Ticketfly Goes International with Expansion into Canada
Event Ticketing Provider Enters Into Agreements with Collective Concerts and Union Events, Acquires Canadian Ticketing Company Prime Box Office and Hires Canadian Team
Ticketfly, the leading independent ticketing and marketing platform, today announced its expansion into Canada. Ticketfly is now powering the ticketing and marketing efforts for a number of Canada’s top venues and event promoters, including Union Events and Collective Concerts. As part of the launch, Ticketfly has also announced the acquisition of Prime Box Office, a leading regional ticketing company based in Calgary.
“Our history and relationships in Canada made it the clear first step in Ticketfly’s international expansion,” said Andrew Dreskin, Ticketfly’s CEO and Co-founder. “We offer Canadian venues and event promoters something they haven’t experienced before – a modern, integrated digital marketing and ticketing platform that provides real, measurable value by streamlining operations and driving incremental ticket sales.”
Ticketfly expands into Canada with a strong base of venues and promoters as clients. Union Events, recently named one of the top 50 promoters worldwide by Pollstar, is Canada’s largest independently owned concert promotion company, with a strong presence in the rock and electronic dance music (EDM) scenes. With its base of operations in Calgary, Union Events promotes shows across Canada, from coast to coast.
“Ticketfly is making a big move into Canada and we are excited to be working with them. They have built an impressive business in the United States and as far as we can tell they provide the most progressive technology available. Ticketfly’s integrated platform and detailed analytics help us to save time, better market our events and sell more tickets,” said Harvey Cohen, Director of Union Events.
Ticketfly has also signed an agreement with Collective Concerts in Toronto. One of Canada’s most progressive and successful independent promoters, Collective is the exclusive promoter for legendary Toronto clubs the Horseshoe Tavern and Lee’s Palace, and produces concerts at several other venues in Ontario. Additional launch clients include the University of Calgary Students’ Union and Inertia Entertainment, Ontario’s largest heavy metal promoter.
Ticketfly is committed to bringing on strong and experienced local talent to drive operations in Canada. The company has hired industry veteran Bruce Morrison, former head of ticket sales at the Sony Centre For The Performing Arts and former director of operations for Ticketmaster Canada, as the general manager for Ticketfly Canada. According to Morrison, “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.” Morrison will be joined in Ticketfly’s new Toronto office by a team of local sales and operational staff. The president of Prime Box Office, Greg Stephenson, will join Ticketfly as sales director for Western Canada (based in Calgary).
Ticketfly’s integrated ticketing and social marketing platform allows event promoters and venues to streamline operations, optimize marketing efforts and sell more tickets. The Ticketfly platform provides actionable business intelligence that shows where every ticket sale originates, assisting in targeted, data-driven promotional efforts. Automated marketing features allow promoters to input event details once and publish them everywhere: online, to mobile devices, in targeted emails, on Facebook, Twitter and across Ticketfly’s extensive network of affiliate sites and apps that list Canadian events, including Songkick, Pollstar, Thrillcall, Just Shows and Eventful. For ticket buyers, Ticketfly offers lower fees than legacy providers, a wide variety of ticket delivery options (including Apple Passbook) and seamless social integrations, allowing fans to purchase tickets directly from Facebook and Twitter and easily invite their friends to events.
“We saw a great opportunity to bring our brand of technology-forward ticketing and marketing to an underserved market,” said Gannon Hall, Ticketfly’s CMO and Head of Product. “According to comScore, Canadians have the highest level of Internet usage worldwide and are power users of social networks. Our platform leverages the mobile and social web to turn fans into marketers, increasing event discovery and driving ticket sales. Plus we’re huge fans of Rush and Neil Young.”
