IRVINE, CA--(Marketwire - December 13, 2010) - Paciolan, a leading provider of ticketing, marketing and fundraising solutions, announced today a partnership with Buddy Media, the Facebook management system of choice for eight of the top ten global brands, to offer an integrated social media solution.
Paciolan has developed a white labeled version of the Buddy Media Platform, called PAC Social Media, which allows organizations to more efficiently use Facebook to sell tickets and increase awareness of their events. The solution enables teams and venues to socially promote events, create unique offers and monetize social media.
"Buddy Media is the perfect partner for Paciolan as they offer the most progressive and well-established social media marketing software in the business," said Matt Kautz, senior marketing manager, Paciolan. "Working with Buddy Media allows us to provide teams and venues with a turnkey social media solution featuring a 'Buy Tickets' tab, and 'Special Offers' tab in their Facebook pages."
Paciolan is piloting the PAC Social Media solution with clients across multiple organizations. Venues and teams participating in the pilot program include the Philadelphia 76ers, the Philadelphia Flyers, PlayhouseSquare, the University of Texas, the University of Cincinnati, and West Virginia University.
"We are excited to offer 76ers fans an ideal social media environment that allows them to buy tickets through live, integrated feeds from our ticketing system, and even offer coupons within their Facebook walls," said Lara Price, Philadelphia 76ers senior vice president of business operations. "This allows us to capitalize on the viral nature of social media by enabling fans to share events with friends on Facebook and Twitter."
An important feature in the PAC Social Media solution is the ease in which venues can drag and drop custom applets into the venue Facebook page to create unique and compelling content. Unique content is the key to attracting new customers and enriching customer engagement.
"Social media is an important part of our marketing strategy, and PAC Social Media allows us to further engage with Flyers fans in a new and exciting way," said Shawn Tilger, senior vice president of business operations, Philadelphia Flyers. "It allows us to offer interactive polls, pick your favorite players, view exclusive team videos, and then share these interactions virally with friends through Facebook."
PAC Social Media also allows venues to build their database and grow revenues through a unique "Special Offers" tab in their Facebook page. This tab features a "Fan-Gate" component that requires a customer to "like" the venue Facebook page to gain access to promotional ticket offers and exclusive content.
"One of our objectives with social media is to build our database and drive ticket sales," said Chris Plonsky, women's athletics director and senior associate athletics director of men's and women's external services for the University of Texas. "With the PAC Social Media special offers tab, we can offer new fans exclusive promotions and capture their email addresses to build our database. It is a perfect way to complement our social media strategy."
PAC Social Media provides venues with the tools to better manage their Facebook presence, allowing them to save time and resources. These management tools allow venues to schedule and monitor posts on their Facebook pages, significantly streamlining this manual process.
"We are excited about the opportunities to connect our Facebook page with ticketing by leveraging PAC Social Media to pre-schedule Facebook campaigns and activities," said Brian P. Sayre, Director of Ticket Services, PlayhouseSquare. "It enables us to gain rich, detailed analytics and guest tracking to help measure the effectiveness of our social media efforts and ultimately better serve our loyal Facebook fans."
To complement the PAC Social Media platform, Paciolan will embed a share button in the venue ticketing pages, event pages and confirmation pages. This social media integration creates an easy method for customers to share events with friends through Facebook to drive ticket sales.
"This partnership is a great example of bridging the social world with the real world," said Buddy Media founder and CEO Michael Lazerow. "There are literally endless opportunities for Paciolan's clients to utilize the Buddy Media Platform to grow their business and awareness on Facebook."
"We are thrilled to offer an advanced social media solution to help venues sell more tickets and unlock the potential of Facebook and Twitter," said Dave Butler, chief executive officer of Paciolan. "Our partnership with Buddy Media and our ticketing system integration with Facebook provide Paciolan clients an unprecedented opportunity to monetize social media."
About Buddy Media
The Buddy Media Platform is the Facebook management system of choice for the world's largest brands and agencies. With its scalable, secure architecture and straightforward administrative tools, the Buddy Media Platform revolutionizes the way brands connect with their current and future customers using the power of Facebook's social connections. The Buddy Media Platform offers the only solution that allows brands to launch, maintain and measure their Facebook presence in any country and in any language. The Buddy Media Platform is the enterprise Facebook management system of choice for the largest brands in the world, including Procter & Gamble, Anheuser Busch, Starwood, Delta, Southwest Airlines, Samsung, L'Oreal, the National Hockey League and others. Based in New York, Buddy Media shares four investors with Facebook and was one of the first companies selected by Facebook as a preferred developer partner. The company is backed by Softbank Capital, Institutional Venture Partners, WPP, European Founders Fund, Greycroft Partners, Facebook investor Ron Conway, Facebook board member Peter Thiel, Zynga founder and CEO Mark Pincus, Roger Ehrenberg, Howard Lindzon and others.
About Paciolan
Founded in 1980, Paciolan is the leader in venue enablement, powering ticketing, fundraising and marketing technology solutions for leading organizations across North America. Collectively, Paciolan powers over 500 live entertainment organizations that sell over 100 million tickets annually. Primary markets include college athletics, professional sports, performing arts, arenas and museums. Paciolan is a wholly owned subsidiary of Comcast-Spectacor.
Visit www.paciolan.com for additional company information.