Aiding Ed Sheeran and hmv with Secure Digital Tickets

700 fans who had won tickets in a competition run by hmvLive attended the special gig, featuring the artist’s first in-person live performance of his latest chart-topping single, ‘Bad Habits’.

Challenge

The exclusive and intimate gig of only 700 attendees represented a huge challenge for hmv as they needed to ensure all tickets remained in the hands of the competition winners. With such a high demand to attend the show (with tens of thousands of competition entries) - and only a limited number of winning tickets available - hmv needed to prove to artist management that tickets would be secured to each winner and would not be transferred or sold on to others.

Simon Winters, Senior Events Manager of hmv, commented:

“The hmv 100th anniversary show with Ed Sheeran and Maisie Peters represented a big challenge, as we needed to provide a secure ticket solution that would ensure that none of the free tickets could be transferred or sold on, and they remained with the original winners."

Outcomes

Simon Winters, Senior Events Manager at hmv, added:

"Thankfully we could demonstrate that we had the ideal ticket solution in Tixserve and it proved easy to demonstrate to artist management that the integrity of this very special show would not be compromised by illicit ticket sales.”

The Tixserve-powered HMV Tickets app was used for the live event to ensure all tickets were delivered and secured to the competition winners.

Through the backend ticketing system, all ticket transfers were disabled, screenshots were deterred, and the QR code was protected to prevent ticket duplication. 

Each guests’ details, including the name of their companion, was displayed on the digital ticket to ensure those attending the event were in fact the competition winners.

The high-speed scan app was used to validate all tickets at the doors, assisting with the safe and speedy entry into the event. 

Push notifications were sent out to fans leading up to the event with operational messages and updates to keep fans informed and build excitement for the show.

Following the secure digital ticketing success at the show, and Ed Sheeran’s ambition to combat ticket fraud, Tixserve powered over 60,000 digital tickets across 13 stadium gigs in the UK for the 2022 ‘Mathematics Tour’.