Off the shelf technology reduces the price of mobile ticketing by up to 70 per cent

Aug 16, 2006 13:22 GMT  ·  By

Mobile ticketing and loyalty specialist ActiveMedia Technology today launched new mobile ticketing software set to reduce the cost of implementing mobile ticketing by more than two thirds naming Virgin Mobile as its first customer.

The unique, patent pending, bar code ticket delivery, management and redemption platform delivers secure barcoded tickets to mobile phones which can be read by off-the-shelf, hand held web cam, rather than traditional costly bespoke terminals. Once scanned, information from the barcode is passed from the web cam to a PC, handheld device or retail Epos system where it is authenticated by ActiveMedia's RAPOS (redemption at point of sale) software. Flytxt, Virgin Mobile's mobile marketing partner endorsed ActiveMedia's hand held scanner solution as part of the overall mobile ticketing campaign.

Virgin Mobile will use the ActiveMedia's RAPOS platform to run mobile customer loyalty promotions offering VIP tickets at V-festival. In the first use of the software, music fans that attend Virgin Mobile sponsored 'Road to V' gigs at select Carling Academy venues will be encouraged to text the word 'Backstage' to 26666 to gain VIP access to backstage areas. Similar promotions will run at V festivals in both Essex and Staffordshire where the first 250 Virgin Mobile customers at each festival to redeem their VIP mobile ticket will be allowed entry into the Virgin sponsored VIP lounge.

The new barcode software is designed to encourage take up of mobile ticketing by dramatically reducing set-up and running costs while simultaneously creating a highly scalable, easy to deploy infrastructure.

Ariya Priyasantha, Managing Director, ActiveMedia Technology said, "Mobile delivery and redemption can reduce the cost of ticketing by as much as 80% compared to paper based tickets. There are obvious fraud reduction benefits too as there is no middle man to interfere with the delivery process The question is not so much if but when this technology will become main stream. With such a low price point for such secure, proven technology that answer has to be very soon."