How On The Stage Increased Conversions by 95% for Immersive Experience Producer Path Entertainment Group

For The Path Entertainment Group (aka Path), success is about more than producing exceptional immersive events – it’s about creating memorable experiences for their customers, which begins before they even purchase a ticket.

Through partnerships with Hasbro and Canal+, Path produces Monopoly Lifesized and The Paddington Bear™ Experience, two in-person immersive experiences based in London that sell over 350,000 tickets each year. Those attractions are part of the $145 billion global immersive entertainment market, which has seen as much as 30% annual growth since 2019 and is poised to achieve $412 billion market size by 2030*.

With two immersive experiences based on beloved IP within a rapidly-growing market, it seemed Path had all of the ingredients to succeed…until they encountered a major challenge.

The Problem: Low Conversion Rates

In 2022, Path’s online sales numbers were lower than anticipated, and CEO David Hutchinson wondered if he could achieve better results via optimizing the customer purchase experience. This led him to learn more about online ticketing platforms, and he soon discovered that most of them were designed for traditional theatre and not for location-based entertainment (LBE).

“We have first-class live events built on brands that have virtually universal market penetration, but getting people to show up was a challenge,” said Hutchinson. “So much of a consumer’s journey between their first inkling to purchasing a ticket is about their customer experience. We quickly learned that if we didn’t get the ticketing piece right, it doesn’t matter how good our live experiences are, we weren’t going to have an audience.”

Monopoly Lifesized, City Board

Justin Gamblin, Path’s Box Office Manager since 2021, also saw value in finding a solution that was designed for LBE. “Regular theatre ticketing solutions…weren’t designed for location-based entertainment, high volume ticketing, or managing multiple venues, which creates a lot of extra work for what we were trying to do.”

Path explored several leading ticketing platforms, but kept running into the same problem.

“Theatre ticketing is very set in its ways,” said Hutchinson. “You can book a show in a theatre, but there’s very little flexibility to work with other platforms or do advanced features, such as timed-based entry. There are a lot of large solutions in the market that weren’t in scope because they were so inflexible.”

Why Path Chose On The Stage

With the understanding that Path needed a solution that was specifically built to address the needs of LBE, Hutchinson quickly saw a potential fit with On The Stage (OTS).

“Retrofitting a solution designed for volume but not flexibility had not worked for us in the past,” said Hutchinson. “Whereas other platforms try to retrofit their platforms to support our business, On The Stage was the only solution that seemed built for time-based entry and LBE and also focused on the customer journey.”

“Whereas other platforms try to retrofit their platforms to support our business, On The Stage was the only solution that seemed built for time-based entry and LBE and also focused on the customer journey.”

– David Hutchinson, CEO of Path Entertainment Group

He also highlighted that the journey of purchasing a ticket for LBE requires additional customer education, and that it was critical to find a flexible ticketing solution that made the process as “quick and painless” as possible.

For Path, that flexibility came in the form of several must-have product features, such as mobile-first ticketing, time-based entry management, the ability to offer add-ons and create custom purchase flows, compatibility with Apple Pay and Google Pay, and a ticketing widget that could work in tandem with other platforms. Beyond those specific features, its team was further motivated by a desire for greater ease of use, increased operational efficiency, and unified reporting.

With OTS able to deliver on their entire wishlist and then some, Path was confident that OTS could help them to bring their business to the next level.

The Results

After a “fast and easy” transition to OTS, Path began to see big results almost immediately, with conversion rates increasing by 95% for The Paddington Bear Experience™ and 80% for Monopoly Lifesized.

Conversion Rates: Before & After OTS

According to Hutchinson, OTS isn’t just helping to increase Path’s sales – it is creating additional downstream value throughout the organization.

“The point of sale is an opportunity to learn about and develop an audience, not just sell a ticket – and OTS does it really well,” says Hutchinson. “Most internal people think that marketing does that, but the ticketing platform can help to do that, too.” On The Stage automatically captures and organizes key information about customers that can easily be used in conjunction with advanced marketing features, including audience segmentation and custom purchase flows, to create lifetime marketing campaigns to develop an audience, increase repeat customers, and boost overall sales.

How OTS Creates Even More Value

Beyond increasing conversions, Justin Gamblin has also seen big improvements in how he is able to manage the box office.

“The fact the users don’t need to create an account and can login without a password has saved me a lot of time,” says Gamblin. “It’s reduced a lot of operational headaches.” Beyond that, he has further benefitted from having unified reporting and the ability to easily manage multiple venues.

Beyond the numbers, Hutchinson also values having a ticketing partner that he feels is philosophically aligned with his business. “Location-based entertainment is relatively new, and to some degree it’s a leap of faith,” he said. “When you’re developing something new and brave in the market, it’s always useful to work with companies who are equally brave in their dynamic. There are always lots of companies that sell tickets, but you have to choose the right partner where there’s an alignment of expectations and priorities, and we’ve found great alignment with our partnership with On The Stage.”

“When you’re developing something new and brave in the market, it’s always useful to work with companies who are equally brave in their dynamic…and we’ve found great alignment with our partnership with On The Stage.”

– David Hutchinson, CEO of Path Entertainment Group

*Source: Mordor Intelligence