eTickets Business Plan 1
e-Tickets – a ticketing website for small events
Group Members:
Peter Kelly
Tinu George
Micheál Glennon
Mark Coleman
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ...... 5
The motivation behind eTickets...... 6
BACKGROUND SECTION...... 7
Key Statistics:...... 7 Small Events taking place in Ireland ...... 7 Credit Cards usage in Ireland ...... 7 Internet Penetration in Ireland...... 8
International Scope:...... 9
Competition:...... 9
Porter’s Five Forces:...... 10 Threat of substitute products or services ...... 10 Bargaining Power of End Users...... 10 Bargaining Power of Suppliers...... 10 Rivalry among existing competitors ...... 11 Threat of New Entrants ...... 11
Survey Analysis...... 12
Personnel ...... 12 Management Structure...... 12 Individual Roles ...... 13
THE MARKETING REPORT ...... 15
Marketing Mix...... 15 Promotion ...... 15 - Online Advertising and Promotion ...... 15 - Other Advertising ...... 15 - Direct Marketing...... 15 Product...... 16 Price ...... 16 Importance of a good pricing structure ...... 17 Place...... 18
Value Chain...... 19 Attract Customers: ...... 19 Interact with Customers: ...... 20 Act on Customer Instructions:...... 20 React on Customer Inquiries:...... 21
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Problems with existing process ...... 21
Future Development...... 21
Target Market Channels ...... 23
SWOT Analysis...... 23 Strengths ...... 23 Weakness...... 24 Opportunities...... 25 Threats...... 25
Sustainable Competitive Advantage...... 27
FINANCIAL ANALYSIS ...... 28
Start –Up...... 28 Source of Funding...... 28 Use of Funding ...... 28 Expenses...... 28 Start Up Finances...... 29
Operational Finances...... 29 Income: ...... 29 Sales...... 29 Advertising...... 30 Expenditure:...... 30 Payroll ...... 31 Advertising...... 31 Office Expenses ...... 31 Rent ...... 31 Utilities...... 31 Credit Card Services...... 32 Taxes...... 32
Cash Flow A/C...... 33 Total Income ...... 33 Operating Expenses ...... 33 Total Operating Expenses ...... 33 Net Profit/Loss ...... 33
Break Even Analysis ...... 34
TECHNICAL REPORT ...... 35
Introduction ...... 35 Tickets...... 35
Web Site...... 35
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Client Side Technologies ...... 35 Server Side Technologies...... 36 Database Design...... 37 Barcode / Serial Number Generation...... 38 Site Map...... 40 Sample Walkthrough ...... 41 Credit Card Verification ...... 44 Security ...... 45
Verification Software...... 46 Architecture ...... 47 File Format ...... 48 Security ...... 48
APPENDIX: ...... 49
Appendix I: Assumptions For Break-Even Analysis ...... 49
Appendix II: Survey and Analysis ...... 49
Appendix III: Database Structure...... 57
Appendix IV: Verification Software File Format...... 59
Appendix V: Ticketmaster report...... 59
Appendix VI: Advertising rates and demographics...... 60
Appendix VII: Financial Sources...... 63
Appendix VIII: Correspondence with promoters...... 63
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Executive Summary
Internet or 'online' ticketing is all about providing a useful and efficient service to clients and customers. The aim is to make the purchase or reservation of tickets easier. Naturally, this will encourage sales. The use of the Internet makes buying a ticket more convenient since the service is available at any geographical location, including home (or even remotely via a laptop and cellular phone) and at any time of the day, any day of the year. Online ticket services, particularly those based on the World Wide Web, have a further advantage by providing relevant information alongside the service. This can aid purchasing decisions and may encourage future usage.
Despite these advantages, many customers refrain from using these services because they believe them to be unsafe. In reality, it is often a more secure transaction than 'normal' credit card purchases. Giving your credit card to a waiter or reading it over the phone are two examples of 'insecure' practices. Fears are largely based on media hype resulting from isolated cases of electronic fraud. These fears are often unfounded and should fade as Internet commerce becomes more widely accepted. There are also benefits for those providing the service. New markets are being created and ticket sales are increased. Apart from maintenance and data updates, no manpower is required to provide the service once it has been established. The process of recording the transactions is more automated and overhead is reduced. An important point is that ticket providers are also providing a convenient service to customers and are thereby improving public image and encouraging return customers.
The information gathered from surveys conducted showed that more than 95 million tickets valued at more than $4 billion were sold in 2002 (see appendix V), through www.Ticketmaster.com, one of the largest e-commerce sites on the Internet. However, much more events take place on a daily basis on a much smaller scale that have no viable way of offering tickets for sale over the
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internet. Much of the promotion and discussion of events such as smaller gigs, clubs, etc, takes place over the Internet, so it seems only natural that there should be a realistic option for purchasing tickets there also.
The motivation behind eTickets
Currently, the most significant drawbacks for entertainment firms when selling tickets offline are:
• Clogging - Queuing for tickets, which leads to customer frustration.
• Inadequacy – There are significant costs involved in selling tickets offline. It requires large numbers of staff to process ticket transactions.
• Lack of knowledge about customers & personalized customer Service - This is one of the main areas eTickets hopes to exploit. There is a considerable marketing opportunity for entertainment firms to gain valuable knowledge about who their customers are and what their entertainment preferences are as well as other important customer data which would increase advertising revenue through targeted marketing.
The most important aspect of eTickets will be that a trustworthy, proficiency and competitive service will be available to our customers, which will be a vast improvement. We have the advantage over our competitors of being a ‘dotcom’ and are guaranteeing a professional service to the customer that will meet and exceed their current demands, which are currently being unfulfilled. We will be basing our service on the Ryanair style low cost service where customers print their own tickets, saving on mailing costs.
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Background Section
Key Statistics:
Small Events taking place in Ireland It is quite difficult to calculate the number of events taking place in Ireland each year, as there are currently no national statistics for small gigs recorded. Each organisation only keeps records of their own particular events (for example, 250 in the Temple Bar Music Centre).
So the best way to get an approximation of the number of small events is to use “The Event Guide” publication, which has listings for the vast majority of small events held in Ireland. The official website of “The Event Guide” has 331 listings for 2 weeks (29th June-12th July 2005).
So taking this as an average for a fortnight, 331* 26 (52 weeks in the year) = 8606. Therefore approximately 8,500 small events take place in Ireland every year.
Credit Cards usage in Ireland Mintel, in the "Credit Cards- Ireland, October 2002 report”, last examined the market for credit cards in Ireland. Since then, the market has continued to grow considerably in terms of value and in terms of the number of consumers with a credit card.
The number of credit cards in Ireland is increasing all the time. In the table below, it shows that in 1999 there were 1.5 million credit cards in circulation, which had increased to 2.4 million by 2002. This was an increase of almost a million in 3 years.
This is good news for our service since the purchasing of tickets and payment to organisers is all provided through the use of credit cards.
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1999 2000 2001 2002
Source: Central Statistics Office http://www.cso.ie/releasespublications/documents/statisticalyearbook/2003/fin ance&banking.pdf
Internet Penetration in Ireland “In June 2004, an estimated 649,400 households in Ireland had a home computer, an increase of about 67,000 households since June 2003. This means that 46.2% of households had a home computer in 2004, compared with 42.2% in 2003. Internet access also increased over the same period, with 537,000 households (or 38.2% of the total) having access to the Internet in June 2004” (Information Society Statistics 2004).
Source: Central Statistics Office http://www.cso.ie/newsevents/documents/ictireland2004.pdf
So the number of people with access to the Internet is increasing all the time. This is important for our business since our service is only provided online.
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International Scope: If our service is successful in Ireland then it could easily expanded to other countries. Since the service is web based it would be possible to expand the service as long as the country in question had relatively high Internet penetration. Promoters would only be willing to put tickets on-line if there are enough people with Internet access and credit cards willing to buy them. Hence, countries in the European Union along with North America and Australia would be suitable candidates for future international expansion.
Ticketmaster operates in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom and United States. So, our service could be expanded into many of these countries over time, provided there are no existing companies already delivering the service we are offering.
One point of consideration would be the language barrier. Dedicated websites would be required in each of the specified counties. These websites would need to be written in the main language spoken in that particular, and would also take into account local preferences and culture.
Competition:
There are no known competitors in the Irish market. Ticket Master only deals with large events and concerts. Tickets.ie also doesn’t deal with selling tickets for smaller events on-line.
Tickets.ie is owned and operated by Push Promotion Limited, which is registered in the Republic of Ireland. They charge for booking, which is the commission charged to promoters for selling their tickets. Some promoters choose to include this fee in the ticket price. In some ways this is a similar service to the one we intend to supply. They have the same ethos but tickets.ie is really the website of just one promoter. We intend to open up our service to any and every promoter who wishes to sell tickets online.
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Obviously, if our service is successful then we may have to deal with a lot of potential competitors in the future. These would include companies would attempt to replicate our service and improve upon it in some way e.g. charge Promoters less for listing events.
Porter’s Five Forces:
Threat of substitute products or services Examples of substitutes are people deciding to go to the cinema, holiday and weekends away instead of small events/concerts.
From a product perspective, music tends to create a unique emotional attachment for an individual that cannot be replaced by other activities. For example, if an individual really wants to see a band they are unlikely to spend that money on the cinema instead.
From a services perspective, Promoters of the event/concert may decide to continue to sell the tickets from the box-office at the event location instead of using our service.
Bargaining Power of End Users Initially this will be high, as it will be still be possible to buy tickets directly from the box-office. However as more and more event Promoters start to use our service instead of the traditional means, then the bargaining power of end users will be weakened.
If the organiser decides to sell all the tickets for the event on-line then the end user will have little bargaining power.
Bargaining Power of Suppliers When Promoters realise the advantages of using our service then their bargaining power will be relatively weak.
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These advantages include our service dealing with much of the business and marketing for the event. The event will be advertised on our website along with a profile of each band. The only other way would be to advertise through traditional media (e.g. an advertisement in Hot Press) which would be much more expensive.
Moreover, it gives the event national coverage. For example, someone in Cork could buy tickets for an event in Dublin, without having to • Travel the long journey to collect the tickets • Or travel the day of the event in the hope that there might still be tickets available.
Rivalry among existing competitors As discussed in the previous section, we currently have little rivalry in the Irish market for the service that we are offering. Ticketmaster basically has a monopoly on large events in Ireland but has stayed clear of smaller events.
We believe that we have found an untapped market and will benefit from first mover advantage.
Threat of New Entrants There is a high level of threat from new entrants particularly in the early stages if our business is successful.
We aim to overcome this by creating a quality service that we prove is trustworthy for both event Promoters and customers. Trust can only be built up as a result of a series of actions over time. So we need to have continuous communication and feedback with the users, in order to discover what aspects of our service could be improved (“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance” – Thomas Jefferson).
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By establishing a good reputation among Promoters and customers as soon as possible, then we can lessen the threat of new entrants. New entrants will only enter the market if they see some deficiency in our service that they can improve upon.
Survey Analysis
As part of our research we created a survey that was distributed to friends, family etc. as well as being posted on various message boards and websites. We got a very good response that gave us a lot of positive feedback. We found that most people surveyed (73%) attend at least one event a month. We also found that people use Ticketmaster to buy tickets but are generally not happy with their service (68%) and find them too expensive (92%). The full survey and the results to each question can be found in appendix II.
The survey supported most of the assumptions we made when thinking of the eTickets concept. These include the fact that people are comfortable and confident when it comes to purchasing concert tickets online. They also believe that booking fees are too high and worry about events getting sold out (73%). With eTickets we intend to reduce booking fees to a much smaller rate as we operate purely online and do not print out tickets. We also believe that given the choice, most concertgoers would prefer to pre-buy their ticket so as to avoid the disappointment of not getting in to an event.
Personnel
Management Structure
The management of eTickets comprise of two directors. The decisions with respect to the development of the business will be undertaken in close co- ordination and consultation between the members of management. All directors are equally involved in the establishment, planning and operational process of the company, while each specializes in his/her area of expertise.
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Individual Roles
There will be two main roles at the company. They are the Marketing manager and the IT manager. The marketing manager will be in charge of attracting customers and promoters, as well as promoting our business. He is also in charge of all financial issues within the business. These involve keeping the books up to date, and dealing with issues such as taxes, profits/losses, wages etc. The IT manager will be ensuring it is both usable and secure. Creating and maintaining current and accurate web content items by systematic and timely writing, reviewing and publishing ensuring it is both usable and secure. It can be summarized as follows
• Specifying an online system, designing a web application to meet the specifications, coding the application, testing the application • Updating/maintaining web
Marketing Manager is one with full Marketing responsibility, with a good understanding of the entire marketing mix. He/she is responsible for the marketing plan and tactical marketing communications, managing the brand and company website and supporting sales and new indirect channels.
He/she is the leading advocate for eTickets’ customers.
In a nutshell the main roles played by Marketing manager
• Define and deliver the Marketing Plan. • Plan and manage Marketing programs (awareness, acquisition and retention) • Develop & implement the communication strategy to include printed material, • Exhibitions, advertising, direct marketing, public relations and e- marketing.
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• Create demand for Eticket’s website through advertising and case studies. • Identify best opportunities for lead generation. • Support to identify and establish indirect sales channels/ distributors and provide marketing support for key distributors. • Create company presentations and product demonstrations. • Conduct competitive scanning and communicate the opportunities & threats to the business. • Communicate key internal marketing communications. • Execute marketing research on a planned and ad-hoc basis. • Developing campaigns to increase the customer size, frequency and value of customer expenditure. • Manage online marketing budget, including continuous improvement of eTickets. • Ensuring all marketing activities are in keeping with eTickets’ brand values and guidelines.
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The Marketing Report
Marketing Mix
Promotion
- Online Advertising and Promotion As our business is solely based online, this is where we would focus the promotion of our product. We would spend the majority of our marketing budget on online advertising and promotions. We would find sites that attract our target audience and use them to promote our site through banner advertising and potentially links that offer discounts on signing up to our site. To initially attract customers we would forgo service charges on tickets purchased by new customers, and offer discounts to customers who get a friend(s) to sign up.
- Other Advertising Our advertising will be aimed at attracting the interest of both customers and promoters, as they are equally important to the success of our business. We want to get our target audience to visit our site, browse available events and potentially buy tickets. We intend to advertise in suitable media and locations, such as print media e.g. music magazines like Hotpress, distributing flyers at relevant locations e.g. large music events and festivals, as well as joint advertising ventures with promoters. An example of a joint venture with promoters is posters for the event with a caption stating that you can buy tickets for that particular event at eTickets.ie
- Direct Marketing Before we can start to sell tickets we need promoters to subscribe to our service and place their events online. This means that attracting promoters is a vital aspect of the business start-up. Although we intend to attract some promoters through advertising and word of mouth, we also intend to directly
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approach them about using our service. We intend to find promoters by attending events, contacting venues and cold calling.
Product Electronic ticketing over the Internet is a good example of Internet commerce at work. The brand name chosen for our product is eTickets and was decided through its meaning towards our service. The aim of eTickets is to facilitate the buying or reservation of tickets online, thereby making the process more easily accessible and convenient. Through these services tickets may be purchased from any location and at any time, provided an Internet connection exists. The tickets are ordered from web site http://magluby.com/eTickets/ that provides both ticket information and the purchasing or reservation service. Being a ticketless system the customer gets a confirmation number (ala Ryanair). The event manager can log in and retrieve all confirmation numbers and customer details for use at the door of their event. The user creates their own account when they sign up to our website by providing their personal information and credit card number. So each customer will have their own unique identity when they login on our website. Once they have logged in, they can simply purchase and reserve tickets as they so wish, and we fulfil their requests. If they have not logged in then they can still browse eTickets to view which events we are currently hosting tickets for, but they will not be able to purchase them. We want the customer to have a place where they can go to get the best value for money for their inputs without spending hours of time ringing around suppliers or waiting to get the ticket looking for different prices. Our service will accomplish this for them. Also we will enable online ordering for customers to increase convenience and efficiency.
Price
As we are the first company in Ireland to offer such a service for gigs, clubs etc, we can set our sales price at a high profitable margin. However in the
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beginning we want to attract customers, so for new customers there will be no service charge for their first few transactions. Nevertheless, after this initial period customers will be charged a service charge based on the face value of the ticket. The promoter, venue, or artist determines the face value of a ticket. We do not determine the face value of tickets. The pricing system that we propose is as follows: • 10% of the face value for tickets €30 or less • 12.5% of the face value for tickets €31-€60 • 15% of the face value for tickets €61 or more The price of tickets for small events will typically be less than €30, so in the vast majority of cases we will be making 10% commission. Small events that charge more than €60 for tickets will be few and far between.
Example:
An organiser/promoter registers an event with us, and offers tickets for €10. In this case our service charge would be 10% of the face value (€10), so €1. Therefore charge the customer €11, €10 of which goes to the promoter and the remaining €1 goes to the account of eTickets.
Importance of a good pricing structure - Pricing is obviously a very important consideration for both profitability and popularity. - We know there is a very negative attitude among the concert going public towards Ticketmaster due to their large service charges and booking fees. In fact, our survey showed (see survey section in Appendices) that 68% of people were not happy with the service offered by Ticketmaster. By charging lower service charges we hope to avoid creating for ourselves the negative attitude many people have towards Ticketmaster.
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- We aim to take a smaller percentage of ticket prices due to the fact we are working on a smaller scale, and have fewer overheads as we do not offer telephone bookings or have ticket offices. - We limit the maximum we will take (15% for high price tickets)
Place
As eTickets’ major operation is online (there is no posting of tickets), distribution channels are not a major aspect of our marketing strategy. We do not need a system for delivery of merchandise to customers or wholesalers or be concerned with decisions involving retailers, brokers, and shipping companies.
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Value Chain
Attract Customers: In order to draw customers to our web site we need to:
1. Advertise on other web sites, especially websites whose users are regular concert goers. Examples of such websites include those with forums for discussing bands and music (e.g. entertainment.ie) as well as sites that allow the legal downloading of music.
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2. Advertise using the print media. This includes taking out ads that will clearly be seen by our target market. Examples of this includes • College newspapers and magazines • Magazines that deal with music and concerts (e.g. Hot Press) • Handing out information (leaflets, flyers) about our service at concerts and gigs
3. E-mailing/phoning concert organisers to make them aware of our service
4. Actually going to venues/promoters to tell them about our service and the benefits that we are offering.
Interact with Customers: When an event manager registers with the website, they can create and close events.
A potential ticket buyer can browse and search the database through the website in an attempt the find tickets for a specific event.
Our website is content oriented, with detailed information about the event in question. Moreover, information is provided about the musician/artist performing at the gig.
Act on Customer Instructions: When the customer has finished browsing the site and decided what tickets they want, then the customer’s order has to be dealt with.
The customer will be required to enter their credit card number and expiry date, as well as their e-mail address. The amount for the tickets will be debited from their account and credited to our account (the service charge on the ticket) and that of the event organiser (the remainder).
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This is done in a secure manner, using encryption, so that there is practically zero chance of anyone else gaining knowledge of this sensitive information. The details of the event, including the all important confirmation number will be e-mailed to the customer’s e-mail address. The events in question will also be updated to indicate that there are now fewer tickets available.
React on Customer Inquiries: A section of the website will be dedicated to frequently asked question (FAQ), so that most of the users inquiries can be processed automatically. An e-mail address is also provided so that a person can answer any questions that are not dealt with in the FAQ page.
An event organiser can log in to check how many tickets have been sold for the event(s) that they are promoting.
A feedback forum will be set up so that users can express their views on the website/service and how it could be improved. Constant feedback from users is very important so that we maintain our quality of service and stay ahead of the competition.
Problems with existing process
Ticketmaster is the largest ticket distributor all over the world. They have contracts with venues that allow them to be the original distributor of tickets. But its main cons are • Waiting in long lines for tickets • Premium seats are difficult to find • Popular events sell out quickly • Only sells tickets for large concerts and events
Future Development Online ticketing systems have several advantages including increased ticket sales for the ticket provider and greater convenience for the customer. It also
______21 eTickets Business Plan 22 automates the selling process and allows for more efficient transaction handling. Very often, using the Internet to buy tickets with your credit card is also far safer than ordinary purchases. If done properly, there is no need for anyone besides the customer and her bank to have access to the credit card number.
Future advances in this field include the development of:
• Methods to store customer details that will still ensure their privacy. Customers may want their purchases to remain private but still have the option to review previous transactions. • Technology that allows the downloading of ‘electronic tickets’ onto smart cards. These smart cards can then be used to verify that a customer has purchased the ticket. • Methods to allow multiple tickets to be stored onto one smart card • Inexpensive equipment that can be connected to a PC and communicate with a smart card. This will ensure the viability of ‘electronic tickets’. • Technical development of mobile commerce has now reached a stage where merchants can easily widen their business to mobile environment.
The growth of online ticketing is limited only by customer confidence. Once potential customers begin to realise the convenience and safety of these systems, there should be nothing holding back the explosive growth of this industry. With these and many more advances to Internet commerce and online ticketing, the public can look forward to improvements in existing systems and the establishment of many more.
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Target Market Channels
eTickets’ primary market will be people are interested in going to clubs, gigs etc. These will consist of people from different walks of life. Initially, we will promote the eTickets service through advertising and demonstrating our solution to some selected owners of the clubs, gigs and of course customers. The first point of contact for the eTickets user will be our website. The aim of the website is to give the public information about who we are and what we do. It also illustrates that we have an easy to use, user-friendly interface, have a prompt customer service help line and have a medium through which users can air their views (feedback forum). In the long-term, eTickets would hope to expand their service to bigger events like concerts, sporting events etc. eTickets short-term view is to concentrate on a smaller market to begin with. We want the user to become familiar with who we are and what our service is.
SWOT Analysis
Strengths At present, there is only one company (tickets.ie) offering the online ticket sales similar to that which eTickets offers. However tickets.ie only appears to have an agreement with certain venues and only doesn’t deal with small events. Therefore, currently we are enjoying first mover advantage in a unique market, which as of yet has not been exploited.
eTickets’ user friendly and simplistic website ensures that all users from novice to expert can navigate through our website with the greatest of ease.
Benefits • Handling of inquiries and reservations is more efficient • Reduced administration time for online registrations, as details are entered by registrant • Improved service to registrants
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• Real-time registration data is available to organizers • Reports, badges etc. are produced more efficiently • More reservations are paid in advance • Additional, cost-effective marketing channels through the web and email • Reduced print advertising costs • More opportunities for pre-event and post-event promotions • Opportunity for feedback and post sales • The email list is available for future related events
Weakness • As with all companies who benefit from first mover advantage, there is the imminent danger of ‘copy-cat’ companies or companies who are already in the online ticket sale industry imitating eTickets’ product offering. We need to ensure that our brand is synonymous with security and reliability.
• eTickets’ team of workers is quite small at present. With demand increasing, eTickets needs to ensure that they address any issues regarding being under-staffed or in recruiting expert personnel. This would obviously increase eTickets’ overheads and running costs in future.
• Even though computer literacy is on the increase, there is still a large proportion of the Irish population who are not computer literate. Coupled with that there are also a proportion of computer users who do not carry out any transactions online. Although eTickets website is simple and easy to use, eTickets needs to address this ‘un-served’ portion of the population.
• As beginners/ new entrant to the market eTickets has no established connection with customers (promoters and venues) and to achieve this it will take time.
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Opportunities • Growing trend towards online business transactions.
• eTickets is currently benefiting from first mover advantage. They need to utilize this clearly beneficial opportunity to the maximum early on in their product life cycle. eTickets must build a reputable and trusted brand name that will give customers a sense of security and confidence and hopefully loyalty.
• Currently, tickets for sale over the Internet are for large events such as concerts, big sporting events etc. But eTickets is entirely dedicated to events such as smaller gigs, clubs, etc. So it is crystal clear that it attracts people who have interest in the events in gigs, clubs and so on.
• After establishing a strong market position and good reputation within Ireland, we will have the opportunity to exploit similar markets within Europe.
Threats
• www.Ticketmaster.ie and www.tickets.ie are an impediment to a great extend as they provide ticket sales for events in gigs, clubs. They could decide to move into the arena of small events. • Competition of course will be a huge threat for eTickets. eTickets needs to be constantly improving and innovating its product offering whilst offering a competitive rate for the customer.
• Existing competitors may imitate our additional service stealing our market share.
• New technologies like the tickets are downloaded in electronic format onto a smart card would make our technology obsolete
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• In most of the gigs and pubs, the tickets can be booked by credit card or purchased in the respective organization where customer don’t have to pay extra charges for Internet. (http://www.dolans-pub.ie/news.html)
Strengths Weaknesses
- We will offer a service that is not - We are dependant on promoters
already available deciding to use our service. - Completely web based, keeping - Some people are still not comfortable costs to a minimum and appealing to purchasing online
a young, concert-going public. - Checking tickets at the door may be - Strong indication from market difficult. analysis that such a service would be
popular with both customers and promoters
Opportunities Threats - We are the first business of this type - Copycat companies in Ireland. First Entry - Ticketmaster are already very
- Hundreds of events occur each dominant in this market, and may see week that have no pre-purchasing us as a potential threat. service - Promoters may try to set up their own
sites
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Sustainable Competitive Advantage • Good market as the Internet is becoming the predominant way to buy tickets. Online ticket sellers, for example, sold nearly $1 billion worth of concert tickets in 2001, or about 14 percent of the total U.S. market, according to Jupiter Media Metrix. The research company expects that amount to grow to $2.48 billion in 2006, or about 29 percent of the total market. • It can generate additional opportunities revenue through advertising.
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Financial Analysis
Start –Up The following section gives details of the financial assumptions, projections and estimations we made for eTickets.ie for the first three years of operations. We intend the company to be ready for business from 1st January 2006.
Source of Funding The start-up costs associated with eTickets.ie are quite low. Our service is 100% web based so our funding is not very complicated. We have decided to each invest €5,000 of personal finances. Therefore our target for personal funding is €20,000. The option of acquiring further funds through borrowing from a bank has been considered and decided upon as the best source of additional funding. We predict that sales will start slowly as we try to promote our service and acquire customers so we will need to borrow €20,000 to cover costs for the initial period of operation. We intend to repay this loan over a period of 4 years from operational profits.
Use of Funding The Initial funds of €40,000 will be used to cover the start-up costs associated with the set up of our offices and web site. It will also be used to cover operational costs for the first few months of operations. We need to purchase office furniture, equipment, computers etc as well as paying our rent, wages and advertising costs for the period until sales can pay for these expenses. We hope that after the initial three months, sales will be able to cover the operational costs as well as the loan repayments to the bank.
Expenses Our initial expenditure will be on items necessary for the start-up of eTickets.ie. This will include office furniture such as desks, tables, filing cabinets etc. It will also involve registering our domain name and paying a hosting service. Other expenses are legal fees related with registering the company, computer equipment; office supplies e.g. pens, paper etc as well as
______28 eTickets Business Plan 29 other unforeseeable ‘miscellaneous’ expenses. The cost of the computer equipment, stationary, office furniture, legal fees, domain registry etc was all calculated from sources listed in appendix VII
Start Up Finances Start Up Expenses Legal €60 Domain Registry/Hosting €162 Computer Equipment €4,500 Furnishing €2,500 Stationary, Office Supplies etc €500 Miscellaneous €500 Total Expenses €8,222
Funding Investment Mark €5,000 Micheál €5,000 Peter €5000 Tinu €5000 Bank Loan €20,000 Total Investment €40,000
Operational Finances
Income:
Sales As stated in the key statistics we estimate that there are approximately 8,500 small events held in Ireland each year. Our aim is to get 3,500 events to sell tickets through eTickets each year, about 40% of the market. This means that we would have to deal with 10 events a day.
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We estimate that the average number of tickets available for a small event is 150. So, the total number of tickets for all the events would be 525,000 (3,500*150). If we can get 20% of customers to buy their tickets for the event through our service, then that translates into 105,000 tickets sold using eTickets.
By charging 10% of the face value of the ticket as our commission, we would receive €1 for each ticket (assuming the average price of a ticket for a small event is €10). Therefore we estimate that we can generate approximately €110,000 through ticket sales. It is expected that sales will start slowly as we try to promote our service to both customers and promoters. Optimistically we hope for €60,150 in sales in our first year. There will hopefully increase in 2007 and 2008 by increasing awareness. We also hope that we can increase our market share and popularity so that the total sales we can potentially make will also increase.
Advertising We can also generate revenue through charging promoters to advertise on our website (depending on where on our website they want their ad placed). For example, a banner ad on the home page would be more expensive than an ad on any of the other pages of our website.
Each event will have its own personal page on eTickets, but this service is for organisers who want their event to get more publicity by placing an ad, that will clearly be seen by visitors to our website.
We estimate that we could generate in the region of €20,000 per annum by charging for additional advertising.
Expenditure:
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Payroll The main expenditure would be in the form of salaries to the 2 members of the team. They would be working for the modest sum of €20,000 each for the first year, which would increase to €25,000 each in year 2. So the total would be €40,000 in 2006, €46,000 in 2007 and $50,000 in 2008.
Advertising This is very important, especially in the initial stages in order to get our service well known among our target market (promoters and ticket buying customers). This will involve considerable expense, such as quarter page advertisements in Hot Press. Moreover, we would need to advertise on Irish websites that review and discuss music and events. A sample document of the costs of advertising with Hotpress and Hotpress.ie is enclosed in the appendices (appendix VI). It also includes demographics of their readers that closely match those of our target audience.
So we estimate that we would need to spend approximately €20,000 in order to establish and maintain our market presence.
Office Expenses This heading includes mainly stationary and office equipment, as well as food, tea, coffee etc for staff. Approximately €7,000 per annum.
Rent The standard rate for occupying an incubation cell at the Invent Centre in DCU is €301 per month (Appendix VII). Therefore rent is €3,600 per annum.
Utilities This covers miscellaneous costs such as phone bills, electricity bills, Internet connection etc. Approximately €1,000 per annum.
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Credit Card Services To accept credit card payments online we need to use a merchant banking service. Due to the fact that we will be making small commissions off each sale, we had to carefully research these services, as some services would take almost half of our commission. We found a company called Protx (www.protx.com) that offer these services at a much more suitable rate. We would subscribe to their corporate service as we hope to have more than 1,000 transactions per quarter. It would cost 14.3 cents (VAT exclusive) per transaction with no additional costs. This amount will be taken out of our service charge. So for example, if we receive €1 in a transaction, eTickets will actually make 85 cents.
Taxes We will be subject to the normal taxes such as PRSI, VAT and corporation tax. Out of each ticket sale we are only taking a small amount of the total transaction amount. VAT will be added to this amount at the time of purchase. Corporation tax is currently 12.5% and will be paid annually. Employer PRSI will also be paid in line with current regulations
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Cash Flow A/C Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Gross Sales €78,831.5 €108,900 €127,050 Less VAT @ 21% €13,681.5 €18,900 €22,050 Net Sales €65,150 €90,000 €105,000 Advertising €15,000 €16,000 €18,000 Total Income €80,150 €106,000 €123,000 Operating Expenses Wages €40,000 €46,000 €52,000 Advertising €15,000 €16,000 €16,000 Rent €3,600 €3,600 €3,600 Credit Card €10,500 €13,500 €15,750 Services Utilities €1,500 €1,600 €1,700 Office Expenses €3,000 €3,200 €3,400 PRSI €4,200 €4,830 €5460 Loan Repayments €5,250 €5,250 €5,250
Total Operating €93,980 €103,160 Expenses €83,050 Gross Profit/Loss -€2,900 €12,020 €19,840 Less Corporation - €1502.5 €2480 Tax @12.5% Net Profit/Loss -€2,900 €10,517.5 €17,360
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Break Even Analysis
Break Even Analysis
10000 9000 8000 7000 6000 Expenses 5000 Revenue 4000 Amount 3000 2000 1000 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Months
We have calculated that we will reach our break-even point after 8 months of business. At this point our sales revenue will cover our basic monthly costs. As with any break-even point projection at this stage in a project’s development, it is only an estimate. The figures will need to be closely monitored and updated throughout the year. (For full assumptions see appendix)
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Technical Report
Introduction There are two aspects to the system; the web site, and the optional ticket verification software. The web site includes the background database, which stores all information about users and events, and the mechanism for adding, retrieving and purchasing tickets for events. The ticket verification software can be used at the door of an event to quickly and efficiently verify a ticket purchased through the site.
Tickets One of the primary ways of keeping our costs low is not mailing tickets to our customers. We follow a Ryanair type ticketing system. When a user purchases a ticket they will receive a confirmation number, and also a printable ticket. The ticket will have a barcode, so if the organiser of an event has access to a barcode scanner, the ticket verification software is designed to work with it. The confirmation number is a unique identifying number tied to the name of the person who bought the tickets. Security and integrity is vital to the system to avoid counterfeit tickets being produced. At the door of the event, the organiser will be charged with ensuring the same tickets aren’t used twice to enter. This will mean using the barcodes, checking serial numbers or using the ticket verification software to mark off tickets as they are checked.
Web Site
Client Side Technologies The web site is designed to be extremely easy to use and as such requires no special client side software, plug-ins etc to be installed. All that is required is a standard web browser.
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The site has been designed so that it is usable in all browsers, including text- only browsers, and special accessibility browsers for users with disabilities. This is achieved by complying strictly with XHTML and CSS specifications, and accessibility guidelines set out by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).
Server Side Technologies The server side scripting language, PHP, dynamically creates all pages on the site. The backend also consists of a MySQL database, which is manipulated using the PHP scripts.
The MySQL database stores all event, user and ticket information. PHP is used to generate all customer-facing content on the web site.
The entire back-end has been written from the ground up specifically for the purpose of this site. This ensures the site runs extremely quickly and efficiently and its design means that both the front-end and back-end can be modified and extended with ease.
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Database Design The web site stores all of its information in a database consisting of the following tables: users Contains information about each event manager, and registered user of the site, such as their username, password and contact details. events Contains all details about each event listed on the site. This includes the event manager of each event, along with the date, time, title, venue, category and an associated image. tickets The site allows each event to sell up to 6 different types of ticket, with varying prices and/or description. The details of these tickets, including the amount available of each type, for each event are stored here. tickets_sold This table contains the details of all tickets sold. It includes the serial numbers of each ticket, along with details of the purchaser.
A detailed overview of the database can be seen in Appendix III.
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Barcode / Serial Number Generation Standard barcodes consist of 13 digit numbers encoded as a series of vertical lines. This means that for any event there is technically a pool of 10 trillion (10,000,000,000,000) different serial numbers to pick from for every event. For an event with, say, 400 tickets, there would be a chance of 1 in 25 billion of successfully guessing a valid serial number.
To make for easier manual verification of the numbers, not all 13 digits are used, however. The composition of the 13 digits is shown in the following diagram:
This means only 9 digits are effectively used, but for a 400 ticket event, this means there is still only a chance of 1 in 2.5 million of successfully guessing a valid serial number, but makes for a much easier to read number consisting of three triplets.
Serial Number Composition The serial number has the appearance of a randomly generated number, but it is in fact a modified cryptographic hash of the ticket information and the promoter’s password. The following process illustrates how the number is generated. This adds extra security and integrity to each ticket created, which would not be possible with a mere random number.
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A variable-length string is generated which contains various details about the ticket. The following diagram shows an example string, with an explanation of the information used to formulate it.
An MD5 hash of this string is then created. Despite the fact that the only the ticket number portion of the string changes each time, the hash will be completely different as a consequence of the strict avalanche effect exhibited by the hash function.
The hash is converted to base10 and the first 9 digits are taken as the serial number. By taking only the first 9 digits, there is an increased possibility of a clash, however. In the unlikely event of a clash with an existing serial number for the same event, the ticket number is incremented, and the process repeated until a unique serial number is generated.
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Site Map The layout of the site has been designed in such a way to make it easy both for an event manager to submit an event, and for a customer to find an event and book tickets. The following is an outline of the structure of the site.
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Sample Walkthrough Purchasing online is convenient and simple. The following are step by step the guidelines to purchase the ticket.
In order to experience eTickets to it’s full potential it is possible to create an account with eTickets.
The User Experience When the user looking to purchase tickets arrives at the home page of eTickets, an interface similar to the one below is presented. The user is presented with information about featured upcoming events and a list of event categories that can be browsed.
STEP 1 - Log in to eTickets
While registration is not necessary to browse and purchase tickets, doing so offers many benefits including personalised information and a much speedier and simpler purchasing process.
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At all points throughout the site, a user can either log in or register as a new user. This is achieved from the Login area, which is displayed at the top left of every page.
STEP 2 - Find an Event
Browsing: Select the event's genre at the left of any page on the site. For example, when searching for Limp Bizkit, click on Rock/Pop. This will display a list of all upcoming events in that genre.
Searching: The ‘Quick Search’ form on the homepage can be used to quickly find an event by keyword. More detailed searches, such as searching by genre, venue, date etc, can be performed from the ‘Advanced Search’ page.
STEP 3 - Check Ticket Availability
The full details of an event can be displayed by clicking on the event title from a list of events. This information will include all tickets on sale for the event, along with their prices and availability. If a certain type of ticket is no longer on sale, it will be marked with a ‘Sold Out’ message.
STEP 4 - Begin Ticket Request
If tickets are available for an event, they can be requested by clicking the ‘Get Tickets’ link on the event details page. From here, the user selects the quantities of each type of ticket required, and fills in their billing information.
If the user is an existing eTickets member, he/she will find that some of this information will have been completed automatically (excluding the credit card information).
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STEP 5 - Receive Confirmation
On successful verification of the credit card information, a page will be presented with the details of the tickets purchased along with their serial numbers and printable tickets with barcodes.
Within minutes of placing your ticket order on eTickets the customer will receive a confirmation email with their event and billing information.
The Promoter Experience
Promoters have to register before he/she can start selling tickets. The registration process also requires one to accept the terms and conditions for selling tickets on-line. The registration process is the same as for a normal user, with the exception that the event manager account type is selected.
STEP 1 – Create event
Promoters can post events on the website and they can set how many tickets they want to sell online. Promoters can also set how many are sold at different prices, such as for children, students or members seats as well as differentiating between premium and normal seating. The promoter also has the option of including it in the public listing on eTickets.ie. If they choose to not have the event listed, they will receive a direct link to purchase tickets for the event, which their potential customers can use if they wish to purchase tickets. Initially, an event will have the status ‘Pending’ until eTickets moderators approve it. This is to prevent against spam or bogus events being posted.
STEP 2 – Modify event
Promoters can modify the details of an event posted at any time. When they wish to put tickets off sale, they can do so and receive either a list of all tickets
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Credit Card Verification
As mentioned earlier, eTickets services are based entirely on the Web. This allows information to be presented alongside any functionality. Once the user has browsed the eTickets page and has decided to purchase or reserve a ticket, they go to the ticketing page. Here, there are usually a number of options that have to be decided upon. Once the plethora of ticket options have been decided, the customer's details need to be entered. These details will often include things such as:
• Credit card number and expiry date, • Cardholders name, • Email address and • Telephone number.
Not all the details are essential but some must be completed before the transaction may take place. These critical details usually involve credit card information. Now the authorization and confirmation process follows as shown in figure below.
Figure 1. Online credit card transaction.
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1. The customer's details are securely submitted to the ticketing service provider. 2. The transaction details are then sent to the ticket provider's acquiring bank. 3. The credit card information along with the cost is forwarded to the customer's card issuing bank for authorisation. 4. Once authorisation is received, the customer's account is debited. 5. The ticket provider's account is then credited. 6. Finally, the customer is informed that their ticket request has been successfully processed and completed.
The ticket provider object represents both the ticket provider and the server (a computer) associated with the process. The server handles communication with the acquiring bank. This is done over the standard bankcard channels that are used for 'normal' credit card transactions. The server also stores information about the transaction including the customer and transaction details.
Security
Without strong server authentication, users of your public Web server are not able to determine if they have connected to an authentic Web server or a bogus version operated by an intruder. In such cases, the user may receive false information and act upon it based on the assumption that it originated from our Web server. The user may also provide sensitive information such as a credit card number.
Encryption can be used to protect information traversing the connection between a Web browser client and a public Web server. Without encryption, anyone with access to network traffic (accomplished via the use of a sniffer) can determine, and possibly alter, the content of sensitive and restricted information, even if the user accessing the information has been carefully authenticated. This may violate the confidentiality and integrity of critical information.
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All credit card transactions are undertaken on a third party server, as described in the previous section. This server has security measures in place to help protect against the loss, misuse and alteration of the information under our control. It uses secure socket layer (SSL) technology to help protect the security of online transactions. All financial information is encrypted as it travels over the Internet and is stored in encrypted form.
Verification Software • The software is downloaded from the site by the event manager and can be used on any computer. • When the event manager closes the event, he/she can download a file containing all the ticket information, which can be read by the software. • If a barcode scanner is available, the software will simply allow the printout of the barcode to be scanned, confirming the validity of the ticket. • Otherwise, the software provides an easy-to-use interface to enter the confirmation number. • The software is, of course, optional. If the necessary resources aren’t available, the site also generates a list of sold ticket information that can be printed out.
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Architecture An event manager can simply print off the details about the tickets sold for events and use this printout for verification at the door of an event. However, if he/she has access to a computer, even a basic laptop computer, the ticket verification software can be used to make the process of checking tickets much easier.
The ticket verification software is a standalone JAVA application designed to be capable of running on any platform on any computer with a Java Virtual Machine.
The software reads all the information about the tickets sold for a particular event from an encrypted file, which is downloaded by the event manager from the web site.
This file contains information about each ticket including the name and address of the purchaser and when the ticket was purchased, if required for extra verification.
If the event manager has access to a barcode scanner, this can be used to verify printed tickets. Alternatively, the software can be queried for the confirmation number received when a ticket is purchased.
The diagram to the right shows an overview of the verification software usage.
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File Format When an event manager closes an event, he/she can download an encrypted file containing all the information about the tickets sold. The ticket verification software reads this file. When decrypted, the file begins one line containing information about the event, which is followed by a line for each ticket sold, containing the details of each ticket including the serial number. See Appendix IV for a detailed description of the file format used.
Security It is paramount that this file is not compromised as it contains all serial numbers and corresponding customer details for every ticket sold. Thus, once the information has been compiled in the file on the web server as above, it is encrypted using a DES session key created from the event manager’s password. The verification software requests this password from the customer and can decrypt the file and store all the information in the program.
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Appendix: Appendix I: Assumptions For Break-Even Analysis
Monthly expense = 6045.8 Including cr card –6920tickets! First month – 150 events, 3 tickets each, 750 Second month – 300 events, 3 tickets each 900 tickets Third month – 500 events , 4 tickets each, 2000 tickets Fourth month –1000events , 4 tickets each 4000 tickets Fifth month – 1200 events, 5 tickets each 6000 tickets. Six month - 1200 events, 5 tickets each 6000 tickets. Seventh month – 1200 events, 5 tickets 6,000 tickets Eight month – 1400 events, 5 tickets 7,000 tickets Ninth month – 1400 events, 5 tickets 7,000 tickets Tenth month – 1500 events, 5 tickets 7,500 tickets Eleventh month – 1800 events, 5 tickets 9,000 Twelfth month – 1800 events, 5 tickets 9,000
Appendix II: Survey and Analysis
Gathering Of Personal Details 1. Age: 2. Sex: 3. Occupation 4. Income (<€10K, €10K-€25K, €26K-€40K) 5. Do you Own Credit Card 6. How Often Do you Use Internet (Daily, Every few days, Every Week, Rarely)
Gathering Of Customer Behaviour
1. How often do you attend concerts, gigs, comedians or similar events? (Never, 1-3 a month, 4-6 a month, 6+ a month)
2. When you attend these events, how often do you pre-purchase your tickets using a credit card? (Never, Some of the time, Most of the time, Always)
3. How often do you attend events where a ticket pre-purchasing option is not available? (Never, Sometimes, Often, Always)
4. How much money would you spend a week on event attendance/club admission? (< €5, €6-15, €16-30, €31-60, €61+)
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5. How do you mainly find out about upcoming events? (Friends, Online, Radio, Television, Newspapers) Other (Please Specify):
7. Do you use Ticket master?
(Yes, No)
8. If 'Yes' are you satisfied with their service?
(Yes, No)
Ranking Statements with options very true, true, Untrue, Very Untrue
1. I like to browse through upcoming events 2. I miss events because I do not hear about them 3. I feel purchasing tickets online reduces stress 4. I feel purchasing tickets online is safe 5. I often worry about events being sold out 6. I feel concert tickets are too expensive 7. I would like to receive an e-mail detailing upcoming events 8. Booking fees for tickets are too high
Personal Details Percentage of Responds by sex 72 % of the people responded were males and the rest were females. So it was a majority of males who took part in our survey.
Percentage of Responds by Sex
28%
Female Male
72%
Gathering Of Customer Behaviour 1.Attendance For Small Events This chart shows that two-thirds of people (68%) attend 1-3 small events a month, while ¼ never attend small events. So this chart would indicate that
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over 70% of the population attend small events on a regular basis (at least once a month). This is very good for eTickets as it shows that we have a large target market to aim at.
Attendance for Small Events
27% 1-3 a month 4-6 a month 3% 6+ a month 2% 68% Never
2. Credit Card Usage This chart is very evenly divided. 20% always use credit cards to pre- purchase their tickets for small events, 31% use credit cards most of the time, 30% some of the time and 19% never. What this indicates is that when attending events over 80% of people purchase tickets using their credit card. This is good news for eTickets as it shows that people are already familiar with and willing to use their credit card to pre-book tickets for events online.
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Credit Card Usage
20% 30% Always Most of the time Never Some of the time 31% 19%
3.Attendance Where Pre-booking isn’t Available The main feature of this chart is that only 3% of those surveyed always attend events when there are is no pre-booking available, while 36% never attend. This indicates that people are reluctant to attend events when tickets can’t be pre-purchased. So venues and promoters are clearly missing out on a lot of potential paying customers by not having tickets available for purchase before the event takes place. This is where our service would come in very handy.
Attendance where pre-book isn’t available
3%
Always Never 44% 36% Often Sometimes
17%
4. Money Spend a week on Event Attendance/ Club Admission
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Money spend a week on event attendance/club admission
3% 3% 18% <5€ 26% 06 to 15€ 16 to 30€ 31 to 60€ 61€+ 50%
This chart shows that 94% of people spend €30 or less on admission a week, with 68% spending €15 or less.
5. Source of Information About the events This chart shows that most people find out about upcoming events either through their friends (44%) or online (37%). Online appeared to be much more popular than through the traditional media such as newspapers, radio and television which together only accounted for 19%. So it seems that the best way to advertise small events is online.
Source Of Information
8% 3% Friends Newspapers 44% Online 37% Radio Television 8%
6. Usage of Ticketmaster This chart shows that the vast majority of people (92%) use Ticketmaster, so they are familiar with purchasing tickets online.
Usage Of Ticketmaster
8%
No Yes
92%
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7. Satisfaction with Ticketmaster This chart illustrates that most people are not fully happy with Ticketmaster.
Ticketmaster Satisfaction
32%
No Yes 68%
Ranking Statements with options very true, true, Untrue, Very Untrue 1. Willingness to browse through upcoming events
Willingness to browse through upcoming events
3%
25% Very true. 39% True. Untrue. Very Untrue. 33%
This chart shows 39% of people have a great inclination towards browsing through upcoming events. On the contrary only a few people disagree with the above statement.
2.Missing Tickets being uniformed
Miss Tickets being Uninformed
8% 14%
Very true. True. 34% Untrue. Very Untrue.
44%
Here in this chart 44% of the people responded that they missed events because they did not know about them.
3. Purchasing Online is Safe
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Purchasing Online is Safe
13% 2% 33% Very true. True. Untrue. Very Untrue. 52%
Majority of the people who took part in the survey believe that the purchase is secure.
4. Online Purchase Reduce Stress
Online Purchase Reduce Stress
5% 19% Very true. 40% True. Untrue. Very Untrue. 36%
Like what we saw in the previous chart, this chart also depicts how stress is reduced for people when they go for online purchases.
5. Worries About Events being sold out
Worries About Events being sold out
8% 25% 19% Very true. True. Untrue. Very Untrue.
48%
This chart shows how much people are excited about the various events. About 73% of people are really bothered about the tickets being sold out. On the contrary only a few ¼ are not much concerned about them. In brief, the people are very much worried about events being sold out quickly. It will definitely benefit eTickets.
6. Concerts Tickets are expensive
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Concert Tickets Are Expensive
8%
25% Very true. True. Untrue.
67%
The interesting feature of this graph is that more than 3/4 of the people agree that the concert tickets are very expensive. 92% of the people agree with the statement. 7. Willingness to Receive Upcoming events info.
Like to Recive Upcoming evnts info.
20% 23% Very true. True. Untrue. 28% Very Untrue. 29%
About 52% of the people want to receive e-mail pertaining upcoming events information. The email provided by the customers while registering with eTickets is used to provide the latest information about the various events.
8. Booking fee for tickets are too high
Booking Fee for Tickets are High
5%
22% Very true. True. Untrue. 73%
The above Pie Chart shows that majority of the people (73%) who took part in survey firmly agree that the booking fee for Tickets are very high. About 22% of the people agree that the booking fees are high where as a least number of people think that the fee is not much.
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Appendix III: Database Structure
The database comprises the following four tables. Below is an overview of the fields in each table, with comments where necessary.
eTickets_events - Field Name Field Type Comment eventID int(11) Unique identifier for each event username varchar(40) - 0=Pending, 1=On Sale, 2=Temporarily off sale, status int(11) 4=Event closed title varchar(200) - date date - time time - venue varchar(100) - category varchar(100) - description blob - Contains a link to an image uploaded by event image varchar(100) manager y/n. Denotes whether event will be publicly listed on public char(1) site
eTickets_tickets -
Field Name Field Type Comment eventID int(11) - How many different types of tickets are on sale for types int(11) event amountA int(11) Total number of tickets available for each type of ticket amountB int(11) - amountC int(11) - amountD int(11) - amountE int(11) - amountF int(11) - soldA int(11) Total number of tickets sold for each type of ticket soldB int(11) - soldC int(11) - soldD int(11) - soldE int(11) - soldF int(11) - priceA varchar(20) - priceB varchar(20) - priceC varchar(20) - priceD varchar(20) -
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Field Name Field Type Comment eventID int(11) - number int(11) - description varchar(100) - serial int(11) - date datetime - name varchar(20) - address1 varchar(20) - address2 varchar(20) - address3 varchar(20) - phone varchar(100) - email varchar(100) - eTickets_users -
Field Field Type Comment Name username varchar(40) - password varchar(50) - type varchar(10) - name varchar(100) - address1 varchar(100) - address2 varchar(100) - address3 varchar(100) - phone varchar(100) - email varchar(100) - sessionID varchar(100) Used when a user logs in to the site
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Appendix IV: Verification Software File Format
The file that contains all the information about the tickets sold for an event is a plaintext file, which has been encrypted using PKCS#5 with the algorithm pbeWithMD5AndDES. The event manager’s web site password is used to perform the encryption and decryption. The file has a TVS extension, denoting that the file is readable by the eTickets Ticket Verification Software.
When the file is created on the web server, it is also encrypted on the server side before being made available to the event manager. Therefore, even if the file is intercepted as it is transferred, its contents remain private without the knowledge of the password.
When opening the file with the ticket verification software, the user will be prompted for the password, and will proceed to attempt to decrypt the file, and store the information for the event in memory.
When decrypted, the file consists of n+1 lines of text, where n is equal to the number of tickets sold. These lines take the following form:
Line 1: Contains details specific to the event. All fields appear on one tab-delimited line as follows:
eventID - username - event title - date - time - venue
Lines 2 - end: Every other line in the file contains information about a ticket sold. These are also tab-delimited lines containing the following fields:
ticket no. - description - serial no. - date/time purchased - name address line 1 - address line 2 - address line 3 - phone no. - e-mail address
Appendix V: Ticketmaster report Ticketmaster Announces Top Selling Day in History
More Than 1 Million Tickets Sold in 24 Hours
53 Percent of All Sales Conducted Online at www.Ticketmaster.com
LOS ANGELES, March 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Ticketmaster logged record ticket sales Saturday, March 1, selling more than 1 million tickets, 53 percent of which were sold online at www.Ticketmaster.com . Consumers logged on, dialed and walked-up to purchase tickets to superstar acts, including the Dixie Chicks and Bruce Springsteen. "Big on-sale weekends truly allow Ticketmaster to showcase the technology that makes these types of sales numbers possible," said Terry Barnes, chairman and CEO of Ticketmaster. "The incredible demand we experienced on Saturday validates the strength of Ticketmaster's state-of-the-art technology and gives us a good indication that we are off to a very strong summer season." Driving the top selling day company-wide: * Single Day Ticket Sales of 1.1 million tickets (excluding tickets sold through Venue box office) Single Day Ticket Sales of 1.7 million tickets (including tickets sold through Venue box office) 53 percent of all Ticketmaster tickets were sold online via www.Ticketmaster.com Driving the top selling day company-wide: * Single Day Ticket Sales of 1.1 million tickets (excluding tickets sold through Venue box office) * Single Day Ticket Sales of 1.7 million tickets (including tickets sold through Venue box office)
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* 53 percent of all Ticketmaster tickets were sold online via www.Ticketmaster.com * More than 1,500 IVR (voice recognition lines) ports sold a record 85,000 tickets * 750 call center representatives handling consumer requests * More than 3,500 retail ticket outlets to facilitate ticket orders * Top Selling Acts included the Dixie Chicks and Bruce Springsteen * 1,851 events performing at 1,741 venues were offered for sale on Saturday ranging from MLB, NHL and NBA games to the Circus, Broadway Theatre and a variety of leading rock, pop and country concerts
These numbers broke Ticketmaster's previous one-day record established March 25, 2000. About Ticketmaster Ticketmaster, the world's leading ticketing company, sold more than 95 million tickets valued at more than $4 billion in 2002, through www.Ticketmaster.com , one of the largest e- commerce sites on the Internet, more than 3,500 retail Ticket Center outlets and 19 worldwide telephone call centers. Ticketmaster serves more than 8,000 clients worldwide and acts as the exclusive ticketing service for hundreds of leading arenas, stadiums, performing arts venues, and theaters and is the official ticketing provider and supporter of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games. Ticketmaster is headquartered in West Hollywood, California and is a division of USA Interactive (Nasdaq: USAI). Ticketmaster
Source - http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=112145&p=irol- newsArticle_Print&ID=571653&highlight
Appendix VI: Advertising rates and demographics E-mail from Mark Gilleran of the Marketing Dept at Hotpress:
Hi Mark,
The media pack and my contact details are below. If you need any more specific information on Hot Press readers in any particular are, do not hesitate to contact me. This is the generic break down, but I have more in-depth figures if you need them.
The rates are excluding VAT and are open to negotiation depending on frequency of advertising. We will always try to work within the confines of all advertiser's budgets.
Yours sincerely,
Mark
-- Mark Gilleran Advertising Executive Tel: +353-1-2411540 Mob: +353-87-6622790 Fax: +353-1-2411538
HOT PRESS INFO.
Hot Press - The Bigger Picture Hot Press is the leading & established publication of it’s genre. Now in its 29th year of publication, Hot Press is living proof that you don’t survive, much less move forward, by standing still.
Always a magazine that has kept abreast and frequently ahead of the times, Hot Press has entered the new millennium with a whole new look and sense of purpose. This in turn has allowed the magazine to break ground - increasing its quota of fashion, gaming and much more!
Readership Profile Hot Press has the highest 15-34 Years readership profile of any publication
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measured on JNRS.
. Hot Press 79% - up 4% on JNRS 2003 . U 63% . The Star 52% . Evening Herald 44% . Sunday World 46% . U 63%
39,000 Adult Hot Press Readers every fortnight -(JNRS 2004) .80% under 35 years .56.4% Male following .71% High Earning potential ABC1 C2 .74% High Disposable income due to single status
Our readership has increased 18.18% over the last year, an overall increase of 44.44% over last 18 months and an 88.99% increase in Women readers over last 18 months. We now have an extended monthly readership of 89,000 excluding Northern Ireland.
The Addition of Hot Press is essential to any young adult-based advertising campaign, because it adds key ingredients to its effectiveness.
Advertising in Hot Press provides: ? Exposure and branding in a market leading publication ? Specific targeting with no wastage ? Cash-rich, young readership audience with strong purchasing power ? A reader profile open to new product launches and concepts ? Tailored advertising/sponsorship packages to suit your budget and target requirements
Since it’s launch in January 2002 membership of Hotpress.com has risen to 20,000 subscribed members. It is a perfect high value / low cost platform to complement the print medium to offer greater exposure.
The Demographics for hotpress.com are as follows:
Occupation: Sex: Age: AB-50% Male 62% 79% 18-35 C1-36% Female 38% 50% 18-25 C2-14% 50% 26-35
In All- Hot Press has a clear identity. It is leisurely committed reading. Its editorial environment is complementary in creating the ideal vehicle for advertisements O.T.S. and impact.
Change may be vital but longevity can only be assured if certain principles are adhered to. Which is why Hot Press remains a byword for top quality writing on all aspects of popular culture-from music, cinema and comedy to politics, sport and lifestyle and it’s why the famous Hot Press Interview-home over the years to bishops, presidents. authors, actors and rock stars-is still the most quoted in the business.
Hot copy, hot looks, hot attitude-Hot Press
Play with fire. There is no escape.
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Colour .PRICES. Mono
Double Page €6995 Double Page €4724
Full Page €4052 Full Page €2729
Half Page €2884 Half Page €1919
Quarter Page €1769 Quarter Page €1229
Eighth Page €1213 Eighth Page €860
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*10% premium for IFC, IBC & specially requested positions. 15% for OBC.
PUBLICATION DATES & COPY DEADLINES 2005
Vol. No. Publication Date Deadline
29 01 13th Jan 6th Jan 29 02 27th Jan 20th Jan 29 03 10th Feb 3rd Feb 29 04 24th Feb 17th Feb 29 05 10th Mar 3rd Mar 29 06 24th Mar 18th Mar 29 07 7th Apr 31st Mar 29 08 21st Apr 14th Apr 29 09 5th May 28th Apr 29 10 19th May 12th May 29 11 2nd June 26th May 29 12 16th June 9th June 29 13 30th June 23rd June 29 14 14th July 7th July 29 15 28th July 21st July 29 16 11th Aug 4th Aug 29 17 25th Aug 18th Aug 29 18 8th Sept 1st Sept 29 19 22nd Sept 15th Sept 29 20 6th Oct 29th Sept 29 21 20th Oct 14th Oct 29 22 3rd Nov 27th Oct 29 23 17th Nov 10th Nov 29 24 1st Dec [Xmas Issue - subject to change] 29 25 tbc [Annual - 2006 round-up] ______
.DIMENSIONS.
DOUBLE PAGE: 310mm tall X 536mm plus 3mm of bleed on all sides.
FULL PAGE: 310mm tall X 270mm wide plus 3mm of bleed on outside, top and bottom of ad.
HALF PAGE HORIZONTAL (full bleed): 151mm tall X 270mm wide plus 3mm of bleed on outside and bottom of ad.
HALF PAGE VERTICAL (full bleed): 310mm tall X 134mm wide plus 3mm of bleed on outside, top and bottom of ad.
HALF PAGE HORIZONTAL (non-bleed): 137mm tall X 246mm wide.
HALF PAGE VERTICAL (non-bleed): 282mm tall X 122mm wide.
QUARTER PAGE STRIP: 282mm tall X 59mm wide.
QUARTER PAGE: 137mm X 122mm wide. EIGHTH PAGE: 67mm tall X 121mm wide. ______
See also http://www.hotpress.com/music/1279946.html for online rates
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Appendix VII: Financial Sources
Legal fees/ Start up regulations – www.cro.ie Domain Registry – www.iedr.ie Hosting services – www.letshost.ie Computer Equipment – www.dell.ie Stationary and office furniture – www.viking-direct.co.uk Office Furniture – www.argos.ie Rent in Invent - http://webpages.dcu.ie/~inventwm/59.html
Appendix VIII: Correspondence with promoters Samuel Beckett Theatre:
I am replying on behalf of the Samuel Beckett Theatre and not Players Theatre. We are a relatively small venue and our main function is the produce plays which form part of the coursework of the students of the School of Drama. Because of this, our main audience is made up of Trinity students and family/friends of participants. A high proportion of our sales are 'on the door' and we usually don't have full capacity audiences. Therefore, advance sales are not of huge importance and the expense and administration of online booking would not be cost-effective. Having said that, we would consider the sort of service that your project proposes. Outside term time, we hire the theatre to outside producers and they would sometimes have online booking (e.g. the Dublin Theatre Festival) or would utilise an outside booking service which has online booking (Central Ticket Bureau). Good luck with your project. Contact me again if further info would be useful. Francis
At 13:33 19/07/2005, you wrote: >Dear Sir/Madam, >I am part of a group of Masters students studying in DCU. We are doing a >project on an alternative online ticket sales company to Ticketmaster in >Ireland. The focus of the project is the idea that promoters/venues like >yourselves can choose to advertise an event on our site, and the company >would facilitate selling tickets online. It would be a safe and flexible >system and we would take a small comission (8%-10%) on tickets sold. There >would be no service charge and displaying an event with us would be entirely >your own choice. > >We would appreciate it if you could help us in our studies. We would simply >like to know if you would envisage using such a service, and why you do not >currently sell tickets online. Any information you provide would be greatly >appreciated. > >Regards, > >Mark Coleman
Francis Thackaberry, General Manager Samuel Beckett Theatre/School of Drama Trinity College, Dublin 2 Phone: +353 (0)1 608 1334 Fax: +353 (0)1 679 3488 e-mail: [email protected] Web: www.tcd.ie/Drama
Tallaght Civic Theatre
Mark, At this particular theatre we have a capacity of roughly 300 seats. Most nights when we have a show, we do not fill the theatre to ______63
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capacity and therefore do not consider an online ticket sales system a viable option financially. We do, however, get frequent requests for such a service. The service you would be offering is one we would consider closely. Best of luck,
Peter Cronin, General Manager
Charlie Hodges – Dublin Event Promoter
Alright Mark, Yeah your idea sounds pretty interesting. We put on roughly 6 events a month, mostly dj sets and club nights as well as the occasional larger event. Assuming the service is safe and easy enough for us to manage, we would use it alright. We often have people ask about advanced bookings so that they can turn up late. Anyway best of luck with it, hope to see you at our next night,
Charlie
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