At our May 2020 customer webinar, Rick Rogers, chief revenue officer at TownNews, and Richard Green, CEO of Evvnt gave an overview of the new Evvnt calendar integration that we’ll be rolling out over the coming months.
While in-person local events are on pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we want to use this time to roll out Evvnt’s calendar platform on behalf of our partners. When local events return to our communities, the TownNews-Evvnt calendar partnership will provide our local media partners the best tools to showcase and monetize their calendar listings.
Topics included:
- Details about the calendar migration time frame and process.
- Ideas for generating new advertising revenue with local events.
- Examples of our Evvnt integration in action and peak behind the scenes.
- . . . and much more!
Ready to get started? Watch it today!
At our May customer webinar, we gave an overview of Evvnt: our new revenue-generating calendar integration. The Q&A has been edited out for time.
Click here to check out our other recorded webinars!
Q&A Responses from the TownNews-Evvnt webinar
Q: Do we need to contact a TownNews rep in order to be in the queue, or will we automatically be contacted?
A: Yes, please contact your TownNews rep and we will review your request and add you to our first wave of implementations. If you do not contact a TownNews rep, our project management team will alert you when it is your site’s turn to make the upgrade. Our goal is to complete all transitions by late summer/early fall 2020.
Q: How fast can we start the migration to the Evvnt calendar?
A: Migration will officially begin May 18, 2020. If interested in being at the front of the line, please contact your TownNews representative and we will work to accommodate.
Q: Where does Constant Contact fit into all of this?
A: There is no integration currently with Constant Contact, but we are happy to review integration options in the future after initial launch.
Q: Other than the API and RSS options will we have a similar existing export of events to have the ability to self paginate print pages?
A: Yes, print self-service is available, more information is available here.Â
Q: Does the newspaper have the ability to edit events before they go live?
A: Yes, you can approve all listings. Click here for details.
Q: Do we choose event pricing or is it standard pricing with Evvnt?
A: Evvnt offers three default pricing options, but publishers can build their own pricing as well. Click here for details.
Q: Will all calendars be switched or can some people opt-out?
A: You have the option to opt-out and remain on the BLOX Calendar or another calendar vendor. Please note that the BLOX Calendar will still be supported, but future development will focus on the Evvnt calendar integration. To opt-out, fill out this form.
Q: If we would like to use this platform on our local community app would that be with a RSS feed?
A: Yes, more info here.
Q: How does this work with in-house events? Our own events?
A: You can submit unlimited events for free and upgrade to premium featured / map pin for free also. Details are available here.
Q: Can we send email updates to ticket holders?
A: You can send ticket updates via Geotix.
Q: What's the turnaround time for revenue transfer to the client?
A: 30 Days from Evvnt to the publisher. If the publisher is using the Sales CRM then its 30 days from you to Evvnt.
Q: Are you working on HTML for better visuals, such as more images, videos etc?
A: Yes - we are adding content to the details page this quarter including video, streaming, music, etc.
Q: Can a business buy two markets or appear in two markets? Can we sell into a different market?
A: Yes - you can have unlimited amounts of calendars for any market and also category-specific calendars. Details here.
Q: Can you show an example of the print export?
A: See example here.
Q: How wide do you allow the connected calendars? Does one market agree and and a second disagree on the connected calendars? If so, who prevails?
A: You decide a logistical approach to not kill premium; Evvnt can work with you to determine that logic.
Q: Can markets customize sections, times, etc?
A: Yes - you can customize most settings.
Q: Will users still be able to enter events into TownNews, or will they need yet another sign-in to Evvnt to submit calendar items?
A: Single sign-on between Evvnt and TownNews is the top priority development item and will be released in 2020.
Q: Is there a batch upload option to enter multiple events at once?
A: No - you have to manually upload events so they hit the sales and checkout workflow.
Q: What steps will be in place in an area that has competing companies using Evvnt? How will we protect our listings?
A: Publisher focus, resources, and unique activation in the market defines success.
Q: How much can the look be customized to fit our site?
A: It can be fully customized using CSS.
Q: We are a small market newspaper but even still there are dozens of organizations that have their own calendar beside us, such as chambers of commerce, regional nonprofit arts organizations, tourism focused groups, etc. Each seems to be on a different platform and there are some common event listings across multiple calendars while other events only find their way into one calendar or another. Is there a way for us to leverage this platform to become the go to calendar for all these groups and provide listings that can power the calendars they host on their individual sites?
A: Yes - we will supply free calendars as an extension of your calendar in your markets so you can capture events, services your calendar partners, and resell the network including them. Get them to join you and upsell the benefit of local news managed calendars.
Q: What format is the free data export for print in?
A: We have many formats for many papers—we can create you a specific format if we don't already have it.
Q: What happens if our site doesn't make enough to cover the $249 in any month ever? Will you continue to let us have the Evvnt service for free?
A: If you never cover the base fee, we charge you zero and you stay at the 20% revenue share to the publisher model.
Q: Is the calendar populated with other aggregated content, or only content locally provided by our users?
A: We backfill with data from Ticketmaster, Eventbrite, Active, Goldstar - and your data sits above this backfill to ensure that your data is at the top of the calendar.
Q: How much is the monthly fee thru Town News for Evvnt?
A: If you wish to go directly to the 40% revenue share to you, the monthly fee is $249.
Q: Can you talk about support for repeating calendar events, such as the first Monday of every month?
A: This is on the Evvnt development roadmap.
Q: If there's limited free event listings, how do we compete with free listings on social media?
A: Unlimited Event Listings - you simply post your free listings to Facebook and drive traffic to your site. Evvnt’s premium is better than Facebook ads.
Q: To be clear, Is Evvnt taking 80% or 60% of revenue generated by the publication? If so, how is this a good deal for TownNews customers?
A: You can access 40% today by paying $249 per month or do not pay a monthly and work on a 20% revenue share which we use to pay your monthly fee then it moves to 40% automatically once you hit your $249 payback at 20% of sales. This is a great deal for our TownNews customers as it provides a stronger calendar solution at no setup or monthly fee if desired.
Q: For publishers that are using white label ticketing through Geotix or Cityspark, what kind of lift have they seen by adding Evvnt?
A: We are fully integrated into Geotix and automatically create white label ticketing. Evvnt doubles event submission over CitySpark in the first 3 months and we generate revenue over and above costs. Details here.
