New Live Nation Data Shows Mobile’s Major Impact On Live Events

During the recent IAB Mobile Marketplace 2012 event in New York City, Live Nation executive Russell Wallach gave a presentation about how mobile is impacting the way consumers attend live events. In his presentation, he included findings from a new study that looked at mobile usage during live events and tied it all together with how mobile opportunities in commerce and advertising will continue to increase in correlation with consumer mobile adoption.

“Both the increase in smartphones and tablets are creating more opportunities for our product, which at the end of the day is going to be the driver for our business long-term,” Wallach said in a report first presented by Mobile Commerce Daily. “We look at this trend as something that is going to be moving quickly as we continue to see more smartphone adoption.”

Live Nation conducted a study of their own recently to better understand the mobile habits of consumers during live events, and according to Wallach, consumers tend to be highly engaged on their mobile devices during shows. Live event mobile users also tend to be on the younger side and have smaller incomes, but are said to be spending more frequently and making more purchases. Also according to Live Nation’s findings, 54% of mobile owners surveyed owned an iPhone, 39% owned an Android, and 18% owned a BlackBerry.

“With these numbers increasing, we see huge opportunities for revenue, but we have to figure out how to create that experience to make it impactful,” Wallach said.

Mobile & Social

On the social media side of things, Live Nation’s study found that nearly 40% of consumers at concerts use Facebook to share their experiences, compared to the 10% who use Twitter to do so. Also interesting data, 75% percent of mobile-social concertgoers take photos of their experience, while 63% text during an event. While hard to imagine considering how many tools exist today for musicians to inform the public of their shows, 40% of consumers surveyed by Live Nation did not attend a show because they did not know about it.

How Brands Fit In 

According to Wallach, the most effective way for brands to communicate with consumers during live events is to create simple messaging, provide instant gratification, and supplement with an experience. He uses Vitamin Water as an example, when they used a mobile promotion that encouraged people to check-in via Foursquare in order to upgrade their tickets – highlighting the simplicity and instant gratification aspects.

Future Technologies  

Wallach says that Live Nation is looking to explore near field communication for ticket payment and content distribution, while also looking into augmented reality and geo-fencing to connect people at live events with targeted offers and messages.

“We’re convinced that this is the absolute future for us in terms of the purchase of the ticket on the device,” Wallach said. “The bottom line is that people have it with them 24/7, we want them to be transacting while they have that device.”

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