Thu, February 28, 2008
This past month we were involved in the launch of a new program on Broadway aimed to target students with our friends at Columbia University and Telecharge. The idea was simple. Shows want to reach younger audiences. Universities want to offer their students discount access to Broadway shows. Students want access to discount tickets that helps fit their schedules and their budget. They want to be able to buy online and in advance. Well, in this new program all of these stars aligned. Columbia University students can now log on to the school's intranet and have access to order tickets from a range of shows on Broadway.
In just three weeks after a soft launch, approximately 400 tickets were sold to Columbia University students. At first glance, not huge numbers. But, when you consider that this is only for Columbia students and it’s only three weeks old… then, this all of sudden looks great.
Now, imagine a 25% growth in the program over the course of the year and imagine if five more universities join on to the program – we are potentially looking at 1,000+ tickets weekly sold to college students for Broadway shows. Ok, this is ambitious… but the initial sales figures we are seeing makes me believe that this is an achievable goal if we (the industry) want to make it a reality.
This is not a money maker in the short-term for anyone really but long-term, you have to believe it’s building new audiences for both theatre and live entertainment.
I’ll keep you posted over the coming months on the progress of the program. It’s just so great to see the goodwill among so many people in the industry… from the ticketing/technology customization that was done to the producers of so many great shows offering specially student priced tickets… all of which was put together so quickly.
It’s nice to see a plan come together and gives me great optimism moving forward on supporting this initiative. I’ll take any optimism I can get. :)
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