SeatGeek has appointed Slap Global as its creative agency of record following a three-month review conducted among four finalists.

The ticketing startup had previously worked with Fig, its first creative agency of record, since 2021.

Fig led the creation of SeatGeek’s “Get your seat in a seat” campaign, which depicted people’s butts “talking” about different games and concerts they attended or their dreams about attending future events. The work coincided with a brand refresh that saw SeatGeek’s logo change to one that included sharp bold black letters over a red background.

Other campaigns for the marketer from Fig included ads with the tagline “So fans can fan,” which focused on showing the different ways people use SeatGeek to attend events.

“SeatGeek are super fans of fans, and we're super fans of SeatGeek. We're proud of the work we made together and wish them all the best for the future,” Fig CEO Judith Carr-Rodriguez said in a statement.

Bleeding into other channels

The past few years marked SeatGeek’s first significant push into TV and video advertising, which came with some lessons, according to SeatGeek Director of Brand Marketing Melissa Postier. While Postier said the earlier work was “memorable,” the brand will be looking for work in the future that has a more 360 approach as it competes for awareness against larger players in the space, such as StubHub and Ticketmaster.

“The work that we did on the onset was really around just video, we really need to bleed that into other channels and do it well and make sure that everything is well connected,” Postier said. “That's actually much harder for us to have done with the campaigns that we put in place and it was really hard to pivot some of those things.”

Postier was also looking for a small agency that was nimble and would position campaigns around why SeatGeek is the right choice for audiences.

“Breaking through is only half of the job,” said Gerry Graf, co-founder and chief creative officer of Slap Global. “You've got someone's attention … you can't waste that opportunity. You have to at that point give the person who's giving you their time a clear reason why you're at the very least different.”

Good comes from bad

Slap Global stood out following what Graf characterized as a “bad meeting” where Postier said the agency initially didn’t necessarily nail down the messaging. But the agency asked for feedback that it incorporated into its next meeting—and there it made a big impression.

“We shared some of our thoughts, some of the areas that we thought could be stronger, some of the things we were hoping to see, et cetera. And I will say we were blown away by the final pitch,” Postier said.

“A bad meeting where they didn't love our first idea turned into a good meeting because we got to show them we can pivot quickly,” Graf said.

SeatGeek will continue to use Wavemaker as its media agency of record, Postier said.

Ticket sellers under pressure

A part of SeatGeek’s future marketing will include promoting it as a tech company and educating fans on features such as SeatGeek Swaps, which allows customers to return their tickets up to 72 hours prior to a live event if they can no longer attend. A couple of years ago, SeatGeek also launched Rally, an in-app product that allows users to order food from their seats, check the weather, find driving directions to the venue and order a Lyft home.

Ticketing companies have also recently come under pressure recently from President Joe Biden to get rid of hidden fees and disclose full ticket costs upfront. In April, a bill called the TICKET Act was introduced to crack down on sellers. SeatGeek was one of the ticket sellers that proactively agreed to disclose full ticket prices upfront. While Postier said it’s too soon to tell if this will change how SeatGeek markets itself, it does currently offer the option to see all pricing prior to checkout.

“I know not every ticketer offers that functionality today, but we are a ticketer that does,” Postier said.

SeatGeek spent $81.5 million on worldwide advertising costs in 2021, according to a regulatory filing made in conjunction with a proposed merger of SeatGeek and a special purpose acquisition company, RedBall Acquisition Corp. SeatGeek in 2021 had worldwide revenue of $186.3 million, 95% of which came from the U.S.

SeatGeek and RedBall scrapped their merger in June 2022. In April 2023, SeatGeek reportedly filed to go public.

In February, SeatGeek also became the official ticket reseller of the MLB. The $100 million deal replaced StubHub’s previous agreement with MLB.

Big win for Slap

This is a significant win for Slap Global. Only a few years after launching, it topped the Global Effie’s independent agencies ranking and has picked up clients such as Bayer in Argentina, Lay’s, Netflix and Samsung.

SeatGeek is now the biggest client for Slap Global’s New York team. The 22-person shop, which operates remotely, also has teams in Buenos Aires and Madrid.

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CORRECTION: A previous version of this story incorrectly reported Fig’s participation in the review.