Canadian sports, music and theatre fans looking to score event tickets can now bypass jammed phone lines and numerous websites with a new national online marketplace for tickets sales. Designed by Toronto-based agency Hooplah, the recently launched FanXchange.com offers an online platform for fans to buy and sell tickets to concerts, theatre and sporting events across North America.
Radio buys promoting the new site, handled by Corus Entertainment, include 30-second spots on AM640 programming like Leafs Lunch, The Bill Watters Show, and AM640’s Toronto Maple Leafs live broadcast.
AM640 account manager Garren Buntman says the strategy to place 30-second spots on the station also takes into account the importance of reaching audiences at their computers, adding that an online component on 640toronto.com has been incorporated, where listeners are exposed to 15-second FanXchange spots when logging on to listen live.
Digital buys by Hooplah include a search engine marketing campaign across Google, Yahoo and MSN networks, targeting over 10,000 keywords with a pay-per-click strategy around specific keyword phrases related to events, artists, games and shows. Hooplah’s plan also includes contextually placing ads within relevant news articles, blogs and magazines across the net.
Digital media buys utilizing interactive banners will also be launched in coming weeks across publishing and broadcast networks targeting sports, music and theatre enthusiasts, and will include TSN.ca, CBSSports.com, Music.com, Fandango.com and BroadwayWorld.com.
Experiential buys by Toronto-based Good Life Media include event marketing surrounding sporting and concert events in major Canadian cities as well as NYC, including the NHL All-Star Weekend in Montreal, The Killers in Toronto, Lil’ Wayne in Toronto and the Ticket Summit in NYC. The strategy includes utilizing promotional staff to distribute flyers, engaging users onto the site via interactive kiosks, and a wrapped FanX truck. Event sponsorship is also being utilized as part of the strategy to increase visibility on a B2B level.
Targeting the 18-to-49 demo, the site’s online ticket exchange comes with an events scroll in a virtual stadium of seats across the screen. The site also allows users to sort through events by city, venue, price or artist/team, and comes with a predictive search engine.
Ad opps on the site itself include branded landing pages, in-site advertising offerings that provide users with opportunities to cross-promote, transitioning buyers to sellers and vice versa.
