Running Your Box Office: Setting Ticket Prices

WHAT SHOULD I CHARGE? …. WHAT WILL THEY PAY?
This page will help you think about what you are selling people, what to charge.

Ticket pricing for Oct 2021/May 2022
We request that that you raise your last years' prices by at least 50p.

Minimum standard ticket price: £12:00
Minimum adult concession price: £9:00

These minimum prices are only a guide. You can charge more and you do not have to set concession prices. Please call us for any advice you may need. See below for using ticket yield as a useful measure.

We will consider lower prices for children’s shows and in lower income areas as part of a marketing plan.

2019/20 average full price: £11.75
2019/20 average concession price: £8.50

2019/20 average yield per ticket sold: £10.40*

* Yield per ticket sold = Total Yield / Tickets sold

See below regarding food. Please contact the office team to discuss.

We want to ensure that prices reflect the quality of the artists as well being appropriate to your community and target audience and are similar across the Live & Local / Shindig network.

Ticket Yield

We are often asked what the 'average' ticket price should be. Average ticket price is not a useful figure as you will have different sales at different prices. Ticket yield is a measure for working out how well you are doing and/or for setting a target for your income and sales. It is the calculation of 'total income' divided by 'total number of tickets sold' (full and concessions).

If your income is £725 (Total Yield) and you sell 70 tickets, your ticket yield per sale is £10.36.

The Price is Right and Concessions

• Lower prices do not necessarily bring in larger audiences and consumers use price to infer quality when it it the only available cue;
• Higher prices say high quality, but consider appropriate concessions so it is accessible to everyone. Too high will make it too exclusive;
• Concessions are a discount and should be used when the main price is truly a barrier to attending for particular parts of the community;
• The trend is away from offering concessions for older people as a default;
• Watch out for shows that will mainly attract concessions, e.g. children's shows;
• Food must be an optional extra. (See below).

When setting your ticket prices remember that YOU and your committee know more about the local economics, disposable income and local groups in your community than you may realise. How much do they pay to go out for a meal, to go to the cinema or just to buy a round in the pub? What about other similar local events, last year’s ticket prices? But remember that this is a susbsidised professional performance.

The more you sell, the more money you will make for your community to invest in another Live & Local show - or in something else.

We are a not-for profit organisation. All the money you return to Live & Local is invested in more shows in your local area.

What’s your Target Income? AND Ours?
You need to think about the costs of the show and a target income. There are two targets:

• Your break even point is the minimum guarantee we charge plus any local costs (e.g. room hire);
• However Live & Local has to recoup on average far more than the minimum guarantee we charge across all shows in order to run the scheme. All shows are subsidised to some extent.

In order to achieve this we charge a percentage of the remainder of the box office takings after the minimum guarantee has been achieved.

Price Structures

A simple full and concession price structure is only one of several that you might consider. These are some of the successful ticket structures from last year:

• One price only (no concessions) for some adult shows;
• £x.xx Full Price / £x.xx Under 16s;
• Ticket prices higher on the door, i.e. a "carrot" to buy in advance - but set the 'early bird' price at our recommended minimum full price;
• Beware the 'family' ticket... there are many different sizes and shapes of 'families' - think of it more as a group booking discount;
• 3rd child free offer (2 adults and 3 kids, 1 child free);
• Added value offers eg Free bottle of wine if you buy a table of eight seats.

TIP: If you want to offer any form of discount, set your full prices higher than the recommended prices detailed above. We would advise that discounts do not exceed 10%.

TIP: If you want additional shows with less subsidy, adding small amounts onto the ticket prices can make all the difference and there is rarely any resistance from the audience.

What are you selling?
It’s important to sell the whole character of the evening and your venue, as well as the actual show.

• Live & Local shows are entertainment for everyone, but many different people come to them for many different reasons including local villagers, your neighbours and friends, Live & Local followers and fans of the company.
• It’s not just the show they are coming for – perhaps it’s also the cakes or the food, or maybe it’s a chance to gossip with the neighbours!

Who are you selling to?

• Mainly your local community. The two main audiences are the loyal supporters of your venue (who will come to everything) and the people who are interested in the show for what it is (theatre, jazz, a children’s show etc). So tell both your 'old faithfuls' and also search out those with a special interest in what it is.
• But a handful of new faces will turn up too. Some of these will be people who are ‘fans’ of Live & Local or the artists and may have travelled some distance, locals you have never seen before or people who have heard about the show through the Live & Local mailing list.

How can you get even more people along?
Keep it simple, especially if tickets are being sold by lots of local volunteers, rather than from a single person. Look at each event separately – some will be harder to sell than others.

Food for thought…
If you are thinking of providing food (Nb: only for shows marked “Theatre/Tables” or “Tables”), this should be indicated on the Publicity Form and any additional price should be entered in the Catering Suplements section of the form. Food should generally be an optional extra.

• Tickets £10.00 / £8.00 (Under 16s)
• To include Ploughman's Supper: £12 / £10 (Under 16s)

Generally food must be optional and that is how we will advertise this information.

The standard and concession prices on your Publicity Form(s) are what we will use to calculate your final fees. Each ticket price break can have an additional catering supplement that will not be used to calculate your final fee. If it is £2 or less, the ticket price will be shown as one price (e.g. Standard £10 + Catering Supplement £2 will be shown on all publicity as £12) However we will only use the £10 element to calculate your fee.

If the catering supplement is greater than £2 we will advertise two prices and there will always be two ticket prices on all publicity. (E.g. £10 and £12 including food)

NB: If there is only one ticket price advertised (i.e. food not optional) and the catering supplement is greater than £2, the fee will be calculated on the full price.

Online Ticketing

Having the option of online ticketing can be attractive to your audiences and is very simple to get started. Please be aware of our guidelines for 2022 when setting up online ticketing for your event:

• Promoters SHOULD NOT absorb the booking fee
• Promoters set the ticket price at face value (this is what goes on the publicity from) and the booking fee is added at the checkout by the ticket provider. (Audience members who want to book online are unlikely to be put off by a small fee)
• We will charge the promoter at face value of the tickets as per the publicity form
• Promoters insistent on absorbing the booking fee should put this full price on the form and will be charged against the full advertised ticket price. The advertised ticket price must go on the publicity form
• We will advertise tickets at face value and will not give notice(s) on publicity such as ‘booking fees may apply’.

For any ticket queries please contact the office on (01926) 402173 or e-mail marketing @ liveandlocal.org.uk