5 Ways to Use Apple's Wallet App for Event Marketing

5 Ways to Use Apple's Wallet App for Event Marketing

With today's advancing technology, there’s just no need for printing paper tickets to attend events anymore. It’s outdated, unnecessary, and boring! 

In the age of ‘smartphones’, people are embracing smarter solutions.

And in the world of event marketing, it's QR codes, paperless ticketing and hassle-free check ins that revolutionizing the experience of attending events. 

In this article, we’ll talk a little about how you can use Apple’s ‘Event Passbook’ to make the event ticketing experience user-friendly, quick and efficient!

We’ll also explore event marketing tech trends like QR codes so you can make the most of them as an event marketer! 

If you’re not already aware, Apple’s Passbook (now all integrated into the ‘Apple Wallet’) is Apple’s free app for event ticketing, boarding passes, loyalty cards, coupons and more.

It’s very simple to use, and parks all tickets in a scrollable, easy to view layout, so users have a bird’s eye view of all of their events.

Just like in the image below, which is a screenshot of the app. 

Now the question is how can you utilize it? 

#1 Use Platforms that integrate with Apple's Wallet

The best way to utilize the Apple wallet app is to use event ticketing platforms that are compatible with it.

When people buy tickets through a booking platform, it should immediately offer them the option of adding the ticket to the wallet or passbook app (depending on which iOS version you’re using). 

A lot of passionate iPhone users are using the Wallet app for managing all of their tickets.

So if you don’t allow them the option of adding the ticket they buy through your chosen ticket booking platform, they’ll end up with the ticket sitting in their email inbox, which can sometimes be inconvenient to locate when you’re at an event.

It’s a lot easier for a user to just log onto one central place with all of their tickets, i.e. the wallet app!

#2 QR code identification 

Once you issue tickets that are compatible with the Apple Wallet app, your e-ticket will have a QR code on it.

Event attendees can use this QR code to identify themselves when entering the event venue. All you have to do is to scan the code and ensure it’s them. 

This is what a QR code ticket looks like (left). If you want to be super creative, you can include information within the event ticket to stimulate people to take action.

For example, you could add a small snippet to ask people to share the event on their social media profile so it reminds them to spread the word about your event. 

This is what makes the event check in experience so much smoother.

Compare this with people having to manually print tickets, stand in queues and wait until their ticket is manually checked by event organizers. It can be painful and time-consuming to do it this way. 

The best thing about using an event ticketing platform is that QR codes are automatically generated through the app.

So QR codes are always printed on the ticket and there’s no need for you to manually generate them as an event marketer. 

#3 Ask people to share their tickets via the app

Another awesome feature within Apple’s Wallet app is the ability to ‘share’ the event tickets.

There’s a small ‘share’ button on the app’s user interface, as you can see below that people can use to spread the word about your event among their friends (see below). 

#4 Enable people to pay via Apple Pay

In the new iOS, Apple has integrated both the passbook, and Apple Pay into the same app. As an event marketer, use this to your benefit by allowing people to pay at the event venue. 

Sometimes, most people don’t book a ticket to an event ahead of time, and it’s best for you to give them the option to pay at the entrance.

Paying via Apple Pay can be done through a kiosk that accepts payments via Apple Pay, and allows them to buy tickets on the spot. It’s quick, it’s efficient, and it’s smart! 

#5 Promote local special offers

A really awesome thing about passbook/Apple Wallet is that it’s also GPS enabled.

That means that if a user has Apple’s ‘location services’ enabled on the Wallet app, you can push out local special offers if the users are near you. 

So basically if you’re always running an event at the same venue, and if users are near it and access their app, they’ll be able to view any special offers or discounts to event tickets you’re offering.

A very useful feature if you’re looking to do location based marketing for your events.

Wrapping it up

Quite clearly, if you use all of these features to your advantage, you’ll open yourself up to a wider audience, and you’ll make it much easier for them to attend and pay for your events.

Apple has been really smart by integrating Wallet with the Passbook app in the new iOS version, as people are slowly beginning to embrace the convenience of smart payments via the app.

So get on the bandwagon of using Apple’s Wallet/Passbook to provide an amazing and innovative event customer experience. 

 

Author: Scott Miraglia

Scott is the CEO of Elevation Marketing. He is a balanced risk-taker with nearly three decades of experience starting and growing advertising and marketing agencies. His business acumen is matched with a drive to build creative teams that thrive in open, collaborative work environments.