Today is a big night for Mumbai as Ed Sheeran will be performing at Jio Gardens, BKC. The concert has been in news from the very beginning and a lot has gone into bringing this night together. Just a few hours away from the concert we at Radioandmusic connected with Kunal Khambati Head of Live Events and IP Book My Show.

Here are the excerpts from the interview.

How has the response for Ed Sheeran concert been for BookMyShow?

It’s been absolutely fantastic. Mindblowing and epic! Ed has a huge fan following in India and his popularity is definitely increasing by the day, not just here, but all across the world. The tickets for his Mumbai show were sold out in a record breaking time of 48 minutes on BookMyShow.

The tickets are all sold out, but was the scenario the same during Justin Bieber concert?

Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber are two different artistes who warrant a different audience. The Ed Sheeran concert is a more intimate affair where the artiste wants  to wants to be in conversation through his music with a select gathering  handful of fans.  It’s definitely encouraging to see the growing appetite for international music artistes in India. In the last couple of years alone, we have had Coldplay, Justin Bieber, Chainsmokers perform in India.
who want to be in the stadium because they appreciate and respect his art.

In spite of the tickets being sold out there were contest running.

Reliance Jio and Ola Cabs started a contest for their consumers to win the tickets for the concert despite the event being a sold out event for those lucky few. For the Jio offer, you will have to visit edsheeranjio.com and pick one from two options. The first option is to imagine how you would like to welcome the 'Perfect' singer to India, take a photo or video of that concept and upload it on your social media accounts with #EdSheeranOnJio, tag @reliancejio. Fill a form on the website and you are done. The second option is that you answer a few questions about Ed Sheeran, submit your JioFi or IMEI number and wait to be picked.For Ola cabs, complete 5 trips with Ola Prime, enter the code EDSHEERAN and enter the lucky draw. Select few will win the concert tickets.

The tickets for the Sheeran concert seemed economical. Did BookMyShow have any contribution to make to this?

We work with partners to ensure these events are accessible to all types of fans. The whole idea to ensure artistes get up close and personal with their fans and ensuring different price categories allows the promoters to engage with a vast set of audience. tickets have different cost variants will allow promoters to engage with the masses and not just the classes.

What were the promotional strategies being used for the concert?

We are working closely with Jio and Pixel 2 as sponsors and employing a 360 degree strategy to create the right noise around the event and keep the fans informed and engaged at all stages. BookMyShow is also taking We are taking 15 lucky superstar customers in luxury cars to the venue and have planned an exclusive sundowner evening for them before they head to the event. Tables have been reserved at some of the most popular restaurants around the venue for post event dinner for all superstar customers.  apart from a special dinner post the event. Since the artist himself prefers privacy we have restricted media promotions to a great extent.

Who are the partners?

AEG Presents and PR Worldwide and the event sponsors- Jio and Pixel 2.

Any interesting campaigns around the concert that helped BookMyShow?

Ed Sheeran’s popularity is massive. To set the mood, we are putting up interesting trivia and other content on BookMyShow platforms to engage with the fans. All ticket holders have also received a track sheet of Ed’s top 10 songs from BookMyShow Jukebox. We are continuing to make all such efforts that are relevant to Ed’s fans.  making all such efforts.

How will you be providing the box office relief to the concert goers? Most of the tickets have been home delivered this time to reduce the queue at the box office outside the event venue. Besides, we have an impeccable team for gate management who will be deploying turnstiles at each entry point to validate the ticket.

What's the next big thing for BookMyShow?

We are already gearing up for A.R. Rahman-  Encore, in association with MTV in Mumbai, Hyderabad, New Delhi and Ahmedabad. This spectacular four city mega stadium tour is already witnessing a massive response from Rahman’s fans all across the country.