Live entertainment company Dainty Group International has acquired a cornerstone investment in live music sponsorship and ticketing specialist BangTango, a move that will commence a formal partnership between the two organisations and provide a growing range of sponsorship and associated services to the burgeoning live entertainment industry.
Dainty has worked closely with BangTango since its inception in November 2012 including collaborating on some of Australia and New Zealand’s biggest concert tours such as Bon Jovi, Michael Bublé, Neil Diamond and Katy Perry.
Through the partnership, BangTango will now further consolidate its unique concert tour sponsorship formula, commence expansion into musical theatre, lifestyle and marquee sporting events and aggressively pursue several international opportunities.
The live entertainment industry in Australia has more than doubled in the last five years and now generates approximately $2.5 billion in revenue. With strong consumer appetite for live music expected to continue, the two companies have recognised the significant opportunity available as global artists are committed to live music as the main source of income and a primary promotional tool.
Paul Dainty, Chairman and CEO of Dainty Group International, one of Asia Pacific’s leading live entertainment companies explains: “With live entertainment growing rapidly, sponsorship and fan engagement are becoming increasingly important to major artists as another important distribution channel. For us, partnering with the right sponsors who are prepared to tailor their requirements to meet our artists’ objectives is crucial.
“BangTango has delivered this for some of the biggest artists on the planet by conceptualising, negotiating and executing unique large scale concert tour sponsorships. This includes delivering benefits to the live entertainment ecosystem and navigating multiple stakeholders including the artist and their fans and the tour sponsor, as well as venues, ticketing companies, record labels, merchandisers and caterers.
“BangTango has created an unrivalled platform which helps sponsors speak directly to the artist and their fans. It’s not uncommon for BangTango-driven sponsorships to sell over 50,000 tickets, the equivalent to an additional, incremental, arena show in each market.
“In addition to sales, BangTango facilitates genuine interaction between sponsor customers and artists to deliver high levels of fan engagement. Prime examples of BangTango’s proficiency are the recent presenting partnerships they have delivered for the Bon Jovi, Michael Bublé and Katy Perry tours presented by Telstra THANKS.
“We are thrilled to take the next step in the growth and development of BangTango as a partner and cornerstone investor. We will continue to work together, leveraging our respective expertise to accelerate growth in the sponsorship market through some very ambitious initiatives.”
Dan Popic, BangTango’s Founder and Director, said he was thrilled to be entering into a strategic partnership with Dainty.
“Dainty is a market leader in live entertainment across Asia Pacific with a superior understanding of how to launch and deliver concert tours to meet sponsor brands’ needs and a genuine willingness to elevate this strategy to a completely new level.
“Dainty has been an integral client for BangTango since it was originally formed and we are delighted to welcome them as investors to help us deliver our strategic objectives and drive further value for touring artists, their fans and a growing range of sponsor partners.
“Of course, BangTango will continue working with a range of live entertainment promoters. In fact, we launched our sponsorship work with a Nine Live tour in April 2013 which has led to a potentially record breaking pre-sale for British group, One Direction. We also completed our first national campaign for iconic Australian artist Bernard Fanning’s Departures tour.
“Our event sponsorship repertoire will soon be extending into musical theatre, lifestyle and marquee sporting events – areas my team and I are familiar working in prior to launching BangTango.
“BangTango’ strategy has always been to deliver value to all stakeholders within the live entertainment industry by creating and delivering truly unique and meaningful sponsorships for fans and brands. Eighteen months since launch, we have arrangements with industry leaders in primary ticketing and venue management. We intend to continually foster these relationships by delivering outstanding results to an industry we’re all truly passionate about.
“This fantastic partnership with Dainty allows us to aggressively pursue substantial business expansion across Asia Pacific and beyond, including scaling up the unique sponsorship model we have created and also diving into a range of new opportunities.”
