Winners of the Ticketing Technology Awards 2016 are announced

The winners of Ticketing Technology Awards 2016 were announced last night at Guinness Storehouse, Dublin.

The awards ceremony took place during Ticketing Technology Forum 2016 at Guinness Storehouse, Dublin in front of an audience of senior industry figures.

“Congratulations to everyone who reached the shortlists and especially those on the podium,” commented Ian Nuttall, founder of Ticketing Technology Awards. “Winners included our industry’s leaders, achievers and stand-out organisations, who should all be very proud of their achievements. Driven by consumer demands for greater transparency and more convenience, entertainment ticketing is undergoing fundamental changes – with technology proving a critical factor in meeting these customer expectations.”

Hundreds of nominations were whittled down to create the shortlists. The winner of each category was decided either by online voting by the global ticketing industry or by the independent Ticketing Technology Awards judging panel, which comprised:

• Ian Nuttall, Founder, Ticketing Technology Awards;
• Lyndsey Jackson, Head of Operations, Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society;
• Steven Armstrong, VP – Northern Europe, FELD Entertainment;
• Jonathan Brown, Chief Executive, Society of Ticket Agents & Retailers (STAR);
• Jacquie Cassidy, Ticketing Development Manager, Historic Royal Palaces;
• Tim Chambers, Director, TJChambers Consultancy;
• Andrew Collier, Creative Director, Minor Entertainment;
• Leon Gray, Head – IT Business Strategy Planning, Aberdeen Performing Arts;
• Yang Li, Senior Digital Project Manager, French Tennis Federation;
• Eric Solem, Head of Ticketing, A.S. Roma.

The Winners in each category are as follows:

 SALES & MARKETING AWARD

Category Winner: 16th FINA World Championships (Kazan)

Winner decided by: Decision by Judging Panel

Judging Panel comments: “An impressive event ticketing achievement in an emerging market which utilised many new technologies and unique problem-solving approaches. It’s clear that there is as much innovation and fresh-thinking in new markets as there is in existing.”

Shortlisted nominees:
“Only The Brave” – Wales Millennium Centre
16th FINA World Championships (Kazan)
“Masterfan” by Ticketmaster Spain
“GoldenTicket” Augmented Reality by Eventim Netherlands
Platinum by Ticketmaster

UNSUNG HERO AWARD

Category Winner: Stephanie Lett, Live Nation

Judging Panel comments: “A difficult category to decide. The winner is an impressive individual who, despite departmental cutbacks and staff changes, clearly ticked the ‘getting on with the job’ aspects of this particular Award. This is the kind of person every ticketing business should be hiring”

Winner decided by: Decision by Judging Panel

Shortlisted nominees:
Stephanie Lett, Live Nation
Liam Yandell, HQ Theatres & Hospitality
Mark Fisher, Royal Collection
Josh Whittaker-Vyse, Stoke City FC
Claire Hargreave, Sydney Opera House

MOVE TO MOBILE AWARD

Category Winner: Kaartjes.nl Mobile Portal

Judging Panel comments: “An elegant solution to ticket discovering and purchase, which offers locals and visitors alike a huge range of events, venues and visitor attractions – all directly from a well-designed mobile portal”.

Winner decided by: Decision by Judging Panel

Shortlisted nominees:
ReplyBuy at Levi’s Stadium/49ers
Etix Mobile App
We Scan Tickets App
SAP Arena App
Ticketa Mobile App
Kaartjes.nl Mobile Portal

CUSTOMER SERVICE AWARD

Category Winner: Liberty Stadium’s Disabled Supporter Services

Judging Panel comments: “A great example of a stadium team going above and beyond to serve the needs of disabled supporters. Liberty Stadium is the first to offer online booking of disabled seating – a move which is now being adopted across the Premier League”

Winner decided by: Decision by Judging Panel

Shortlisted nominees:
ACF Fiorentina’s CRM
Liberty Stadium’s Disabled Supporter Services
Lisa Cobham, RWC15/Ticketmaster UK
The Contact Centre at Wal

MOVING ON UP AWARD

Category Winner: Cirque du Soleil’s Demand-Based Pricing

Judging Panel comments: “Comprehensive adoption of demand-based pricing models has served Cirque du Soleil and its customers well. For a global entertainment brand to embrace demand-based pricing across its major arena tours bears testimony to the likely future take up of more airline-style pricing in entertainment ticketing.”

Winner decided by: Decision by Judging Panel

Shortlisted nominees:
“Audience in Focus” by Malmö Opera
Cirque du Soleil’s Demand-Based Pricing
Schlösserland Dresden
FanThreeSixty Integration
VW’s Autostadt Ticketshop

EXECUTIVE OF THE YEAR AWARD

Category Winner: Sam Isles, VP Artist Services, Ticketmaster

Winner decided by: Online ballot of the global ticketing industry

Shortlisted nominees:
Arndt Scheffler, Managing Director, White-Label eCommerce GmbH
Ben Sebborn, Founder/CEO, Skiddle
Javier Andrés Marin, CEO & Founder, Ticketea
Sam Isles, VP Artist Services, Ticketmaster
Michael Nabarro, Co-Founder & CEO, Spektrix

PRODUCT INNOVATION AWARD

Category Winner: Collector Ticket by Ticketmaster

Winner decided by: Online ballot of the global ticketing industry

Judging Panel comments: “A great product which fulfills the demands of customers who want the convenience of digital ticketing but still want that unique souvenir ticket”

Shortlisted nominees:
ReplyBuy
TodayTix App
.tickets TLD domain
Collector Ticket by Ticketmaster
Spektrix Customer Segmentation Tool
Playpass

CRM & DATA TOOL AWARD

Category Winner: Merkle-Adobe Integration

Winner decided by: Online ballot of the global ticketing industry

Judging Panel comments: “Combining one of the leading customer insights and data analytics agencies, with the leading digital marketing tools, offers entertainment businesses an unprecedented platform to deliver targeted, personalised marketing content to drive ticket sales. Industry leaders such as Feld Entertainment have already expressed their satisfaction with these tools and services”

Shortlisted nominees:
API Integration for London’s West End
Purple Seven Insights
Ticketmaster Live Analytics
Merkle-Adobe Integration
Neo-Ticketing Project

PREMIUM & VIP TICKETING AWARD

Category Winner: Rugby World Cup 2015 Premium Hospitality & Ticketing Programme

Winner decided by: Online ballot of the global ticketing industry

Judging Panel comments: “The industry ballot recognises the efforts made by Rugby Travel & Hospitality – the official Rugby World Cup sales agents – in selling and delivering more corporate packages than were achieved by the London 2012 Olympic Games. In total 90,000 packages were sold for the RWC15 tournament (compared to 60,000 sold for London Games). Clearly the organisers did their homework to create ticketing and hospitality packages which were well-received by the market.“

Shortlisted nominees:
Experience App from Live Nation
Rugby World Cup 2015 Premium Hospitality & Ticketing Programme
Festicket
Club des Loges, French Open

SMART & CONNECTED AWARD

Category Winner: The Ticket Factory’s Systems Integration

Winner decided by: Online ballot of the global ticketing industry

Judging Panel comments: “As one of the UK’s leading ticket agencies, The Ticket Factory has had to move with the times. But in 2015 it released its 2.0 edition with more features and improvements than it had released in a full two years before. These included Order Tracking, Social Login, PayPal integration, Friendly URLs, Customer Account, Responsive Design and better Dashboards – offering more ease and convenience for its customers”

Shortlisted nominees:
Arena App, SSE Arena Belfast
Montreal Canadiens‘ Club 1909
Malmö’s Multi-Venue Ticketing Integration
The Ticket Factory’s Systems Integration
Ticketshop v3 from Ticketscript
10-Day Access Control at Winterfest 2016

INDUSTRY SUPPLIER OF THE YEAR AWARD

Category Winner: ‘Queue-it’

Winner decided by: Onsite ballot by all delegates of Ticketing Technology Forum 2016

Shortlisted nominees:
Ingresso
Queue-it
Ticketplan
Intellitix
Weldon, Williams & Lick

JUDGE’S CHOICE AWARD

Category Winner: Battersea Arts Centre

Winner decided by: Decision by Judging Panel

Judging Panel comments: “Well-deserved recognition for a much-loved venue which suffered a disastrous fire but got its ticketing and performances back online in a matter of days. Testament to a great venue team which did not give up in the face of disaster”

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

Winner: Tommy Higgins

Decided by: Organisers of the Ticketing Technology Forum
Judging Panel comments: “A hugely popular industry character who pioneered computerised ticketing in Ireland, before joining Ticketmaster to lead and expand its European expansion. From promoting (and driving) bands across Ireland to establishing new models of retail ticket sales in music stores, Tommy Higgins has been – and continues to be – at the forefront of customer services, business trends and technology changes in entertainment ticketing.”

Congratulations once again to each of our 2016 winners!

For any press related questions, please contact Tamara Nasser.