Case Study: A Modern Challenge for an Iconic Venue — Roundhouse London Unlocks Shadow Audience Opportunity with True Tickets
In 2022, the Roundhouse, a cultural powerhouse in London’s live entertainment scene, partnered with True Tickets to address a stubbornly familiar challenge: tickets were being sold, but the venue often didn’t know who was actually attending. Like many live event venues, the Roundhouse had limited visibility into who their tickets ultimately went to — friends, family, and customers of resellers — making it difficult to engage with the full audience, build loyalty, or drive repeat attendance.
Their focus on cultivating their shadow audience — those unknown attendees who receive shared tickets, attend in groups, or exist beyond the primary purchaser — is proving more critical than ever. In an environment where market signals are becoming harder to read and traditional ticketing metrics are increasingly misleading, the findings from JCA’s Q1 2025 report paint a clear picture: the live entertainment sector must evolve its audience strategy.
· In Fall 2024, revenue was still 8% below 2019 levels when adjusted for inflation.
· Even though Average Yield has risen, it’s lagging behind inflation — suggesting that real value per ticket is shrinking.
· More people are buying tickets — but fewer per person. Ticket sales are only at 96% of 2019 levels.
Fast forward to 2025, and the results of this partnership are reshaping the venue’s ability to identify, engage, and grow its community of fans and supporters in a persistently challenging market landscape.
The Financial Returns are Significant and Immediate
Since launching in the fall of 2022:
· Roundhouse has generated over £230,000 in total paid ticket sales to revealed shadow audience members.
· Over £9,300 in incremental donations from revealed shadow audience members.
While the revenue numbers will grow over time, they represent an added bonus to the primary goal: turning anonymous attendance into actionable relationships. The Roundhouse’s shadow audiences are proving they are highly qualified revenue generating leads.
Turning Shadows into Relationships
The most immediate impact of implementing True Tickets has been the Roundhouse’s ability to unearth its “shadow audience” — the friends, family members, and secondary recipients of transferred tickets who previously went undetected. Before partnering with True Tickets, audience data often stopped at the original purchaser. With digital ticket delivery and controlled sharing, the Roundhouse can now track each ticket from purchase through final entry.
In 2023 and 2024, 88.8% of Roundhouse tickets were delivered by True Tickets (635,332 of 715,323 total tickets)
· 112,638 tickets were shared via the True Tickets service.
· 67,517 new customer records were created.
· 24% of newly revealed patrons opted into email communications — 1.3x higher than Roundhouse’s typical 19% opt-in rate — creating valuable new touch points for engagement.
These aren’t just numbers — they’re real people the venue now knows and has a direct relationship with, opening up opportunities for repeat attendance, targeted communications, and deeper loyalty.
Better Understanding and Control of Ticket Touting
Ticket touting and unauthorized resale have long plagued arts and entertainment venues, eroding trust and limiting access for genuine fans. In 2022, Roundhouse was excited about the promise of using True Tickets to fight back against these forces — and the results speak for themselves.
Equipped with True Tickets’ data transparency and sharing controls, the Roundhouse took action:
· The Roundhouse identified 208 potential touts, including one individual who shared over 400 tickets without ever attending a show.
· Armed with insight, they restricted problematic accounts and even reclaimed tickets being resold through unauthorized channels.
· For performances where unauthorized resale was discovered, restrictions could be applied down to the ticket level, enhancing precision enforcement of terms and conditions.
This level of control is not only helping protect fans but also enhancing the integrity of the venue’s brand and revenue.
Richer Audience Engagement Through Segmentation
With the full ticket lifecycle in view, Roundhouse has tapped into a new era of patron segmentation. True Tickets doesn’t just digitize ticket delivery — it provides the infrastructure for more meaningful audience journey mapping.
Now, the Roundhouse can:
· Survey every attendee, not just the ticket buyer.
· Understand audience networks through shared ticket pathways.
· Customize outreach with dynamic content blocks that respond to booking behavior and preferences.
Roundhouse has gained more opportunities to personalize experiences, make data-driven decisions, and build longer-term relationships. Importantly, they’ve discovered UK audience behavior mirrors trends observed in the US — these newly identified attendees behave similarly to first-time bookers, meaning their value over time can be significant.
From Unknown Unknown to Known
For the Roundhouse, the partnership with True Tickets has ushered in a new chapter of audience connection. The venue no longer operates in the dark — guessing who’s coming through the doors or how to best reach them. Instead, it has a clearer, broader, and deeper view of its audience than ever before.
What began as an effort to reduce touting and control secondary sales has evolved into a comprehensive audience strategy, driven by visibility, control, and engagement. True Tickets hasn’t just delivered tickets — it’s delivered transformation.
