Imagine Dragons Join Digital Seat Media To Crack The Code Of Audience Engagement.

One of the hottest debates in ticketed entertainment is how to ascertain who is in the room. This is key both to retargeting attendees for future events, and to the immediate sale of merchandise or food and beverages while the event is taking place.

Because audiences enter an arena without any correlation between those in the room and those who purchased the tickets, promoters and venues are left to guess who is in attendance. Even digital tickets only approximate the composition of the audience as you may have all four tickets on one phone, leaving promoters knowing the identity of just one out of four attendees.

Digital Seat Media is conducting a real time experiment which is gaining traction. They are placing QR codes, like that used by restaurants in place of menus, on the arm of every seat in the house. Whomever is seated there can scan the code to earn discounts, access to games and the prospect of rewards immediately or in the future.

Co-founders Cameron Fowler and Matt Sullivan are building out this technology in Fort Worth, Texas. They have a team of 28 at work on using QR codes to create a mechanism for real time interactive communication with fans whether by direct messaging or by using the venue’s Jumbotron or scoreboard to announce a game with a prize which is played by those who have registered their code.

This is transformative. Once the code is scanned, the seat holder provides identification information to Digital Seat Media. That information is the key to then tracking their activity there and then, and again in the future at any other event in which DSM is in use. As a result, there is a real time opportunity to market to a person who is known at that event and whose prior interactions through DSM inform the offers which may be generated for them there, and again the future.

Thinking through this technology it’s not hard to see how DSM’s data base can be activated to drive future ticket sales, merchandise sales for events which have just taken place or will be upcoming, and to expand the universe of what can be sold as the individual profiles continue to aggregate information about purchasing habits and preferences.

For example, Imagine Dragons in conjunction with RedPegMarketing are employing DSM’s technology on their current tour for their VIP ticket holders. Those who scan the code and input their basic data are then in the mix for upgraded seats, backstage access, an artist meet and greet or merchandise offers. If you have ever entered your email on the internet in hopes of winning a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle bourbon, then you understand the mindset. There’s little risk of entering, and you might just win. To date, Imagine Dragons are seeing 30% of all VIP attendees engaging with the DSM platform, and 47% are then adding the Imagine Dragons’ VIP card to their mobile wallet. Those are very strong metrics.

Activating the QR code gives more than just the chance to win an upgrade, it might also enable a customized Instagram filter, or create a way to interact with the event taking place in real time. Winners are celebrated on the screens in the room, or with a camera shot of them learning of their prize, thereby creating more excitement by others to try an win the next prize offered.

The business proposition is interesting. For teams, the pricing is based upon a yearly license fee, and for one off events, the fee has to do with the number of users and the number of events which will take place. DSM prices with the expectation their customer will receive four times the cost of the service in incremental present and future revenue.

DSM makes the 32 modules in their current library available to customers, thereby enabling multiple ways to interact. They also are building the technology beyond seats in venues. DSM is acquiring patents for using their technology in rideshare, medical records, inpatient care, and education in addition to live entertainment and sports.

DSM’s expected revenue in 2022 is $2.5 million and their 2023 projection anticipates growing beyond $6 million.

Part of this revenue growth comes from the ability to micro target customers. It’s one thing to be able to send an offer to everyone in the place to purchase a new car, and something entirely different if the brand is Mercedes Benz and they reach out only to those in house who paid more than $500 for their seats. As DSM’s data base grows, their ability to deliver precise offers increases making the service more profitable.

Cameron and I had a very interesting conversation about how difficult it is to do something as complex as installing 96,000 individual QR codes at the Rose Bowl, and what it took during the two years of R&D to figure out the chemistry for adhesive and the expected life of each tag. Below are links to both video and audio podcasts of our discussion:

The future of everything is going to be based on instantaneous communication. That’s where technology is moving. Everyone is going to want instant answers to whatever need or question they face in the moment. Those teams who figure out how to not only provide answers, but incentive interaction will win the prize of recurring revenue. I think this is best compared to a beer which is nice to have, better when it’s delivered and better yet if it arrives ice cold. The offer has to be good, and the speed of the result has to be consistently satisfactory.

Digital Seat Media has a good start in building interactivity with fans at events, and similar footing in other fields in which old school technology of communicating by phone, text and email is too cumbersome. They are personalizing offers from an expanding data base which makes each successive offer that much more compelling. This may just be one of those areas in which the first entrant to get in place wins because they gather the market before their competition realizes what happened. Cameron has enthusiasm, and his team is building strength. Check your armrest or cupholder at the next event you attend. It getting more likely DSM’s QR code is already there.