How to measure ROI on sports and entertainment tickets

Measuring ROI for sports tickets and other entertainment assets is a goal for many financial professionals. After all, whether tickets are gained through sponsorship deals or bought outright, those tickets have a dollar value attached to them. That investment needs to show some kind of return to be worthwhile. Unfortunately, many businesses believe this is easier said than done. Given the complexity of measuring a clear and concrete return on a company’s ticket investment, it’s thought easier to simply write it off in the same way businesses used to write off advertising expenses. As 19^th century marketing pioneer John Wanamaker famously said, “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” Some professionals might not even put that much thought into their company’s ticket investment. If the tickets are on a spreadsheet in some forgotten folder, they’re out of sight and out of mind. But a strategically utilized ticket can have a large impact on financials, whether incentivizing high performance or getting a big prospect over the line. As such, failing to account for ticket ROI can lead to a flawed picture of business performance and misleading forecasting. Thankfully, thanks to tools like ticket management software, it’s easier than ever to measure and report on the ROI of your company’s sports tickets. Let’s consider a few ways you can shine a light on this often-overlooked metric.

Consider the entire ticket lifecycle

From a business perspective, an event ticket means a lot more than getting someone through the gates and into the right seat. To measure the benefit and cost of tickets across the organization, you’ll need to look at the entire ticket lifecycle, which starts at the circumstances of their acquisition. If they’re part of a sponsorship deal, for instance, the details of that deal should factor in. What’s the market value of each ticket? Given the financials of the sponsorship, how does the adjusted cost compare? Clear visibility of the ticket lifecycle means knowing why the company has them, who is using them, and for which purpose. Aimless, unplanned, or unrecorded ticket utilization is not only harder to measure and report on, it’s wasted potential. On the other hand, if every ticket is recorded and used for a specific purpose, then you’ll see impact and attribution even in the long-term. For instance, a high net worth prospect could take upwards of a year to become a client, with multiple sports games and live events across the lead nurturing process. When that deal eventually closes, you’ll be able to take the full prospecting timeline into account when measuring ROI of that hospitality expenditure.

Use ticket management software for attribution and reporting

To achieve the kind of tracking outlined above, you’ll need the right software solution; more specifically, ticket management software. Ticket management software can help your business keep track of which tickets are in the inventory, as well as who gets specific tickets and why. So if a salesperson requests a set of luxury suite tickets to entertain a key prospect, that activity is on record in the system and can be added to the relevant deal information on your CRM. When the deal closes, you’ll have the data you need to show attribution and ROI. Great ticket management software also offers reporting functionality, which can help you demonstrate the ROI, or lack thereof, of your company’s ticket investments. Reporting in TicketOS can be customized to suit your exact metrics, data, and requirements. It also comes with out-of-the-box templates for common reporting needs, including common financial KPIs like ROI.

Maximize value from your ticket investment, with TicketOS

TicketOS is a ticket management platform that allows you to measure the ROI of your company’s entertainment assets, with clear reporting and tracking of the entire ticket lifecycle. If you’d like to see what TicketOS can do for your organization, click here to schedule a personalized demo.