Power to the Younger, and the Smart Phone!

This time I got my inspiration at one of the biggest festivals of Belgium: Pukkelpop [4]. It were 4 awesome days with good weather (the only 4 good days in the past 14 in fact), great bands (like Seasick Steve, Limp Bizkit, the National, White Lies, Snow Patrol, Groove Armada, NOFX, Blink 182, Quens of the Stone Age...), a lot of people (every single day about 65 000 visitors from 51 different countries), and a whole lot of payments!

A whole lot of payments... first there is the entrance ticket. You have to buy the entrance ticket in pre-sale, the festival was sold out weeks before it really started. This year you could also buy your food and drink tickets in advance. At a festival you can eat a lot of different meals and flavours and drink a lot of different tastes as well: from coffee to beer, water to Cava... it is all there! Each consumption has its price. These prices have their own ‘festival currency’: the food and drink tickets.

A ticket presale was 2,25 euro (online with your debit or credit card), at the festival it was 2,5 euro (you could pay cash or with your card at a POS-terminal). The presale tickets were in fact a barcoded A4 that you could exchange for the real prepaid tickets (small coupons like all of you have probably been in contact with already). In my case I could get my tickets by showing my ID card (with my name), because I lost my A4 already before I even entered Pukkelpop.

Each consumption requires a new ‘trade’ of course: of food or drinks against one or several paper tickets. As it is summer and there was a good weather, people drink more so there were a lot of transactions to be processed. One cola, water or beer was one ticket, a slice of pizza for example 2 tickets etc...

Now you see the context this is what I would investigate as a major marketing campaign of YouBank [5]: as a head sponsor I would work together with a telco to offer new customers a smart phone with a Pukkelpop application. This should replace the wristband as a proof of having paid entrance, the food and drink tickets and the guiding booklet of Pukkelpop. People buy tickets, or they could go ‘oldskool’ by not becoming a customer. This will result in a wristband and ordinary tickets, or they become a customer of YouBank, they take a subscription at our telco partner and thus they get a smart phone with the Pukkelpop application.

This application gives them all the necessary info on the festival, like a map, the line-up, the tentspotter [6], and a link to their Pukkelpopaccount with food and drink tickets. The system remains prepaid (for security reasons for example), but the account can easily be enriched no matter where or when. As most of the time there is a switch of who goes for beer this account will also offer a service of easy interaction between customers with the application. This can easily be done through the same NFC technology as the one you pay with at the bar or at the food place. It couldn’t be much easier.

One problem is that not everyone will be joining YouBank [5] and its fancy technology. Thus ordinary tickets will still be sold and accepted, but at least it will be a lot less. So there is a win-win for all: YouBank has its innovative marketingstunt, the Telco has a lot of new customers, the festival got rid of a lot of its cash and a reduction of staff.

Another way to do it is to make an independent Pukkelpopaccount (with contactless sticker that is sent with your ticket) that can be enriched by debit or credit card at a POS-terminal or on your smart phone straight from you YouBank account. That way more people are reachable for the technology, but YouBank [5] customers are still favoured as they can upload their account anywhere, anytime, without having to go to a POS-terminal.

At every bar or food place the crew has a reader for a quick service and they do not have to count as many tickets anymore (as most of the people will hopefully be have a phone that is ready for such an app.).

Next week I’ll go further wit this story to see what other advantages this approach will have for customers, organisers and sponsors!