Over the first six months, we:
Over five years, we:
Client: Ambassador Theatre Group
Industry: Theatre, arts and entertainment ticketing
Territory focus: UK
Target customers: Various, based on shows
ATG Tickets is the UK’s leading theatre, arts and entertainment ticketing operations, selling over 10 million tickets per year. They are a division of Ambassador Theatre Group Ltd (ATG). Founded in 1992, they have grown to be the largest in the UK with 39 venues across the country, such as The Savoy Theatre, The Apollo Victoria Theatre, LOVEtheatre and The Lyceum Theatre.
Over-reliance on cashback affiliates
Revenue for the ATG Tickets affiliate program was predominantly delivered by end-of-funnel, voucher code and cashback affiliates. These publishers were generating over 85% of the total programme revenue, and only a very small number of publishers generated any revenue at all.
The low number of publishers were also reaching low audience numbers; the affiliate channel was only utilised very late in the customer buying journey, often when a customer is ready to convert regardless, and is simply checking for a voucher or cashback offer.
With our experience in the ticketing sector, team Silverbean were perfectly positioned to boost ATG’s affiliate programme and nurture long term growth. A geo-targeted strategy was needed to ensure more coverage of regional shows and tours to assist with on-sales. This would build greater awareness of individual productions, their venues across the UK, and of course ATG Tickets themselves.
Channel recruitment and engagement
The Silverbean team undertook a critical review of ATG’s affiliate channel to build the correct foundations. This included optimising the programme commission structure to ensure ATG were not overpaying commission, removing over 50 publishers who were against brand guidelines, reviewing tracking pixel variables and introducing more stringent criteria for new partners to promote the brand within the programme guidelines. Futureproofing, tick.
Setting up for long-term success
Next, we devised a long-term recruitment and engagement plan to maximise publisher growth. This involved continuous evaluation of commission structures to monitor effects of changes across publisher verticals, competitor and influencer research for long-term recruitment, and efficient communication with key regional publishers, providing assets to assist content for major on-sales. A key tactic for this was producing evergreen, long-tail content to inspire audiences to attend shows – and reward affiliates in the process.
The main event: Affiliate Roadshow
Who says affiliate marketing is online-only? The team produced an innovative offline offering to unlock new opportunities in the ATG affiliate programme: the Affiliate Roadshow. We developed regional Affiliate Roadshows to build relationships with venue marketing managers and engage with potential and existing customers. This enabled us to focus on certain key regions of the country, such as Birmingham, Sunderland and Glasgow. We forged strong relationships with digital influences within the areas, and each of the events were followed up with a promotional pack and event listings for the region.
Through this, we optimised relationships with both new and existing affiliates. One affiliate saw an 873% increase in revenue when reviewing the 4 months prior to the event and 4 months after.
Through our geo-focused approach to ATG’s affiliate programme strategy, we recruited and engaged with a more diverse range of publishers. This resulted in a 228% increase in order active affiliates, enabling us to reach more potential customers across all audience demographics. We also moved the programme away from its reliance on cashback and voucher code contribution, reducing this by 78%. From this, ATG has seen over 30% YoY growth and a 29% decrease in average cost per acquisition (CPA).
By optimising the commission structure, we saved ATG over £200k in commissions and network fees which the brand could reinvest into the channel and work with more upper-funnel content affiliates to inspire potential theatre-goers. Our work on evergreen, long-tail content saw us featured in a major national newspaper which continues to rank highly in SERPs and most importantly, convert into ticket sales. In addition, key publishers’ content appears as a Google featured snippet, supporting the content contribution increase of 689%.
“We’ve been working with Silverbean to develop our new affiliate marketing programme. The affiliate team working with us really understand the complexities of the ticketing industry and have shaped a growing portfolio of publishers to work with. They’re reliable, knowledgeable and a pleasure to work with, and they are constantly striving, achieving and improving. I look forward to our continued work with the Silverbean affiliate team.”
Peter Monks, Commercial Director
If you are inspired by this case study and are not sure you are getting the most from your current affiliate programme, book your free affiliate programme audit today.
