October 6, 2010 | Volume 9, Issue 10

Alex Romagnolo
Director of Ticket Sales
Cal Athletics
[email protected]
(510) 643-2230

Travelzoo Partnership

Residing in a large, diverse region in the Bay Area, UC Berkeley Athletics has always been challenged to remain in the spotlight of the local sports market. With a Bay Area population of more than 7 million and professional teams in the 4 major leagues, the Cal Athletic Department knew there would be no shortage of potential ticket buyers. The challenge was determining a cost effective strategy that would promote Cal Athletics to the Bay Area in total. For the upcoming Football as well as Men's and Women's Basketball seasons, the Cal Athletic Department wanted to find avenues to expand their ticket base in a saturated Bay Area market. Additionally, Cal Athletics saw a growth opportunity in single game purchases and wanted to target Bay Area residences that were most likely to make random, one time purchases.

UC Berkeley Athletics decided to tackle this issue by partnering with Travelzoo, a global internet media company that publishes deals from more than 2,000 travel and entertainment companies for its 21 million subscribers worldwide. Travelzoo evaluates thousands of submitted deals daily and provides only the deals whose availability they can confirm. Additionally, Travelzoo's Test Booking Center assesses all deals they post on the web to confirm accuracy and easiness to book, working with the participating companies to provide the simplest and smartest information for prospective buyers.

Understanding that Travelzoo has a large subscription base in the Bay Area as well as a strong reputation with consumers in providing great value, Cal Athletics created a deal for its upcoming Football schedule. Targeting the corner sections of Memorial Stadium (which are a tougher sell, usually only 50% to 75% full) for its non-conference schedule, Cal Athletics created a Travelzoo deal that lowered the $51 ticket price to $30, a 40% reduction! Travelzoo provided potential buyers a link to the Bear's online ticketing system and the special deal code BERKELEY which would alter the ticket prices to the reduced rate. In addition to being listed on the Travelzoo website, the deal made it into Travelzoo's Top 20, a list of the week's best deals that is sent to their regional subscribers via email.

A screen shot of Cal's ticket deal on Travelzoo's website.

Advertising for this ticket deal was limited, using only Travelzoo's website and Travelzoo's Top 20 email blast. "We wanted to observe the functionality of Travelzoo's capabilities and really left the advertising in their hands," stated Cal's Director of Ticket Sales, Alex Romagnolo.

Cal Athletics couldn't have been happier with Travelzoo as a partner. "Travelzoo was extremely easy to work with on this project," states Romagnolo, "They were great assisting us brand our deal successfully and their attention to detail was also phenomenal, constantly confirming our information was correct and updated with every ticket sold."

UC Berkeley Athletics has been extremely happy with the results of their Travelzoo partnership. Beginning in 2009, the deals were determined mostly through trial and error and the goal was to cover costs by selling 100 tickets. Cal exceeded expectations, selling 500 tickets that year, majority to first time ticket buyers! Cal Athletics set 2010's goal at another 500 tickets and the results were astounding, reaching their goal and more after 625 tickets were sold. More importantly, Cal was also able to analyze the click through and forwarding rates of many potential prospects and received data to use to market to them moving forward.

An example of Travelzoo's Top 20 Email that is sent to subscribers every Wednesday.

With plans to list deals for the upcoming Men's and Women's Basketball seasons, Cal's partnership with Travelzoo has no end in site. "Definitely," Romagnolo said, "We definitely will be using Travelzoo again for future ticket promotions. The ROI and data opportunity provided is too much to ignore."

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