The Hidden Box Office Gold Mine: Why Ticket Transfer Recipients Are a Theater’s Best-Kept Marketing Secret
- Jason Chang
- 58 minutes ago
- 4 min read
Every new account from a ticket transfer could be your next patron or subscriber. Yet many venues are overlooking this powerful opportunity. While performing arts marketers are constantly challenged to grow new audiences on shrinking budgets, acquiring new patrons remains expensive. In fact, one study found that it costs nearly five times1 more to acquire a new theater subscriber than to retain an existing one. That’s why lowering the cost of new patron acquisition is essential.
For many theaters, there’s a low-cost, underutilized source of new patrons hiding in plain sight: the new accounts created by ticket transfer recipients. Let’s explore the data, why it matters, and how Paciolan enables you to intentionally engage these new visitors to drive future growth.
Transfers Are On the Rise
It’s no surprise that in a world marching onward in its digital transformation that ticket transfers have been sharply on the rise over the last few years. And with that, so too has the capture of new accounts for our clients. Across the entire Performing Arts market, in the 365 days ending September 30, 2025, we recorded 69,096 new accounts from transfers. That’s a 31% increase over the previous period (see table below)!
Table 1: Paciolan Performing Arts Clients - Ticket Transfers
In the 2024-2025 period, 40% of transfer recipients were new accounts. Your mileage may vary, but this 40% ratio is a good starting estimate. It’s for this reason that transfers should be recognized as a significant source of new patron prospects for any performing arts center.
Pre-Warmed Leads at Zero Acquisition Cost
So, why is this important?
Your patrons are your best marketing and sales people. Fitness centers, climbing gyms, and other recreational facilities often give their members a guest-pass as a perk. The member gets to provide an experience for a friend and the recipient benefits from that. The business also gets a benefit. They know that their members will likely invite someone who shares a similar demographic. The member becomes an extension of the marketing and sales team and brings in a lookalike.
Thus, new account transfer recipients in the theater world are potentially no-cost to low-cost warm prospects because they’ve already demonstrated a key attribute: showing up. In the patron journey, they're starting at step two or three, not zero like a cold prospect.
Ok, great hypothesis. Guests are more likely to convert versus cold prospects. Is there any data to back that up? Advertising campaigns we run for our clients, targeted at new account transfer recipients, have a return on ad spend (ROAS) of 9:1 ($9 return for every $1 spent). This significantly outperforms the generally accepted 4:1 benchmark for a “good” ad campaign.
A Marketing Goldmine: 5 Ways to Go After New Account Transfer Recipients
Now that we recognize their value, let’s look at several ways to convert that visitor into a patron:
Add to regular promotional campaigns (low effort) - You’re likely already running email campaigns promoting upcoming events. New accounts may already be pulled into your existing segments but it doesn’t hurt to check to make sure. If you have a regular cadence of digital ad campaigns, they would be great candidates for this as well.
Send a post-attendance email (medium effort) - Create and automate an email campaign to follow-up after the event. The best time to offer the next event is when they’re still basking in the glow from the show they just attended. So this email should arrive the day after attendance.
Create a targeted post-attendance ad campaign (medium effort) - Take advantage of that aforementioned 9:1 ROAS. Ad targeting technology can put ads in front of specific people based on their email addresses which you’ll have via the ticket transfer.
Offer pre-show exclusives (high effort) - As a way to add extra incentive to show up, set up pre-show exclusive experiences and invite your new account transfer ticket recipients. These can be things like low cost group tours or complimentary refreshments. The goal here is to create an opportunity for your staff to engage and connect with new patrons and plant the seeds for long term relationships.
Create an in-venue personal touch (high effort) - You know where your new account transfer recipients are going to sit. Leave a thank you card and promo code on their seat to encourage them to become ticket buyers. For the high value seats, send a greeter to thank them by name.
Make Meaningful Experiences
The world of event ticketing is, by nature, transactional. But when done well, it creates the space for theaters to do what truly matters: enrich lives through the arts. Paciolan’s offerings help theaters uncover and engage new patrons, giving local, community-based organizations more time to focus on what counts: building relationships, creating memorable experiences, and inspiring their audiences.
The Next Generation of Patrons and Subscribers
Each ticket transfer is a new story of someone experiencing your theater, perhaps for the first time. The organizations that recognize that moment as more than a sale are the ones shaping the future of their audience.
Considering enabling ticket transfers? Talk to your Client Partner to start turning those stories into lasting relationships.
Arts Marketing. New vs. Existing: A Time for Every Patron. Chad M. Bauman. May 11, 2016.
