iStrategy Berlin: Daniel Nathrath from Viagogo about "Innovation in a Recession - The Smart Strategy"

The past couple of years have brought a recession that affected not only banks (as we all know), but pretty much everyone's sales. E-commerce in general and the live entertainment ticketing market in particular have not been an exception: Even though the money in music has been shifting more and more toward the live entertainment sector (vs. CD/DVD sales and download revenue), there has been an overall drop in sales in this market segment as well in most geographies, at least as far as primary ticketing companies are concerned. viagogo as Europe's leading secondary ticketing company has managed to grow rapidly against this trend.

This would not have been possible without constant innovation..

Key take-aways:

• giving a guarantee to buyers when buying event tickets (second hand tickets) - trust
• consumers trade in luxury for entertainment
• competitors move out of the market due to lack of funding
• partnerships:
• •  simple and budget friendly
  • strong brands re-enforce each other
  • bigger reach
  • create a real benefit to the customer

Presentation talked about the traditional use of facebook pages and twitter pages, no segmentation or target audience focus.

Advantage for the partners is that tickets don't get lost and the all the revenue generated around it like selling beverages and snacks. For the consumer it's pure trust.