TodayTix, the mobile ticketing app, looks to cross over into the content marketing field with a new star-driven magazine. The NY-based company serves the theatre community by providing consumers with convenient phone taps to seek and browse show discounts. The app has expanded in recent years to markets, such as Chicago, Boston, Washington, DC, that already have robust offerings of an array of musicals, plays, dance and performance exhibitions. Each show has its own way of distributing ticketed discounts, be it same-day, lottery rush, or advance by up to 30 days.
Entitled The X, the roll out of the new monthly magazine will inaugurate in New York City first on October 1. Buyers who have purchased any one of the aforementioned types of discount tickets will receive a complimentary copy of the magazine when claiming them from the concierge agents. The agents are usually stationed outside at the front of theaters and can be easily identified by TodayTix T-shirts, emboldened by striking red. But if you are just looking to snag a stand-alone edition, it will set you back $14.99.
As it will be complimentary with a ticket purchase, the magazine will be the complement to the iconic industry brand Playbill. TodayTix CEO Brian Fenty is aiming the magazine to serve the cultural lifestyle niche, like a Vogue for showfans, or a Vanity Fair for theatre divas.
“When we started looking at all the ticketing companies that would typically come to mind to the average consumer, they have very little to no content period,” remarked Fenty. “And I think that’s in large part because if you’re selling tickets to Beyoncé, the New York Giants, and Hamilton, it becomes very hard to create generalized content that is appealing.”
Additional content with video and audio features will be featured online as the magazine matures in the coming months and is meant to supplement the print edition.
For the initial launch in New York, the stats amount to more than 50,000 tickets sold monthly, with the highest capping out at 150,000. It is a considerable audience that will be crucial for this rising company specializing in only show tickets.
But for many tourists at these Broadway shows, they will already be bogged down with double handouts. First, they will be given The X as they pick-up their tickets from the concierge. Then, as they enter the theater, the house ushers will automatically hand over the Playbill programs just at they take their seats. Usually most of the pre-show audiences are settled in their seats just 10 minutes before curtain. Such a short time to cram in some Playbill reading. Pity the post-show cleaning staff as they pick up those disarrayed and tattered pages off the floor.
The October coverboy for The X is Aaron Tveit, the Broadway hunk of Next to Normal, Catch Me If You Can and Fox’s Grease Live! The profile will cover 11 pages in an Instagram-ready fashion spread. In another section dubbed “The Wanderer”, it will reportedly cover in recurring formats a blend of recommendations for pre- and post-show hangouts, as well as the requisite eat and drink locales.
CulturElixir 