The art of marketing.

The Hamptons Expo Group manages four major fine art fairs – held in the Hamptons, Aspen, Houston and Palm Springs. HEG has set the standard for art fairs, with events attracting fifty-some international galleries and attendance of some 12,000 people over a long weekend. Attendees can browse and purchase modern and contemporary art – while mingling with renowned collectors, philanthropists, curators and patrons of the arts.

The art of marketing.

The Hamptons Expo Group manages four major fine art fairs – held in the Hamptons, Aspen, Houston and Palm Springs. HEG has set the standard for art fairs, with events attracting fifty-some international galleries and attendance of some 12,000 people over a long weekend. Attendees can browse and purchase modern and contemporary art – while mingling with renowned collectors, philanthropists, curators and patrons of the arts.

Problem:

Over the years, the marketplace for fine art fairs has become increasingly crowded. With numerous new competitors flooding the market with free tickets, attendance dropped and revenue per visitors was undermined.

In addition, the original popularity and success of the fairs did not require the managers to capture visitor information nor track attendance and visitor behavior. So, once competition became a concern there was no data available to target past attendees with special offers or incentives for continued participation.

Problem:

Over the years, the marketplace for fine art fairs has become increasingly crowded. With numerous new competitors flooding the market with free tickets, attendance dropped and revenue per visitors was undermined.

In addition, the original popularity and success of the fairs did not require the managers to capture visitor information nor track attendance and visitor behavior. So, once competition became a concern there was no data available to target past attendees with special offers or incentives for continued participation.

Solution:

Vibeworx partnered with The Blast Studio to formulate a new ticketing strategy that deployed scannable plastic cards to replace the old paper tickets. These cards carried individual barcodes intended to record visitor entrance and ultimately participation in multi-day events and art purchases. This information would then be valuable to the galleries and could be used to increase exhibitor revenue.

These cards were dispensed by the galleries to their own regular customers via art themed direct mail. The customers were given one free pass and then encouraged to upgrade to VIP status and purchase additional passes for guests.

By requiring card activations online prior to the event we were able to capture visitor name and email address data that would allow us to re-target visitors in subsequent years, thus making ticket sales more efficient and increase the percentage of paid ticket visitors.