Everclear helped transform an Ohio startup into the nationwide leader in digital ticketing for K-12 Schools and Colleges by breathing new life into the HomeTown team.
Challenge
Two entrepreneurs built an easy-to-use digital ticketing platform for high school sports that charged fans $1 per ticket for schools to sell online tickets directly from the school's website — at no cost to the school.
In order to grow beyond 300 schools, an experienced executive team was brought on board to raise funding and gain market share in a highly-fragmented market of local school districts & state athletics associations.
Solution
Everclear was engaged to implement a turn-key marketing playbook that would allow the company to re-position the brand and refine its messaging to enable sales, onboard schools & drive market adoption.
Positioning & Messaging
Everclear began by conducting a series of interviews with more than two dozen customers, internal stakeholders & external partners to determine HomeTown's strengths, diagnose competitor weaknesses & understand customer priorities.
Branding Audit
We also conducted an audit of HomeTown's branding, sales & marketing materials, which consisted primarily of software screenshots on desktop, tablet and mobile devices.
"Before"
Positioning
After a competitive market analysis, we learned that HomeTown's competitors charged fans only .50 cents per ticket. So we leaned into HomeTown's strengths to position the company as the market leader to justify its premium digital ticketing prices.
"The Leader in Digital Ticketing for K-12 Schools & Colleges."
HomeTown used its fees to provide schools with the industry’s best customer service, the easiest-to-use platform & the fastest access to ticket revenue. But we needed to reduce any barriers to adoption & friction in the sales cycle as the internal sales & customer support team rapidly expanded.
Messaging
Although HomeTown's platform was easy to use, its sales team needed an easier way to explain its many features, so we re-bucketed the platform's features into a streamlined, step-by-step process.
Sell Tickets
Digital Ticketing
Online Box Office
Custom Seat Maps
Season Passes
Scan Fans
Mobile Scanning App
On-site POS System
Mobile Ticket Printer
Credit Card Reader
Earn Revenue
No Cost to Schools
Immediate Access to Funds
Never Touch Your Revenue
Daily/Weekly Deposits
Get Support
Dedicated Account Manager
Game Day/On-Site
Nights & Weekends
M-F/8 a.m.-10 p.m.
With a simplified set of features to focus on, Everclear began articulating the benefits of HomeTown's digital ticketing platform for each decision maker in the sales process.
Athletic Directors
Sell online tickets to all school sports events from a single online box office.
School Superintendents
Seamlessly transition from cash and paper to digital ticketing at no cost.
CFOs and Treasurers
Receive immediate access to ticket revenue without HomeTown ever touching your funds.
Parents
Easily buy digital tickets to local games without driving to school, waiting in line or carrying cash.
We conducted a quantitative & qualitative customer satisfaction survey to understand what HomeTown's customers liked most about the platform and their motivations for signing up.
96%
Customer Satisfaction Rate
The survey results were excellent, proving "why" schools loved HomeTown, further refining our messaging and providing dozens of customer testimonials for HomeTown's website, brochure & sales materials.
Trust
Ease of Use
Customer Service
Breakthrough Branding™
With new customer research that helped define HomeTown's differentiators, we began looking for ways to move the brand visually beyond pictures of screenshots on mobile devices.
Branding & Identity
Compared to competitors, HomeTown's founder had come up with the perfect moniker that was relatable to every community — wherever they're located — because every school has hometown pride.
Hometown: The city or town where you were born and lived while you were young
HomeTown's internal creative director re-designed the HomeTown logo to make the capital letter "H" icon symmetrical for social media to resemble a High School Letterman Jacket.
Illustrations
With a streamlined new logo in place, it was time to tackle HomeTown's competitors, which were all branded as hyper-competitive, ESPN Sports, look-alike alternatives.
Huddle / GoFan
Ticket Spicket
This created a unique opportunity for HomeTown to differentiate its brand visually based on the trust, ease-of-use & customer service it provided schools and communities.
So Everclear assembled a team of illustrators to breathe life into HomeTown, USA, in order to "humanize" the HomeTown brand and add warmth and personality to its easy-to-use digital ticketing solution.
Humanize Brand Add Warmth/Personality Increase Creative Freedom Show Great Customer Service Show Schools/Communities
Customer Service
In order to represent HomeTown's nationwide footprint, Everclear illustrated its team of blue shirt "HomeTown Heroes" ready to help K-12 schools & colleges sell online tickets to fund student athletics, theater, music & arts programs in local communities all over America.
HomeTown "Blue Army" Sketch
HomeTown "Blue Army" Illustration
Compared to its competitors, we wanted schools to visually understand how HomeTown prides itself on providing year-round customer service and support — even on nights and weekends — to deliver the best game day experience for students, families & fans nationwide.
Account Managers
Digital Ticket Scanning
Custom Seat Maps
Vignettes
Since HomeTown supports the digital ticketing needs of every school department, Everclear illustrated a series of vignettes for each of HomeTown's major ticketing solutions, including performing arts, athletics, dances and more.
Performing Arts
Athletics
Dances
Characters
To build upon the brand equity of the company name, Everclear's lead illustrator sketched, colored & shaded 75 different characters to populate HomeTown with a variety of smiling, friendly & cheerful faces.
Football Family
Basketball Family
Soccer Family
CFO's & Treasurers
Athletic Directors & Administrators
Theater Directors
Venues
Everclear illustrated a series of sports, theater and activity venues to provide HomeTown with a way to represent various school events each season throughout the year.
Athletics
Athletics
Theater
Theater
Dances
Dances
Basketball
Baseball
Swimming
Icons
Our illustration team sketched, colored and created more than three dozen custom icons to complement the beautiful brand imagery that was created to humanize the HomeTown brand.
Sell Your Tickets
Scan Your Fans
Get Your Revenue
Online Box Office
Cash Flow
Ticket Sales
Safe
Secure
Reliable
Screenshots
In order to focus on the ease of use of HomeTown's digital ticketing software — particularly for non-technical users — we simplified several software screenshots with illustrations.
Dashboard
Ticket Sales
Payout Reports
Order List
Event Audit
User Permissions
Process Graphics
Everclear also simplified each step in HomeTown's payment processing and onboarding process with new illustrations that matched HomeTown's new brand imagery.
HomeTown Payment Processing
HomeTown Onboarding Process
"The work that Everclear provided HomeTown has been tremendous. I'm thrilled about all of the new creative assets, they have been great to work with and have already had such a positive impact."
Maura McGrath Creative Director, HomeTown
Sales Enablement
With so many gorgeous new creative assets to choose from, Everclear began writing, designing and arming the sales team with a series of sales enablement tools, sales presentations, brochures & datasheets.
HomeTown Brochure
HomeTown One-Pager & Sales Presentation
HomeTown Datasheets
Website Presence
Everclear designed, illustrated, developed and wrote new content for HomeTown’s website to demonstrate how HomeTown makes it easy for K-12 schools and colleges to seamlessly transition from cash and paper to digital ticketing at no cost.
"I love the new HomeTown website! It provides an exceptional experience on both mobile and desktop. Great work, team!"
Nate Nale Founder, HomeTown
Trade Show Presence
To support HomeTown's coast-to-coast, in-person event schedule, Everclear designed a modular 10' x 10' and 10' x 20' trade show booth presence, after sourcing a local trade show booth vendor with warehouse space near HomeTown's Ohio headquarters.
10' x 20' Trade Show Booth Design
10' x 10' Trade Show Booth Design
HomeTown Banner Stand Graphics
Video Marketing
Everclear scripted, storyboarded and produced a short demo video to quickly educate prospects about the ease of use of HomeTown's digital ticketing platform, while finding the perfect voiceover artist to serve as the friendly, warm and welcoming voice of HomeTown.
Results
HomeTown continued its rocket ship ride over the next 24+ months, growing from 50 employees serving 3,000 schools to more than 200 employees serving more than 15,000 schools, ticketing more than 200,000 events nationwide each year.
+400%
From 3,000 to 15,000+ Schools
+300%
From 50 to 200+ Employees
$75M
in Growth Capital raised
H+TS
Acquired one of its competitors
"Everclear played a key role in the early days of HomeTown's journey, helping us re-position, re-brand and differentiate from our competitors to help our team reach as many schools as possible."
