Over the past few weeks, the Black Rocks Marketing team has been busy preparing for Cyprus Rugby, AKA the Mighty Mouflons, to resume international matches in the new 2021/22 season (praise be!). After a LONG hiatus, due to you-know-what, live sports events with actual fans in stadia have returned and we’re here for it.
When we joined the committee of the Cyprus Rugby Federation in 2018, part of our initial plan was to phase in online match tickets. The idea of digital ticketing was met with a little skepticism from some, but we were adamant about it! With a point to prove, we started the wheels in motion and carefully planned our execution. This was important and we couldn't afford to ruck it up. Unfortunately, due to the global-pain-in-the-arse, our timeline, like life, was shifted and rearranged more times than legendary Nigel Owens, MBE has delivered a classic one-liner on the pitch. Anyhoo, we’re pleased to say we finally have the online tickets with integrated payment platform up and running! In July 2020 we had a trial run with the digital ticketing for the online awards ceremony hosted by Marcus Holden, which was attended remotely by fans, players, coaches, and committee members who were dotted around the globe at the time. Every ticket purchased was automatically entered into a prize draw and some lucky ducks won match tickets and Mouflon jerseys at the end of the night. We've just launched tickets for the next match with a 30-day special offer for early purchasers to bag themselves a discount. Nice!
Why digital ticketing?
We're 100% digital people. If something can't be done online nowadays, it sends us into a screaming hissy at the inconvenience of it all. Online ticketing is a modern-day expectation with many benefits for the purchaser and the vendor:
Purchasers can order tickets any time, anywhere.
Digital tickets can be presented on a phone, eliminating the issue of keeping them 'somewhere safe' until the event.
Buyers can easily transfer tickets to family and friends.
Vendors can launch ticket sales way in advance of the event, which helps to accurately predict attendance and revenue.
Vendors can hold pre-sales and special offers to attract more early purchases.
Once a buyer has committed to purchasing a ticket, they're much more likely to attend the event compared with someone who intends to purchase at the gate.
Digital ticketing eliminates printing costs (Mother Earth thanks you), cashiers, and makes entrance frictionless and quicker with simple scanning.
Continue selling right up to the start of the event by giving people the option to buy digital tickets at the gate.
Need we go on?
Harnessing the team's social media and website to stay connected to fans
In our roles as officially nominated committee members and Cyprus Rugby Federation’s marketing team, we rock up to committee meetings as part of a team of people who want to see rugby flourish at both grassroots and international level in Cyprus. Promoting the news and events of the national team and local clubs is done via social media channels (clubs look after their own social media) and cyprus-rugby.com. We built a new website for Cyprus Rugby when we first came on board to create a fresher, more functional place for users to find the information they want.
The CRF is moving forward at a good pace under a strong task force and our team has been creating posters, social media posts, power point presentations, adding new pages to the website, and much more besides. We get good engagement from the Mighty Mouflons followers on social media and the follower base is expanding with fans from around the world who want to keep up with the latest news.
We're SO grateful for the opportunity we were given when we first started with CRF and continue to enjoy today. We’ve had a sneaky peek at the new kit and our logo will be on one of the sleeves (eek!). We can’t wait for our jerseys to arrive so we can wear them with pride!
Our passion for online marketing and rugby is a great combination and we can’t wait to finally see a live game again. Why not join us on 13 November at the first fixture of the season against Croatia? Ela Kypros!
Need a digital ticketing solution, online payment platform or shop? Get in touch and let's take care of business together.