buy.at wins affiliate marketing for Seatwave

November 20, 2007 (PRLEAP.COM) Business News
Seatwave, the UK’s largest fan-to-fan ticket exchange, has appointed buy.at, the UK’s largest independent affiliate network, to encourage people to buy and sell tickets on Seatwave. buy.at will use a combination of affiliates including content, SEO and PPC affiliates as well as cashback sites to deliver incremental volume of ticket sales and purchases.

Named as one of the top five ticket sites by Hitwise, Seatwave offers a marketplace for fans to buy and sell second hand tickets. It has over 500,000 tickets for sale for live performances across 38 countries. Initial activity will focus on tickets for music, sports events and theatre.

Seatwave is offering 7% commission to affiliates on the buy.at programme with an extra £2 per listing for affiliates who generate ticket sellers. The programme offers affiliates an average of £15 commission per transaction, considerably higher than commissions paid to affiliates in the primary ticketing industry. buy.at will work with Seatwave to incentives affiliates with increased commission on specific events and competitions for the most effective affiliates to win tickets to sold out events, such as the chance to win tickets to see the Arctic Monkeys on tour in December.

Joe Cohen, CEO of Seatwave comments, ‘We will work closely with the account managers at buy.at to engage with affiliates and encourage them to deliver both ticket buyers and sellers. We have selected buy.at because of the network’s relationships with quality affiliates, its open network approach, and the technical solutions it can produce for our market.’

.Kevin Cornils, CEO of buy.at, adds, ‘Seatwave is pioneering a new market so it needs to work closely with affiliates to explain the secondary market and Seatwave’s proposition, and encourage them to join the programme. It is offering very generous levels of commission, starting at 7 per cent alongside promotional offers to incentivise affiliates to deliver quality traffic on a cost-per-action basis.’

Seatwave was founded by Joe Cohen who has previously held executive roles at Ticketmaster and Match.com. The marketplace offers a secure opportunity for buying and selling tickets with Seatwave’s Ticket Cover TM providing a full refund if an event is cancelled and TicketIntegrity™ to ensure people selling tickets receive prompt payment for all orders that are confirmed and fulfilled.

The affiliate marketing activity is supported by a broadcast advertising campaign including radio advertising and other online advertising. Tickets for sale on the site ranges from the Take That UK tour, Amy Winehouse and Bon Jovi to Dirty Dancing and Desperately Seeking Susan and the RBS Six Nations Rugby in 2008.

About Seatwave
Seatwave is Europe’s largest fan-to-fan ticket exchange, an online marketplace for buying and selling tickets for theatre, sports, music and other live events. The company was launched in February 2007 by Joe Cohen, ex Ticketmaster and ex match.com and early stage Venture Capital firm, Atlas Venture. Seatwave has more than 500,000 tickets on sale, which is almost 10 times as many as eBay across Europe and 25 times as many as eBay UK. Seatwave guarantees that tickets come only from legitimate sources and will represent them accurately and honestly. Seatwave operates two types of customer protection. TicketintegrityTM guarantees that buyers will receive the tickets they ordered and in good time for the event. If not Seatwave refunds 150% of what was paid. All tickets bought on Seatwave are also covered by TicketcoverTM. This provides for a full refund if an event is cancelled and even covers buyers for a range of circumstances that may prevent them from attending their performance. The company is based in London.
www.seatwave.com


About buy.at

Established in 2002, buy.at is the UK’s largest independent affiliate marketing network. buy.at drives online sales growth for 250 of the biggest brands across all sectors through its leading network of 9,000 good quality affiliates, supported by industry leading commercial and technical innovations. A pioneer of the open network, buy.at encourages merchants (advertisers) and affiliates (publishers) to communicate directly, to ensure the success of affiliate programmes. Clients include AA, Butlins, Carphone Warehouse, Capital One, Egg, John Lewis, M&S, Powergen, RAC, Sky, T-Mobile and Virgin Media.

buy.at has experienced 250% growth in turnover year-on-year since 2004. In March 2006, buy.at secured its future growth following a £7.3 million investment from Esprit Capital Partners. Bruce McLaren, renowned for leading Advertising.com as International CEO to a successful sale to AOL Time Warner, was appointed Chairman. Former match.com MD Kevin Cornils was recruited as CEO. In September 2007, buy.at was revealed as the UK’s ninth fastest growing technology company in the Sunday Times TechTrack.

www.buy.at

For further information please contact:
Joanna Burton
Head of PR and Marketing
T: 020 7299 8380
E: Joanna.Burton@buy.at

Anna Barry
Marketing Manager
T: 0191 222 9720
E: Anna.Barry@buy.at