AudienceView has announced the closure of its subsidiary Vendini as part of its strategy to focus on fewer ticketing products for a post-COVID world.
The firm is moving to upgrade a number of its clients, which include WhatsOnStage and TheatreMania, to other AudienceView products to support clients tackling the challenges facing the live event industry.
The Toronto-based ticketing software company purchased both Vendini and UniversityTickets in 2019 with the intention of one day streamlining its software offerings within a new portfolio.
According to AudienceView chief executive Mark Fowlie, the emergence of COVID-19 became “an unfortunate opportunity to accelerate our strategy around how to best support our clients in an industry that’s forever changed.”
In July, clients of Vendini, which was used by hundreds of small and medium-sized arts organisations in the US and provided extensive solutions for patron management, ticketing, marketing, fundraising and speciality events, began to be offered an upgrade to another AudienceView platform.
AudienceView has been building a unified solution since the 2019 acquisitions to provide several products, direct access to engaged consumer audiences and an integrated community of learning, insights and engagement.
With the new platform, AudienceView is looking to offer solutions designed to help venues reopen based on new processes or procedures that may need to be introduced due to COVID-19 and other future industry disruptions or opportunities.
Earlier in 2020, AudienceView announced a brand transformation that kicked off the strategic innovation plan. Since then, the industry experienced an unprecedented shutdown due to COVID-19 that has significantly impacted the entire live events landscape, from venues to producers and artists to suppliers.
In March, AudienceView was forced to furlough over half of its employees as the industry halted. The company has already brought back a third of its furloughed staff.
Fowlie said: “Once COVID hit the industry, we rapidly accelerated our plan. This is both due to the industry pause that allows more time and space for product consolidation as well as, frankly, out of necessity from the economic hardship brought on by COVID.
“Beyond software, our clients will need help rebuilding their audiences when we pass this chapter – and we will. Our strategy, which we outlined in our strategic innovation plan, has moved into execution mode.
“We are doubling down on connecting our consumer brands with our remaining ticketing solutions to help our clients find their future event goers, subscribers and long-term supporters. Over the next few months, we will work closely with our clients to upgrade them to one of our remaining products where we will continue to innovate with features that pave the way for a next-generation solution that is needed in live events.”
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