketfly’s settling into Canada involves its assimilation of Prime Box Office, a top level figure in ticket retailing for Calgary and other areas in the surrounding region. According to the company’s Facebook page, Prime Box Office was known as the exclusive ticket retailer for the MacEwan Hall in Calgary and the Starlite Ballroom in Edmonton.
The Students’ Union for the University of Calgary, as well as the most prominent heavy metal promoter in Ontario, Inertia Entertainment, have also gotten on board as clientele. Connecting with such a powerhouse lineup of businesses, Ticketfly is primed to tackle several different physical locations in Canada and to hit upon several different areas in the music market, since Union Events is known for its own genre-focused work within the EDM and rock crowds.
When it comes to the human power behind each of these businesses and the staff for the Canadian Ticketfly office, the San Francisco natives are not all about barging in and taking over. Local and reputable people are being called upon to lead the Canadian team and even includes the president of the now assimilated Prime Box Office, Greg Stephenson, in addition to former Ticketmaster Canada Director of Operations, Bruce Morrison. He in particular, expresses excitement and positive ambition about the shift and believe it to be a perfect enhancement for Canada’s entertainment marketing:
The integrated and forward-thinking toolset that Ticketfly offers to its clients is invaluable. By enabling clients to save time, sell more tickets and maintain control of their events, Ticketfly positions itself as a serious new alternative for Canadian venues, promoters, artists and fans.
The news of Ticketfly widening its reach might be hot off the presses, but the announcement itself seems like just a celebratory formality. The company has done quite a bit of homework and networking to show the industry the company is pretty much ready to take off. The icing on the cake? Ticketfly’s web-fueled system fits perfectly in with the societal popularity of web interaction in Canada, alluded to by Ticketfly’s Chief Marketing Officer, Gannon Hall:
According to comScore, Canadians have the highest level of Internet usage worldwide and are power users of social networks.
This growth for Ticketfly comes on the heels of its 2013 Flycon conference, which was held this week.
Kira is an old school music nerd with a love for all things creative; always searching for music’s common ground. She graduated with an M.A. in Performing Arts Administration from New York University. Drop her a tweet @shadowmelody1
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