Overture: Patron Behaviors are Changing
Selling subscriptions is a time-proven method for theatre organizations to boost ticket sales, improve cash flow, streamline operations, and reward loyal patrons. However, multiple studies show that sales of traditional curated subscription packages are waning. According to one study, sales of curated subscription packages, whereby an organization pre-selects the mix of productions and dates, dropped by 17% over a ten-year period. A vast majority of those non-renewers cited a desire for flexibility – not cost or quality of programming – as the primary reason they didn’t renew.
This highlights a fundamental shift in patron behavior: patrons want the flexibility to choose the exact shows, dates, and seats that they want. That same study also found that organizations offering customizable subscription packages saw a 67% increase in sales for those packages, with up to 20% being sold to net new subscribers.
That’s why On The Stage (OTS) is thrilled to release our brand new subscription suite, which was built from the ground up with customization at its core to meet the unique needs of your patrons while saving your team time, money, and headaches.
Creating Subscription Packages
The new OTS subscription suite enables you to create a subscription package in as little as two minutes using as few as seven clicks. That saves you and your team valuable time while helping you to sell more tickets.
Let’s imagine you’ve planned a season with twelve different productions:
From that diverse mix of shows, you can use our built-in templates to easily create a subscription package based on three primary types with proven success:
- Flex Pass – You choose the shows, and patrons select their own dates and how many tickets they’d like for each
- Ticket Pack – Patrons choose their own mix of shows, the number of tickets for each, and the dates they wish to attend
- Traditional Pass – You curate a menu of shows and preset the dates and number of tickets for each
Prefer even more customization? No problem – OTS also enables you to build custom subscription packages from scratch, offering infinite flexibility.
Let’s dive deeper into each type of subscription package and what it unlocks for you and your patrons.
Flex Passes
Flex passes are a great way to bundle multiple productions around a particular theme or appeal to a specific audience while still giving patrons the flexibility to choose the dates and times that work for them. For our hypothetical season, some possible flex subscriptions could include:
- Family-friendly Pass – A selection of four family-friendly shows, with four tickets to each (16 tickets total)
- Musicals Pass – Two tickets each to all eight musicals (16 tickets total)
- Plays Pass – Two tickets each to all four plays (8 tickets total)
- Date Night Pass – Two tickets each to four shows designed to appeal to adults (8 tickets total)
If a patron wants to get tickets to every musical for their family of four, no problem – they can simply order two Musical Passes. The possibilities for sponsorship packages are endless – as are the ways that patrons can customize how they redeem their tickets (more on that below).
Ticket Packs
To give patrons maximum flexibility, ticket packs allow them to choose the exact shows and dates they want and the number of tickets to each. With a ticket pack, a patron could purchase a block of eight tickets (for example) with no restrictions on how to redeem them.
Traditional Passes
While more and more patrons value flexibility in their subscriptions, many audience members still prefer traditional passes where you choose the shows and dates, and they only choose their seats. Creating traditional sponsorship packages is faster and easier than ever with OTS, as is the purchase flow for patrons (more on that below).
Key Features for Customers
The new OTS subscription creation flow isn’t simply faster and easier to use – it’s also much more powerful. With the updated subscription suite, OTS customers can:
- Limit Seating Sections – Restrict sponsorship packages to specific sections of your seating chart, enabling you to offer multiple subscription packages at varying price points in different seating sections
- Control Fees – Specify if OTS fees are passed on to the patron or absorbed in their subscription price
- Set Start and End Dates – Make subscription packages available only during certain times, enabling you to offer promotions such as pre-sales or limited-time deals
- Specify Redemption Timeframes – Set end dates by which patrons must redeem their tickets
- Include Add-ons – Offer patrons the opportunity to purchase any combination of add-ons (such as parking, concessions, or merch) during the subscription checkout flow
- Embed the Subscription Widget – Easily sell OTS subscription packages on your website using your existing branding
Taken collectively, these features have the potential to save your box office team hundreds of hours of manual work to build, sell, manage, and redeem sponsorship packages at scale.
A First-class Patron Experience
The new OTS subscription suite isn’t just better for you – it’s also a faster, easier, and more feature-rich experience for your patrons.
Purchasing Subscriptions
On The Stage enables your patrons to purchase a subscription package nearly 300% faster than other ticketing platforms, in as few as seven clicks.
Faster checkouts do more than simply delight your patrons – they are also proven to reduce friction and increase subscription sales, which means your box office team can make more money with less time and fewer headaches.
Claim Seats in Three Clicks
Patrons can reserve the same seats for every show in your subscription packages with only three clicks, drastically reducing their time and effort to complete the checkout flow.
Patrons also have the option to choose individual seats for each production if they prefer. (And if they do, that seat selection flow is 50% faster than before).
Redeem Tickets
It’s never been easier to redeem tickets in OTS, nor has it ever been more flexible. Tickets can be redeemed all at once or piecemeal, giving patrons maximum control to customize their subscription package based on what works best for them.
Let’s say a patron purchased a Family Flex Pack subscription that contains 16 total tickets to Peter and the Starcatcher, A Chorus Line, Songs For a New World, and Bye, Bye, Birdie. It’s easy for them to purchase four tickets to all four shows on the dates they select and even reserve the same seats for every production – all in a few clicks.
For even greater flexibility, patrons can allocate their tickets across productions as they see fit, enabling them to build a package that works best for them and their family. Do Grandma and Grandpa want to join in for Peter and the Starcatcher? Easily reserve six tickets to that production. Do the kids want to see Songs For a New World twice? No problem – just allocate four tickets each to two separate performances, then have a date night to Bye, Bye, Birdie, and skip A Chorus Line altogether. The possibilities truly are endless.
Manage Multiple Subscriptions
Purchasing, managing, and redeeming multiple subscription packages just got even easier for patrons, who now can purchase more than one subscription package in a single transaction.
Patrons with multiple subscriptions can easily access and redeem all their tickets in a new, unified, user-friendly dashboard. From here, they can view all available tickets or filter by specific productions or subscription packages.
Enjoy A Better Experience
The new patron experience for subscriptions doesn’t stop there. To make subscriptions even faster and easier, we’ve also added the following key features:
- Automatic authentication – A patron’s email is automatically authenticated upon purchasing a subscription package without having to create or manage an OTS account.
- Passwordless logins – Patrons will log in to OTS using an email address and a magic link; no password required.
- Subscription nicknames – Patrons can give subscription packages custom names that are easier to remember.
- Optional add-ons – Offer additional add-ons, such as parking, concessions, and merch, in the purchase flow with subscriptions.
Finale: Subscriptions Designed for Today’s Patrons
Subscriptions are a critical tool for marketing and selling your season. OTS makes it easier than ever for theatre organizations to build packages that meet and exceed the expectations of today’s patrons.
Book a personalized demo to learn how we can help you with subscriptions, ticketing, fundraising, marketing, and so much more – all at zero cost to you.