In recent years, the “mobile ticket” has taken off. It goes by many names – e-ticket, digital ticket, online ticket – and has transformed ticketing in nearly every industry. The rise of the mobile ticket has emerged concurrently with the widespread use of smartphones. A 2019 study by the Pew Research Center revealed that 81% of Americans own a smartphone.
In the transportation industry, mobile ticketing in nothing new. Most major airlines, bus, train, and hospitality companies offer mobile tickets. More recently, mobile ticketing has become common across the sports and entertainment industries. Companies like Eventbrite, StubHub, and Ticketmaster have all spearheaded mobile ticketing technology to offer customers the ultimate convenience of purchasing, saving, and reselling tickets via their mobile device.
What is the next big frontier for mobile tickets? Look to museums and cultural organizations. In fact, according to Acme, “The paper stub as a souvenir is a thing of the past” as museums are increasingly pushing to adopt mobile ticketing platforms. The adoption of mobile tickets is part of the larger trend in the culture to engage museum-goers through digital media and appeal to the increasingly digitally-oriented public.
Digital passes are becoming popular for a reason – organizations love eliminating paper to achieve a more efficient and environmentally-friendly process for membership and admissions. In fact, going paperless can save nonprofits financial resources while offering mobile convenience. By switching from plastic to digital membership cards, organizations like zoos, aquariums, botanical gardens, science museums, and other socially-conscious, environmentally-friendly nonprofits have been better able to align their practices with their mission, all while freeing up funds.
Additionally, one of the biggest benefits of mobile is the ease it offers in sending and receiving these passes. That’s why we’re so excited that now, shareable guest passes can be paperless too. In fact, digital can be one of the most convenient ways to distribute guest passes both between institutions and their members, and between members and their guests.
Just picture this: You’re a medium-sized organization with a membership base of 10,000 households. Each member household qualifies for two guest passes, which your membership staff or volunteers have to send out via direct mail. Once your members receive their passes, where do they go? Perhaps in the recycling bin, perhaps in a forgotten pile of junk mail, or maybe on the kitchen fridge until the membership cycle expires. These paper passes might be easy to hand off to a friend in theory, but do they ever get used?
Now, picture this: with a couple of clicks, emails get sent out to all 10,000 member households, which contain digital guest passes. These passes are optimized for easy distribution over email, so that with one more click, your members can send a convenient digital pass and invitation to visit your organization straight to their inbox. Starting to sound easier?
Digital can make guest passes more convenient to distribute than ever before! Paperless passes are the future, and museums and cultural attractions of all kinds are starting to think creatively about how to implement digital solutions. Are you ready to join in?
Looking to see how digital guest passes can benefit your organization? Schedule a free consultation with Cuseum today.