Get To Know Phil Silverstone, Eventbrite

Did you know that there’s a growing desire amongst the Gen Z and Millennial sets to get out and connect with each other in real life?

Congratulations on Singapore’s own Eventbrite platform, Phil. For those who do not know already, can you please tell our readers what Eventbrite is.

Eventbrite is a global ticketing and event technology platform that powers millions of live experiences in 170 countries around the world. We build technology that allows anyone to create, share, find and attend events of all kinds. From music festivals, marathons, conferences, community rallies and fundraisers, to gaming competitions and air guitar contests — we bring the world together through live experiences.

Our company serves event creators — the people who bring others together to share their passions, artistry and causes through live experiences — and we empower their success. Eventbrite’s powerful, broad technology platform integrates components needed to seamlessly plan, promote and produce live events, while reducing friction and costs, increasing reach and driving ticket sales. Creators using Eventbrite in Singapore include Singapore Wine Fiesta, Saturday Kids, Singapore American School, Brahm Centre and many more.

Eventbrite does festivals, conferences, conventions, dinners even educational classes; I am curious, how did it first start?

Eventbrite was founded by Julia Hartz, Kevin Hartz and Renaud Visage and launched operations in 2006. At that time, ticketing was an industry characterised by high fees and a lack of innovation –  it was very much ripe for disruption. As they researched the industry, Julia, Kevin and Renaud saw a gap between event creators using email, Excel spreadsheets and even paper lists to manage their events; and the much larger agencies who were ticketing stadium shows. Julia, Kevin and Renaud set out to fill that gap by building Eventbrite: a self-service product that empowers event creators of all sizes. Today, Eventbrite has more than 1,000 employees in 14 offices around the world and became a publicly listed company in 2018.

For someone who has been using Eventbrite for as long as I can remember, I cannot help but feel excited to hear Singapore is having our own local Eventbrite platform.  What are the differences in features between the one we have been using vs this local platform?

Eventbrite’s launch into Singapore means event creators and attendees can now benefit from a localised platform tailored to their needs, with the ability to check out and pay in Singapore Dollars. This ensures a faster, more seamless purchase experience for Singaporean event attendees, while creators will benefit from the full suite of Eventbrite product features, such as reserved seating and advance payouts; as well as powerful integrations with distribution partners including Instagram.

In addition, Singaporean event creators will now enjoy localised blog and marketing content designed to help them engage current attendees and reach new ones.

Singapore is the first Asian nation to have its own local Eventbrite platform.  Why the Lion City, Phil?

Singapore is a market we view as strategic and critical to Eventbrite’s long-term success in the Asia Pacific region. We’ve experienced strong organic growth here – having processed close to five million tickets and powered more than 90,000 events in Singapore since inception – and we know that life experiences are very much a part of Singapore’s cultural fabric.

Singaporeans’ growing appetite for live experiences presents an exciting opportunity for us. Research we commissioned in conjunction with Roy Morgan shows that 95% of Singaporeans attended at least one event in the past 12 months, and almost half of those surveyed said they plan to attend even more events in the year ahead. Not only do we benefit from this growing trend, but we’re also helping creators to build businesses around experiences that help meet this demand from consumers who want to get out and do more. In turn, our platform is fuelling the large and growing market of live experiences here in Singapore.

Are you able to give us a breakdown, which events emerge tops on Eventbrite’s platform?

Eventbrite’s horizontal platform allows us to empower event creators across a wide variety of categories with the tools they need to grow and succeed; while the discovery aspect of the platform gives event goers a taste of new and exciting events in categories they’ve perhaps never experienced before. In the food and wine category, one of the largest events on the platform is the Singapore Wine Fiesta. In tech, we’ve seen enormous interest in the series of conferences and events held by Tech in Asia; as well as Saturday Kids, a purpose-driven organisation dedicated to teaching children how to learn, in the areas of programming, electronics, digital art and design thinking.

There are lots of talk about the spending patterns, buying habits of Millennials, Gen Z and how different they are from their counterparts before that.  So, when Eventbrite strategise your marketing campaigns these days, what are the biggest component factored-in, in order to appeal to all generations?

Our research demonstrates a growing desire amongst the Gen Z and Millennial sets to get out from behind their screens and connect with each other in real life. Our marketing efforts zoom in on that trend by tying consumer marketing initiatives to high-impact cultural moments, like New Year’s or Halloween, that align with our mission of bringing the world together through live experiences.

Another key initiative is to put event creators in the driving seat when it comes to their marketing strategies. We partner with a network of leading distribution partners, including Instagram here in Singapore, to give creators the ability to extend the reach of their event with a seamless user experience that we know helps convert audiences to ticket buyers at twice the rate.

Branding or Marketing, Phil and why?

The two go hand-in-hand. In order for a marketing campaign to be meaningful, it needs to be tied to brand purpose. Our brand is brought to life through marketing, so the first question we ask ourselves before embarking on a new campaign is, ‘Does this align with the spirit of the Eventbrite brand and the values we stand for?’

Indeed an exciting time for Eventbrite.  Any parting words?

To showcase our commitment to the market we are launching with a special reduced pricing offer for local event creators, making it easier and more cost-effective than ever before for creators to grow their events and reach more attendees on Eventbrite. For more information, visit eventbrite.sg