In April, consumers will not only be able to purchase concert tickets online and print them out on their home computers; they will also receive ads targeted to the specific city or town where the concert is taking place.
On Jan. 26, Ticketmaster-Online and CitySearch announced it has been testing the technology allowing consumers to purchase and print tickets to the theater, sporting events and concerts from home.
This service opens up a door to a new venue for advertisers. ìWhen you buy a ticket, it implies youíll be at the Springsteen concert on Thursday,î said Tom Stockham, executive vice president at CitySearch, Pasadena, CA. “[This gives advertisers] an 81/2-inch-by-11-inch sheet of paper where they can recommend a great restaurant or offer a discount for parking nearby, as well as directions which we can draw on from our CitySearch content.”
This is an excellent example of how online entities can drive traffic to the offline world, said Stockham. “Most advertising on the Web is more about getting you to click someplace. This is an opportunity to drive foot traffic to physical establishments.”
To prevent fraud, each ticket will have a unique barcode ensuring that only one consumer can redeem the ticket. Any printer that prints 300 dots per inch can use the service.
