MUMBAI: “It was a super success,” says a happy 9X Media marketing head Kapil Sharma. 9XM which aimed to fly high with its first ticketed event in order to improve revenues went on to be a successful show.
On 5 July, 2015, the channel organised a music concert with ‘Tum Hi Ho’ singer from Ashiqui 2 Arijit Singh. The channel had partnered with Mirah Entertainment and Dome @NSCI SVP Stadium to host the concert titled – ‘9XM Dome Musically Yours Arijit Singh Live’ with Symphony Orchestra. The event started at 8.15 pm and went on till 12 am.
It was almost four weeks back, when the network started selling tickets for the concert on Bookmyshow (BMS), priced at Rs 3,000, Rs 6,000 and Rs 10,000. In a span of three weeks, while the Rs 10,000 tickets got sold, the rest were sold out one day prior to the event.
“The event was super successful with more than 5,000 people attending the concert. Whoever came went home blown away with the way Arijit performed,” opines Sharma.
One day prior to the event, the channel had to increase the capacity of the venue. “Initially we were planning for a crowd between 4,000 to 4,500. But, when we saw all the tickets being sold, we had to increase the capacity to 5,000,” informs Sharma.
According to BoomMyShow general manager, events Kumar Razdan, it was BMS’ first association with 9XM. “It was a great partnership in terms of the whole event. The event was quite a success in terms of experience as well as the ticketing, which did fabulously well and sold out all the inventories in 10 days,” registers Razdan.
As we know, BMS is at the forefront of the entertainment and ticketing business in India and about 80-90 per cent of the live event tickets are managed by the company.
For 9XM, BMS’ role was to offer a complete end-to-end ticketing solution for the event. “Our association was to manage the ticketing business, whether it’s online or on-ground,” adds Razdan.
Razdan informs that while 60 per cent of the tickets were sold online, the rest 40 per cent were sold through the BMS mobile app. “There was also a system wherein a person could go to the venue and buy tickets, but we didn’t reach that stage because everything was sold much in advance through online itself,” reveals Razdan.
From movie tickets which is still a primary source of entertainment in India, BMS also caters to large sporting events, right from the T-20 League to large Football Leagues or EDM festival. “They are important part of our whole business system. Apart from movies, events form a large chunk of our ticket sales,” Razdan informs.
Sharma goes on to share a learning from the event. On 1 July, during a press conference, the sensational singer did a periscope interview (a live Twitter video capability), where he spoke into his camera phone which got tweeted real time. Further, to engage with the online audiences, it kicked off a contest asking people to tweet their favourite songs of the singer, out of which three popular requests were to be performed by Arijit at the concert.
Unfortunately at the venue, the channel couldn’t manage it because of connectivity issues. “That has been a learning for us. Going forward we will ensure that we plan it better in an environment where there is better net connectivity. But we managed to put up the pictures,” asserts Sharma.
On the marketing front, social media played a big role in helping amplify the event, be it Facebook, Twitter or BookMyShow. The channel used a combination of both, Above the Line (ATL) and digital to promote the event.
While BMS was promoting it in its database, investments were made to push it on Google, Facebook and YouTube. According to industry sources, 15 per cent of the project cost was spent on the promotion/marketing of the event. It has been further learnt that the channel generated close to Rs one crore only through ticket sales.
The three hour on-ground concert will be edited to a 30-minute show for 9XM, which will air on 19 July. This telecast will also cover behind the scene actions, which the channel shot with the singer for three days.
The channel had Welspun Spaces Home & Beyond, Carwale, XXX Energy Drink, Gionee, Ayurwin and Hungama as the sponsors for the event, who will also be the on-air partners.
Other partners include Hindustan Times Cafe as print partner, 9XE as digital partner, Red FM as radio partner and Bright Outdoor Media as outdoor partner.
