The Digital R&D Fund for Arts and Culture is a partnership between the Arts Council England, Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and NESTA to support arts and cultural organisations across England who want to work with digital technologies to expand their audience reach and engagement and/or explore new business models. Pulse is an app that allows students in the UK to book concert tickets with a student discount for the London Symphony Orchestra and other great orchestras.

1. 1. What is your project? What are you trying to achieve?
Pulse is the LSO’s student
discounted ticket and loyalty
scheme. Students (aged 18+) can
purchase tickets via an iPhone and
Android Insert
app and a mobile site, at a
discounted price and earn loyalty
points towards a series of rewards.

2. 2. What will your project deliver?
Products and Knowledge Research
services and skills outputs
1. LSO Pulse App 1. Understanding the 1. Evaluation of the
• iPhone challenges of mobile effectiveness of
• Android ticketing fulfilment in mobile and web-
• Mobile site a busy venue based ticketing &
Insert environment marketing in
2. Loyalty/reward engaging a younger
scheme audience.
1. Insight into the
3. Discounted ticket
social, economic
scheme
and cultural reasons
& barriers to young
people’s attendance
at classical music

3. 3. Who is in your R&D team? How are you working together
to make the project happen?
Arts / Cultural Organisation
London Symphony Orchestra:
Creative, marketing, student scheme operations
Aurora Orchestra:
Multi-organisation set-up guinea pig!
Insert
Technology provider Researchers
KODIME: University of Salford:
Design, infrastructure, build, Focus groups, guiding project
technical support adjustments as per feedback

4. 4. What are you learning and developing that could be of
value to the sector?
1. Discussions are underway with the 12 members of the London Orchestras
Consortium (including three venues) about collaborating on a London-wide
student discount and loyalty scheme, powered by the Pulse app, making
use Insert multi-organisation abilities of the current app.
of the
2. By the end of the project we will have a complete guide to using mobile for
ticketing, including processes, pitfalls and solutions – the app could be
easily adapted for ticketing pop-up exhibitions, for example.

5. 5. Where are you in terms of your project’s development?
Completed work Still to do Challenges
• iPhone App, Android • Progress to • Venue trust in the
app and mobile site completely system
• Web app for paperless operation • Communicating all
processing & • Three events & app functions to
authorising scanned focus groups users (e.g. social
codes Insert remaining sharing)
• Two events & focus • Linking in SMS
groups completed operation for non-
smartphone users
Evaluate
Develop Develop Live to
Project launch audience
and test and test market
data