We talk to a lot of event organizers, (it’s kind of what we do) and we are noticing that the same common issues keep popping up, negatively impacting sales, reputation and the ultimate fan journey.
Unauthorized ticket sales are on the rise with ticket resale activity in Canada increasing by nearly 300% since 2019. We saw this problem and we took a long look at organizer procedures to find ways to prevent them.
That was one of the conversations we brought home from the 71st Annual IFEA Convention & Expo in Tucson.
This isn't a new issue, it has been on the minds of event organizers and fans, in their discussions and across social media for years. Most see it as a pricing problem - a ticket sells out, reappears somewhere else and suddenly costs twice as much.Fans may not know whether the ticket is legitimate, where to get help or what it originally cost. Organizers lose visibility into who is attending and how their tickets are changing hands. The relationship between the event and its audience gets handed to someone else.
That makes unauthorized resale a fan-experience problem.
Protecting tickets means protecting trust and the relationship between events and their fans.
Showpass Founder and CEO Lucas McCarthy explored this challenge during his IFEA session, “How to Know When Your Event Is Under Attack by Resellers.”
The session focused on what organizers can learn from their purchasing data before unauthorized tickets spread across third-party marketplaces.If organizers know what suspicious activity can look like, the patterns become less like random coincidences and more of warning signs that action needs to be taken.
The earlier organizers recognize them, the more options they have.
Industry events are most valuable when the conversation continues after everyone goes home.
That is why we created the Unauthorized Resale Guide: a practical resource to help organizers recognize suspicious activity, understand how unauthorized resellers operate and decide what to do next.
Because organizers should not have to wait until frustrated fans arrive at the gate to discover that their event has a resale problem.
The warning signs are already there.
You just need to know where to look.
Could unauthorized resellers be targeting your event?
Download the Unauthorized Resale Guide.
