CASE STUDY

Diageo maximises usage of 15,000 hospitality tickets

OUR IMPACT IN NUMBERS

15,000

hospitality tickets managed through the Sponsorworks Events Platform

97%

ticket utilisation rate, up from <70% previously

70%

reduction in pre-event email queries due to informative platform content

95%

feedback response rate

The Challenge

Optimising ticket usage and ensuring staff members could access tickets fairly had proved difficult. Without an adequate system to manage the tickets and handle requests to use them, the rugby ticket usage was much lower than Diageo targeted.

Specific obstacles and challenges included:

Poor access to tickets – there was no easy way for staff to request tickets
An inadequate approval process
Inefficiencies capturing guest details and passing these on to venues and right holders
Poor evaluation and post-event feedback mechanism - only achieving a 20% post-event response rate
Difficulty evaluating events and assessing value to the business
Financial and tax reporting was time-consuming and laborious

A row of premium spirits bottles and a cocktail shaker on a bar

Solution and results

Diageo selected the Sponsorworks Events Platform to manage its sponsorship and hospitality assets. The new platform, launched within two weeks to hundreds of users across Diageo, provided all the features required off-the-shelf. It is still in place years later, demonstrating the essential nature of the system. Diageo now manages up to 15,000 tickets a year through the Events Platform.

Since Sponsorworks was introduced:

Ticket utilisation rate has risen to over 97% from less than 70%
Increased headcount for managing ticketing & hospitality is no longer required due to the level of automation
Guinness Six Nations is the business’s busiest time of year for corporate hospitality.
Diageo can now handle these events with minimal staffing levels.
Tax reports, which used to take two weeks to produce, are now produced at the click of a button

The benefits:

Huge time savings across the business, especially through email automation
Timely content served via the platform helped eliminate over 70% of pre-event email queries
The post-event feedback capture rate has accelerated to over 95% from <20%
Business users rate the ease of use of the platform as 9.6 out of 10
Better measurement of the commercial impact of sponsorship and hospitality
Improved data-driven decisions about the future direction of its portfolio.
Richer data on which sponsorship hospitality assets deliver the most value, informing future partnership renewals.