Dynamic pricing - how does it work? A Hot Topic Special episode with Filippo Scanzano from the German start-up Smart Pricer

If you're involved in ticketing, you're probably familiar with the term dynamic pricing. But how does it actually work? And who is it for? In this episode of TicketingPodcast.com, we explore these questions with our guest, Filippo Scanzano from the German start-up Smart Pricer.

Filippo Scanzano has a background in ticketing, starting his career as a Ticket Sales Assistant at the FIFA World Cup in Germany in 2006. He has then worked at the HQ of German branch of CTS Eventim in International Business Development and Data Science for almost nine years, before moving to the global sports marketing agency Infront. Today, his mission is to offer ticketing and price analytics, as well as dynamic pricing solutions, for the sports and entertainment industry.

The San Francisco Giants were the first professional sports team to use dynamic pricing software, synchronising ticket prices with demand. While this approach is now common for services like hotel nights or plane tickets, it is still not the industry standard within sports or entertainment.

Is this about to change? What are the benefits of dynamic pricing, and what are the pitfalls? This episode delves into these topics, marking the first time TicketingPodcast.com focuses on a specific subject like this.

Prepare to learn about the art of real-time ticket pricing adjustments in response to fluctuating demand. We'll examine real-world success stories and cautionary tales, from the major leagues in the US to innovative Swiss ski resorts. Our conversation also highlights the perspectives of various stakeholders, from sales to finance, and the challenges they may face when implementing dynamic pricing models.

We'll scrutinise the nuances of cultural readiness for dynamic pricing across industries, finding the right balance between financial gains and community values, and exploring the future of pricing strategies aided by advancements in AI.

TicketingPodcast.com is powered and sponsored by TicketCo and hosted by TicketCo’s CEO, Carl-Erik Michalsen Moberg.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

If you are into ticketing, you will definitely be familiar with the term dynamic pricing. But how does it work and who is it for? That's what we'll be discussing at this first very hot topic special episode of ticketingpodcastcom, where our guest for the occasion is Filippos Gransano from the German startup SmartPricer. Stay tuned. Hello everyone, welcome to this very first hot topics special episode of ticketingpodcastcom. Today we will be delving into a topic that certainly is hot across the ticketing world right now. I'm talking about dynamic pricing. Today is a man who has been working within the German branch of CTS Eventim for almost nine years before he then spent almost four years working at the Global Sports Marketing Agency in front. Today he is country manager at the German company SmartPricer. Now he is helping clients all over Europe implement the very topic of today's episode, which, of course, is dynamic pricing. So welcome to the ticketingpodcastcom, Filippos Gransano.

Speaker 2: 1:25

Hi, karl-erik, thank you very much for having me on your show.

Speaker 1: 1:28

Well, we'll soon get to know you better, but before that, dynamic pricing sounds very cool, but why should an organizer consider that?

Speaker 2: 1:38

Well, directly to the point, dynamic pricing offers organizers, especially in the sports sector, the ability to react flexibly to various changing factors right by adjusting ticket prices based on actual demand in real time. Ideally, organizers can steer attendance and also reward loyal fans and ultimately, what many are looking for maximizes their revenue. And if you think about it, demand for tickets right could spike based on performance on the pitch, if we stay in sports attractiveness of the opponent, maybe the time of the season, yeah, and many other factors, and with the dynamic pricing strategy in place, organizers can adjust the ticket prices accordingly and achieving value for their event. And, on the other hand, when the demand may be weaker, for example also due to weather conditions or lower interest, flexible pricing allows you to adjust for that as well and still maybe steer and attract audience into the stadium and increase attendance and occupancy right. And, in summary, dynamic pricing creates a win-win situation in our point of view, where you can balance maximizing the revenue and ensuring that the chance have access to the event.

Speaker 1: 2:46

Wow, I mean lots of things to dive into there and some objections as well. We'll get back to those later, but in your opinion, Philippo, any reason why they should not use dynamic pricing?

Speaker 2: 3:00

Well, unfortunately for us, the term dynamic pricing itself is sometimes associated with unfair or greedy behavior, rights towards the general public, and undoubtedly there have been some examples of misuse of this technique, especially in the US, if I may say so, and which also made the headlines of mainstream media, and even more in a highly emotional environment as we are in in sports you have to be very cautious and meticulously prepare your communication strategy towards the most avid fans.

Speaker 2: 3:29

So there are certainly some pitfalls there. But, to answer your question, our view some sort of holistic price differentiation makes sense for everyone who sells ticket rights, whether it's static optimization or manual adjustments along the way, or real dynamic pricing as we call it, and it's very important to clearly and transparently communicate the approach behind it and also the benefits for the fans. Right that you can have cheaper tickets if you buy in advance or for off-peak events or stuff like that, and I'm sure we talk about that later. And, that said, obviously there are thresholds, external factors and internal resources and stuff like that that make it more difficult to implement and fully exploit the benefits of automated software.

Speaker 1: 4:10

In that case, We've seen a lot in the news. Obviously, people are talking about increases in prices. Everything is getting more expensive. Clubs are wondering if they should increase their season ticket prices this year or if they should wait. When you look at the cost of living crisis, what is the right price today, I mean in today's world? Is it following the general economy, or do you think it's case by case? Or do you have to take all these other factors into consideration?

Speaker 2: 4:38

you think Well, the ultimate question would be what it's worth to the fan and to the consumer to pay for it, and this is something we try to achieve, if looking at demand and then looking at many other factors. So there is no simple answer to that, I'm afraid. And that's exactly what we aim to achieve to have it differentiated and make it the right price for everyone, more or less individually.

Speaker 1: 5:02

One answer would be it depends right, it depends.

Speaker 2: 5:06

Yes, very good answer. We have to look into it in detail.

Speaker 1: 5:10

Yeah, let's discuss it more and let's start with the introduction. Who are you?

Speaker 2: 5:15

Yeah, I'd say, obviously, sports and life entertainment and, through the S right, long term ticketing and sports marketing industry, professional and on top of that also interested in product and tech. And yeah, that is my background.

Speaker 1: 5:29

How did you end up in the ticketing industry? Because you had some good years in the meantime.

Speaker 2: 5:34

Yeah, finally, it was actually one of my first jobbing experience back in the distant 2006 for the FIFA World Cup in Germany, as a so-called ticket sales assistant Actually right after school not ticketing school, but normal school, even before university.

Speaker 2: 5:50

So pretty early, I'd say, very operational task, customer facing job, hands on in the ticketing system and, at the time, 10 euro per hour and being part of the football World Cup at 19 years seemed like a great idea. So it was quite hectic out in the field, but I really enjoyed it. And so after my university degree, when I looked, let's say, for a real job, I remembered that and came across a really interesting opening at CTS, eventum, as you just said, an international business development. So I applied and next thing I know, I started in January 2010,. Super exciting time international expansion, incredibly steep learning curve and after a few years I changed internally the role at Eventum and newly created data science department, run a team in product and project management, and then brief four year excursion into sports marketing and now back in the industry. So I guess it catches you Nice.

Speaker 1: 6:41

And I guess there were some challenges in terms of how you price the ticket also back then. But the beauty now is that you have the tools available and I guess that's why in smart pricer where you've been in since January 2023. And I mean, you have a value proposition that no one can argue right. Unleash your sales and revenue potential. I mean sounds like a good plan to me, but what are you actually selling?

Speaker 2: 7:06

Well, our focus at smart price is to develop and implement data driven pricing strategies right to achieve several goals could be revenue increase, optimizing attendance or more online bookers or early bookings, and we do that in various industries, obviously including sports, but also an entertainment attraction, ski resorts or also cinemas. And, yeah, it works. Our clients achieve typically between five and 15% in revenue or three to 8% in off peak attendance. And what's the product or the solutions that we sell? So it's two things. It's first, it normally starts with consulting right With analytics and simulation.

Speaker 2: 7:41

So we look deep into the customer data, into the ticketing data, and analyze it with our algorithms and with our data science team and see patterns, see correlations, see maybe things the human eye doesn't see, and from that we derive scenarios, simulations. How could it look in a dynamic world if you have flexible pricing? So there's a big consulting part which already helps our clients. And then obviously we have a software proprietary software dynamic pricing algorithm which we connect to any ticketing system there is out there and then that automated and updates the prices based on demand, based on a series of factors that we input, that also the client has under control, where we advise on, and then to optimize the price based on the client's goal. Is it increasing the attendance? Is it increasing revenue? Whatever it is, we'll find a tailor-made solution and tell the algorithm to optimize against that.

Speaker 1: 8:37

Just a technical question from the side here AI. How do you apply AI to this? Is it? For me it sounds like it has AI written all over it, yeah of course, big topic in our industry for sure.

Speaker 2: 8:50

We have two versions. We can use what I just explained the more rule-based dynamic pricing right when it's a little bit more under control of the customer and has rules where the algorithm works against it. And then we also have the more sophisticated advanced solution, which not many clients are asking for yet, to be honest. That has more AI components in there and is a little bit more like a black box and takes into consideration different factors that are not within the rule world.

Speaker 1: 9:22

And who's your typical customer? Philippo, you mentioned a couple of segments you're into, but can you name a few? Some name dropping here on customer side?

Speaker 2: 9:31

Sure Happy to do that. Let's start with sports. So in terms of software automation, we work with well-known clubs such as Bayern Basketball in Germany or E-4 Zug in the Swiss Isochi League or, back to Germany, tepi Fowlemgo, lippe Handball Club there. And we also have some popular attractions in our portfolio Schloss Benrat, a Castle in Germany, or entertainment venues from the DEA Group.

Speaker 2: 9:53

Christmas Garden Season is just over and our backbone from the company is the more than 25 M ski resorts in the European Alps. Among them are Zermatt, gestart in Switzerland, zerden or the Schi-E-Made region in Austria. And on top of that we advise, as I just said, and consult many clients. And in sports we work with Bayer Nuffiel-Leberkusen recently or an SM-Aktaburg Handball team in Germany and some Science Center as well. And, yeah, we are obviously in advanced talk with many other players tennis organizers, motorsport promoters right Outside sports also with festivals, theme parks, attractions. So it's very broad, as I said, and the interest to talk about this topic is huge, as you said in your introduction yourself, right, and yeah, hopefully we will have some more references soon.

Speaker 1: 10:41

Great, it sounds like you're on an exciting journey. I mean, most of this podcast we talk about spectator sports, right? If you look around football, for example, I mean, what's the maximum price you can charge for a match? And we'll come back to the match with Laila Messi, both over in Florida, and how that happened, but we'll touch on that later. Are you a sports fan yourself, philipp?

Speaker 2: 11:04

Yeah, obviously that's an easy question. So I'm an avid football supporter, especially of my hometown, Aminia Bielefeld, currently in third division in Germany, and then I have two second clubs, let's say Hamburg Svau and ISR Roma. So I obviously like to attend football matches in general for fun with friends, but also business, with clients or both, and in general I'd say I'm an event fan anyway for sports a lot, but also for other life entertainment shows and certainly helps in my line of work if you like to attend those events.

Speaker 1: 11:33

Yeah, definitely knows. I think I'm looking at changing prices. I guess maybe some organiser are scared of implementing it as well. Right, because are they losing control, or do they feel like they're losing control over it or giving it over to this tool who's changing all the prices for them? Or is it like a step by step process and how they can implement it?

Speaker 2: 11:56

Yeah, these are questions that come up in every conversation. In the rule based dynamic pricing model, you are in control of more or less every step of the process because you set the rules with us together in advance right, the minimum price, the maximum price, the steps, how it should increase and you have always the possibility in our system also to overwrite the price if you don't like, which thankfully almost never happens, Almost never happens. But, yeah, you remain in control. But obviously you have to change your approach to pricing, to pricing strategy, to communication. So this is very key in our project. So there are no printed leaflets at the beginning of the season anymore because, yeah, in some cases you don't know what day, what time, the price is. You know the range and everything and the rules and you are still in control. But yeah, it is different. You have to change your thinking and your communication.

Speaker 1: 12:47

And I mean you can save up a lot of time, probably as well, right. Instead of having to manually change prices, etc. You can actually have this automated. But I mean, first, dynamic pricing is not a new thing, right, and people have been talking about it for a long, long time, and you don't have to drive that whole category. Can you name any examples where sports organizers I mean on a global level has implemented this with great success? Is there anyone we should look towards for inspiration?

Speaker 2: 13:17

Well, obviously we like to say that's our clients right, that have implemented it successfully. But to look at will probably be that all major US leagues the NBA, nfl, all clubs there are using it with great success. It's more or less normal over there in the ticketing platforms and it works very well. So this is normally where we look to see where the industry is right now.

Speaker 1: 13:43

One thing is the US right Very commercial culture. We'll come back to the messy example afterwards. Could you see a cultural difference in terms of how willing people are to think about dynamic pricing, in terms of where in the world you're selling the solution?

Speaker 2: 14:00

Yes and no. It more depends on the industry. We think of the combination of the country and the industry. For example, in skiing resorts or in cinemas or in theme parks, leisure parks, it's quite normal to have a very high differentiation in price anyway, if not automated and dynamic pricing already. But yeah, to come back to the country, we would say US, and in terms of skiing resorts, we see Switzerland actually as a pioneer. They were very quick, one of the first to implement it, and also not only online but also at the point of sale at the entrance of the skiing resort. There are many have automated, dynamic prices as well.

Speaker 1: 14:39

And how do you look at on a ski resort? I guess the weather has a big impact. If it's a rainy day, it's not the same value to go ski.

Speaker 2: 14:47

Exactly, weather is a big factor and obviously also holidays, right, and high season demand, weekends, stuff like that. But weather definitely is important thing to have in our algorithm.

Speaker 1: 14:59

Do you have any specific clubs? Who's doing a good job when it comes to pricing differentiation without using dynamic pricing? Any thoughts on that, any good examples?

Speaker 2: 15:09

Yeah, if we stay with sport and football, erbil Leipzig comes to mind. They have a great diversification throughout the 40,000 something capacity stadiums, in terms of price categories, to start with, and they have almost individual price list for all opponents, especially if you look at their current Champions League campaign, which is rather successful so far. Obviously, one has to admit that they have the resources in terms of people and tools behind it in place to analyze and to use all that, but this is as far as it goes before algorithmic optimization for what we see.

Speaker 1: 15:39

Any examples of the opposite outcome?

Speaker 2: 15:44

Well, in one of the earlier waves, as we call them, of dynamic pricing, as you said yourself, it's not that we invented it and it's super new, right, it's hot at the moment, but there has been times before where there have been approaches to implement it and there was some hype right some 10 years ago and Cardiff City is one of the famous examples at the time in second year UK football and that didn't work out. Maybe it was too early or not well implemented. I don't have any insights there. And in terms of communication, there have been some recent examples where it went bad, in Formula One, for example, or big concerts. But even though PR in those cases might have been bad press stuff like that, right, but commercially, from what we know behind the scenes, it was rather successful and then in the end, sometimes this is also what the people then look for.

Speaker 1: 16:32

What pitfalls should we look out for? I mean anything to be wary about when it comes to implement dynamic pricing the way you see it.

Speaker 2: 16:41

I think so yes, definitely, because it's quite a complex product and then quite a change to implement. For sure you don't have to exaggerate the aggressiveness of price increase. Right, that may then still work economically, but the better reputation will be on the other side of that Balance and people internally have to be open to discuss new approaches. Rise, as we just said, it's almost a radical change, the way of thinking and communicating. As I mentioned before, you have to have patience and see the mid and long term. Success is the change. In the first season. You have to adapt. There will be more questions and before and then people get used to it, as they did in other Areas of life. And yeah, again, external communication and you have to maybe not train but make your stuff aware of the changes so they can answer questions from the fans and stuff like that. So, yeah, that's quite a few things to consider in the projects.

Speaker 1: 17:30

Not only take a software, it's it's quite a big project and if you do it, Super interesting to hear and also reflecting on one of the previous episodes of ticketing podcast dot com where we've had rex and mc's head of tickets and memberships, peter win, we've gotten to know very well. He explained how rex and deliberately not optimizing their season ticket sales or ticket sales revenue right, because they have such high demand after the new owners and everything. But they want to focus on building a longer term relationship with their fans, connect with the entire community, make sure that everyone can afford to come to the match, and also providing some free tickets right, or, if not free, reasonably price tickets. How do you weigh short term revenue, which sounds like super lucrative, right dynamic pricing, optimize the game, increase revenue with the long term Relationship investments that you do towards the fan? How can you balance those two?

Speaker 2: 18:37

Yeah, first let me start with saying that there was a brilliant episode of your podcast so I'm not listening to it especially his take on season tickets in general and renting the seat versus owning it. So there was quite interesting view. And to your question, I don't think it's necessarily a versus right, but obviously I get you the point of your question. Why would price differentiation, long term relationship, right, and, as a matter of fact, one of our core principles at least, is what's the amount of tickets to a lower price than currently? In terms of communication to drive earlier bookings? Right, and it's exactly what you said a little fans with a what's the end of the stadium, but this doesn't make too much sense for the best seats in the house, right, and people that wanna decide last minute right, maybe I event fans are looking for the best category. They should pay a premium for that and there's a price to that. And also willingness to price, and brexit is a very special example in many cases, I think.

Speaker 2: 19:35

But the optimal price strategy for club depends on a number of factors right, including the situation is, I just said, financial and personal resources. And fine, if the goal is not short term revenue maximization right, with many clients. Goals are actually to increase attendance, for example, and not look at the profit in the first place. Everyone likes revenue increase, right, but it's maybe not the first goal and, yeah, we can balance it. And then the question to peter and rex and then ultimately will be what will they do when they will be confronted with the next cost increase? With the? Just Adjust the prices flat for everyone, increase them or have it differentiated for the varying customer groups with different habits, interest preferences and purchase power, which is our approach, just to spread it and not have one price. It's all, and then everyone takes their decision based on that yeah, I think.

Speaker 1: 20:26

I mean it comes back to a strategic discussion, of course, and one thing you have been in touch upon, which we also touch upon earlier in this episode, is the Lionel messy impact on american ticket prices, which I think increase with seventeen hundred percent and one of the matches he played. I mean, is that where the world is heading for the poor? What do you think?

Speaker 2: 20:49

I like this question. Obviously, I followed all of the messy effect and ticket prices and other commercial and cultural aspects. Well, it goes way beyond that. To be honest, I haven't put too much thought in it on business wise, because I believe it's quite a unique phenomenon. Right, it's one of the best, if not the best player in the world anyway. Recently won the world cup.

Speaker 2: 21:09

Celebrity magnet if you see who's attending the matches Hispanic demographics in US and stuff like that. And yes, there will always be mega stars who drive demand for a match, but this will be the exceptions and not the rules. Also, if you see the current example of you can club Right tickets for his last match at Liverpool end of the season, but this happens once in eight years. I think he was there right and it's hard to build a pressing strategy around that. Yeah, what you can, you can Exploit it, use it right. And as a person, as a sports fan, I hope this is not the future. And also, if you see the downside of this when people leave the stadium, when is, when he's up right, messy, what? The ticket prices plummet when it becomes clear that he doesn't play. But maybe that's more personal rather than a professional comment.

Speaker 1: 21:54

Yeah, I mean there is a risk connected to it as well. Right, the more expensive it is because of one player that the risk shoots through the roof. Exactly, as far as I understand, the philippo dynamic pricing within sports started with the San Francisco giants all the way back in 2010. And here they try this method of selling two thousand seats in the furthest corner of the stadium. I guess you know the history of dynamic pricing much better than I do, so maybe you can finish the story. What happened?

Speaker 2: 22:26

Well, yeah, indeed, baseball is generally considered to be one of the first professional sports implement dynamic pricing, which makes a lot of sense, right due to the very nature of the league, the amount of home games and stuff like that, and I'm also aware of this example almost 15 years ago and even though I didn't follow it closely. If you were to go to their website right now, it would literally say Giants dynamic ticket pricing. So I'm assuming the story did not end and is actually going very well, which is also true for what we know. No one we know that has started dynamic pricing has gone back From our clients, but also use competitors or do it on their own. So, yeah, it's working.

Speaker 1: 23:05

Great. Maybe we should get them on the podcast and talk about it and hear their story.

Speaker 2: 23:10

We listen to that episode for sure.

Speaker 1: 23:12

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll send it over to you. So when you're out, philippa, talking to clubs, you always have a champion right, someone who champions the product and thinking, and there's always someone who's not champion it. To put it that way, do quite opposite of champion. Who are those people like? From a position you meet ticketing managers? What do they think about this?

Speaker 2: 23:35

I mean, obviously, that the target group of this podcast another very good question and I wish there was a easy answer to that. But in the professional sports organizations obviously there are various Stay cold, right, and typical advocates are in sales marketing. They see flexible pricing as means to maximize revenue and, yeah, respond to demand fluctuations. Right, if you have them in the house. Obviously revenue management experts are some sort of analysts In some organizations you haven't bought not that often, to be fair, and everyone involved with finance. They see the ROI right, return on investment and stuff like that.

Speaker 2: 24:12

So the ticketing managers obviously we need to have them on board. There are many who work for this and then wanna implement it in their club, but they are not always the biggest fans as well. Right, because it's a project, it's complexity, maybe they're not even incentivized with higher revenue or increase. They have a incredibly busy schedule Anyway. So lots of respect for everyone doing operational ticketing on the ground. So we understand that and we try to make it as easy as possible to implement it and try to have the Most work before the season and then during the season, and that it's the most automated process. That's actually the whole point of it. So normally we have to talk to a variety of people at the sports club.

Speaker 1: 24:54

Yeah, I guess you have to juggle and talk to different stakeholders and use different language and use different arguments right to convince them.

Speaker 2: 25:02

But that's how it works.

Speaker 1: 25:03

It's fine, yeah exactly when I think dynamic pricing and I know how it is with the listeners but when I heard I'm just thinking ticket prices will try to do the roof. But there's also another side of it, right, and that is that it's actually becoming cheaper as well, correct? Yeah, we're not talking about increasing prices. We're also talking about taking the prices down, which maybe deserves a little bit of attention, as well, ultimately, obviously it's declined the sports club's decision and in what frame they implement dynamic pricing.

Speaker 2: 25:38

But yes, this would be definitely one of our recommendations if not must do to also allocate a portion of ticket can be 20% or whatever the client decides and have them specifically cheaper than before, to have all the benefits of that. To tell the customers okay, we implement this flexible pricing model and that allows us to have a portion of tickets cheaper. So buy them early, buy them online, buy them quick, right and take advantage of that. And if you want to have the flexibility, if you want to decide last minute based on other things, then you'll pay a premium for that and that actually works quite well. So, no, it's not only increasing the prices. Maybe on average, you do, using all the willingness to pay along the way and specifically having also tickets cheaper in the beginning of the process.

Speaker 1: 26:26

You mentioned that ticket team managers. They already have a lot on their plate, right, Correct? I think they're working very, very hard. Will they have time to implement dynamic pricing in their busy schedule?

Speaker 2: 26:40

Yes, they will and we will support that. Obviously it's teamwork, also with the ticketing company together, and the biggest part of the work is to define the strategy right, to set the rules, to talk about the parameters before the season, then set it up and then have it run automatically with our help, with our software, and just review it every now and then that everything is going. And we specifically have clients that are on the smaller end of the revenue and stuff like that, and so it doesn't always have to be huge Premier League club or whatever. So we have smaller teams as well and in their world it works as well. So obviously there is a minimum and threshold and stuff like that. But yeah, also with small teams you can implement that if you want and benefits outweigh the implementation and cost by far.

Speaker 1: 27:28

Great and we look a little bit ahead into the future. Filippo, how does the future look for dynamic pricing? Let's say five years, 10 years, or what will the world look like? Will there be dynamic pricing everywhere? How would it look like? What's your thoughts?

Speaker 2: 27:48

Yeah, we think that the timing is right now. As I said earlier, some earlier waves didn't work out. We see consumer behavior and acceptance, and also the technology is much more advanced than 10 or more years ago. Therefore, we are certain that there will be a much broader and also deeper adoption of dynamic pricing in many industries and countries. It certainly doesn't make sense for everyone in every aspect in life, but we see in many areas that there is a trend towards higher diversification and differentiation of prices, and let's see what AI will also bring to the table to that.

Speaker 1: 28:25

We'll see, and I think things will move fast over the next couple of years for sure. I also think that the ones who embrace new technology, they will win in the end, right, because things are changing and there's nothing we can do about it. And I mean you have a big job in front of you, filippo, and to go out and take dynamic pricing into the world, with the challenges that entails. We normally ask about match day rituals right In this podcast, where we try and understand what people do on their match day. I mean, let's say, you have a big day on a job, or how do you plan your day? Maybe you should tell us where you are now.

Speaker 2: 29:02

Yeah, well, thankfully, my job offers a great variety, which I indeed have to somehow structure to an efficient workday, which is a challenge. We are still a startup, so I have to cover the entire value chain in a commercial process, from all tasks pre-sales to admin tasks and then post-sales delivering the projects myself, doing the consulting work and implementing the software with the data and tech team. The client obviously talked to all the ticketing systems right, so partner management is important and look for new markets. And yeah, ideally, as we are a software company, I also provide input from the markets and competition and into the software. Thankfully, we can work from more or less everywhere in the world and beyond the road a lot and talk to clients beyond industry events. And, yeah, sometimes I wish I would have more control over the day than the clients, but obviously we are client phase, so we try to make it happen.

Speaker 1: 29:55

Sounds great. I mean, it's a dream job. It's neat to work with all these fantastic organizers. Maybe you can do some football clubs and then you can go up in a skiing resort and offer them dynamic pricing as well. So it's not too bad.

Speaker 2: 30:09

Yeah, I couldn't have said it better.

Speaker 1: 30:12

So another thing we do, which is the tradition on this podcast, is to offer a couple of key takeaways. What do you want our listeners to remember from this interesting conversation about dynamic pricing?

Speaker 2: 30:24

Well, I think the key thing is that establishing the right price for your ticket is more important than ever and it should be a crucial element of your marketing mix. The four or seven piece right and put pricing strategy on your agenda. Challenge the status quo, look for best practice and expert input into price optimization, get consulting on board there and this will help you increase revenues, the attendance and obtain higher online and earlier booking share. So it should be approached more strategic. Maybe the whole topic of pricing, of ticket pricing- Thank you so much, philippo.

Speaker 1: 30:58

It's been a privilege to have you as our guest, and if our listeners want to contact you or connect with you, how can they get in touch?

Speaker 2: 31:06

Well, I have to thank you for inviting me. Yes, we love to hear from your audience. Karl-erik, of course You'll find me and SmartPrize are on LinkedIn. We regularly engage there in discussions about pricing and live entertainment and sports. Our website is definitely worth a visit. Lots of content and email and phone contact. So, yeah, please do reach out and discuss with us about pricing strategies.

Speaker 1: 31:26

Great, I'm sure they will, and you've been listening to ticketingpodcastcom, where today's topic has been dynamic pricing and today's guest has been Philippo Scansano. Also, good luck with your startup, philippo. Very exciting to hear and it sounds like you have a promising future, thank you. Thanks so much for listening and thank you to our sponsor, ticketgo, for powering the ticketingpodcastcom. My name is Karl-Erik Moberg and until next time, have a wonderful day.