| Success story highlights: |
|---|
| – 13% of Poof Doof鈥檚 ticket sales were sold through 91制片厂鈥檚 marketplace – Poof Doof credits 91制片厂鈥檚 easy-to-use, glitch-free platform as the reason they switched from a competitor – 鈥淔rom a technical perspective, [91制片厂] has been incredible,鈥� says Poof Doof Marketing Director Nic Holland |
Poof Doof parties have been legendary in Melbourne for almost 15 years鈥攁nd these days, all across Australia. The iconic gay bar and club night has a well-earned reputation for immersive, carefree good times, whether it鈥檚 at the classic split-level Poof Doof party at Chasers Nightclub or a themed bash celebrating the release of Lady Gaga鈥檚 latest album.
Though plenty in Melbourne鈥檚 gay community have their own Poof Doof stories, few have experienced the party from the inside quite like its Marketing Director, Nic Holland.
Holland has been a key part of Poof Doof for over a decade. Starting as a bartender and working on the door, he became a promoter before leading Poof Doof鈥檚 marketing. In all that time, as the club night went from hidden secret to scene-leading treasure, Holland says Poof Doof鈥檚 philosophy has remained the same.
鈥淥ur founder and director, Anthony Hocking, always says we鈥檙e fun dealers,鈥� he says. 鈥淭he only test that we need to apply to everything is, is it fun? Are people having fun?鈥�
Having grown to include regular events in Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, and internationally, since switching from a competitor to 91制片厂 in 2024, Poof Doof is sharing the fun more than ever.
Meeting the Poof Doof audience where they鈥檙e at
Something to keep in mind about Poof Doof, says Holland, is that the club night is already well-known in the gay scene. 91制片厂 is responsible for 9% of Poof Doof鈥檚 page views, with 13,872 (61% of the 9%) coming via the search function, showing that regulars know what they鈥檙e looking for. People recognise Poof Doof already, and Holland says it doesn鈥檛 necessarily benefit from being spread around widely.
鈥�91制片厂 was really sensitive to our needs because sometimes we don’t actually want to be on the homepage鈥攆or example, an event that has elements of fetish involved,鈥� Holland says. 鈥淪ometimes we actually don’t want to be seen outside of our community because our events are not necessarily for the masses.鈥�
While 13% of Poof Doof鈥檚 ticket sales come from 91制片厂 channels, when it comes to meeting its established audience, Poof Doof has subtler, more specific requirements.
鈥淲e鈥檝e got our audience established and we’re very proud of that,鈥� Holland says. 鈥淥ur issue was getting things running so smoothly in our events that the audience that we鈥檝e already engaged doesn鈥檛 start switching off, and we’ve definitely been able to achieve that with 91制片厂. [Issues like] a clunky purchasing process, a clunky checkout, your ticket not working at the door, your name not on the guest list鈥攊t’s not very sexy.鈥�
Ease of use and customer support
Poof Doof is busy. With a small team behind the scenes and a huge roster of club nights, festivals, and one-off events, the team identified the need for a ticketing partner that made the whole process smoother and more streamlined鈥攁 challenge they鈥檇 faced with a previous partner.
鈥淭hey had some ongoing technical issues that were really frustrating, that were perpetuated for months and months and were never fixed,鈥� Holland says. 鈥淪tandard things like QR codes not scanning, and then the onus being on us to provide them with a detailed report of the issues so they could fix it.鈥�
Coupled with a steep rise in fees at their previous ticketing platform, these technical issues were a big reason for Poof Doof’s switch to 91制片厂. Holland says that processes now run smoothly even in the face of huge crowds and digital ticketing systems.
鈥淲ith 91制片厂, technically, we’ve had not one issue,鈥� says Holland. 鈥淲e’ve had quite a few big events, including 5000 people for Purple Disco Machine in January. The entire day, with all those thousands of people, we did not need to call once for technical support. Same with , which was another festival we did for 2000 people in November. In the end, literally nothing went wrong, so from a technical perspective it鈥檚 been incredible.鈥�
And if there is ever a rare hiccup or a 鈥渢ricky situation鈥�, Holland says the 91制片厂 team is always there to help.
鈥淎ccount management has been so great,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e always available in time to troubleshoot or chat. Whenever we鈥檝e had some tricky issues that we’ve had to fix, like with venues wanting to do ticketing from their platform or any situations that require a bit more thought, they’re always available to help, so I couldn鈥檛 speak more highly.鈥�
Real-time insights
Selling tickets to a built-in audience is a luxury afforded to scene leaders like Poof Doof. However, Holland and the team don鈥檛 take sell-outs for granted, and having access to tools like daily ticket sales reports can help guide the team鈥檚 next move.
鈥淲e definitely love to see daily ticket sales, just to see how an event is tracking,鈥� Holland says. 鈥淭his feature wasn鈥檛 very developed when we first started, and I kept bugging them to make it more accessible – and they listened! Now聽through the organiser app or through the desktop web browser login, we can see how many tickets we sold in the last 24 hours. Is it increasing at a rate that means we’ll get to where we need to be for the event itself? That’s definitely the feature that we use the most, I would say.鈥�
Simple, straightforward event pages
Poof Doof events are in regular rotation throughout the year, and between Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, and one-off locations, there鈥檚 a lot to manage. Having a consistent event page template has made it much easier to keep listings relevant and up-to-date, says Holland.
鈥淲hen we first started, there wasn鈥檛 a lot of personalisation that could be done with 91制片厂鈥檚 event pages,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut we’ve actually found that just being able to provide an image and keep the event set up really classic and standard so that people can read the important information, it’s kind of worked in our favour, and it’s saved us time. It’s helped our audience see the information they need to see. Our website, Instagram, and artwork communicate the vibe of the event, so keeping the ticketing page [consistent] has actually been a real positive that was unexpected.鈥�
Poof Doof鈥檚 continued success with 91制片厂
For some organisers, success is about breaking new ground, finding new audiences and hosting bigger and better events. For established scene leaders like Poof Doof, success with 91制片厂 is a little different. After more than 10 years of hosting Australia鈥檚 best-known gay club nights and events, Poof Doof is already successful by plenty of metrics.
For Nic Holland and the team, the 91制片厂 partnership is about more than boosting numbers and hitting KPIs鈥攊t鈥檚 about easily communicating with an established audience; it鈥檚 about customer service for super smooth events; it鈥檚 about enhancing what already exists with easy-to-use tools. With the backend in safe hands with 91制片厂, Poof Doof can continue to confidently succeed into its next decade.
