Your Ticket Inside

By: Annie Deck; February 23.2004

VIP Seats Inc.
5373 Transit Road, Suite 100
Williamsville, N.Y. 14221
Phone: 632-9982 ? Fax: 565-2087
Web site: www.vipseats.com

What's going on: So you want to see Celine Dion in Las Vegas.

Elton John's "Aida" in London? Chris Rock at Shea's Performing Arts Center? The Summer Olympics in Greece?

The Sabres in the Stanley Cup playoffs?

Well, VIP Seats can't make the events happen, but if there's a big game or concert that you don't want to miss - just about anywhere in the world - they can put you in the front row.

Who's who: Siblings Nick and Della Giammusso started the entertainment and travel agency in 1993. Nick had been working at Prime Seats, a now-defunct local ticket company where Della had also worked intermittently.

As president, Nick oversees sales and business development, and Della, the company's CEO, handles administration and office management. They equally share ownership of the business.

Company history: The Giammussos started out small, operating from the garage of their parents' Williamsville home under the name VIP Entertainment.

"We opened with a fax machine, a telephone and a spread sheet," Nick recalls. At first, the company sold only tickets for local or regional sporting and entertainment events.

"We thought we would bring people into Buffalo for the shows," Nick says. But when customers began to inquire about out-of-town shows, VIP responded.

As the company expanded its offerings for events in other parts of the country, travel agents started to take note. They approached VIP about including travel and accommodation packages with their ticket deals.

"I said, 'You know what? This is probably a good market for us to get into,' " Nick recalls.

After 11 years, VIP Seats - which also spent a stint as VIP Tickets - focuses on big-ticket events in high-profile locales, offering travel, accommodations and entertainment packages with help from partners in the travel and concierge service industries. VIP will seek out tickets to meet any client request, but focuses on tickets for sold-out shows and other events where a seat is hard to come by.

A package deal for the MTV Video Music Awards might run $1,400 with airfare and hotel, the Giammussos said. Going to the Academy Awards would cost roughly $1,900 including travel. VIP also gets clients into peripheral events like the Playboy Party and Players Gala held in conjunction with the Super Bowl or celebrity-ridden pre- and post-event parties for the Oscar, Grammy and Billboard awards.

For in-town events, VIP coordinates tailgate parties before Buffalo Bills games and hosts pre-concert dinner parties at places like The Mansion on Delaware or Chef's Restaurant.

After nine years in its first non-residential offices in Cheektowaga, VIP Seats moved more than a year ago to a two-room office in Williamsville.

In 2002, VIP Seats was named premium ticket vendor for VIPdesk (the company's similar names are a mere coincidence) and now markets its tickets through the Alexandria, Va.-based convenience services company's National Concierge Network.

"VIPdesk is great for us," Nick says. "They give us so much business."

Employees: In addition to its two owner-officers, VIP Seats has two employees: Jean Sanchez is an administrative and sales assistant, and Nick and Della's younger brother Aldo - who also operates his own company, Aldo Media - does Web development and marketing.

Della says the company plans to expand soon by a staff member or two.

Clients: In addition to individual clients throughout North America and Europe, VIP Seats frequently fills orders for ACDelco, PepsiCo Inc. and pharmaceutical companies, as well as local companies including Capriotto Auto Parts, Demco Inc. and Eastman Machine Co.

And how does VIP Seats procure tickets for exclusive and sold-out events?

Rather than dealing directly with box offices, VIP gets its tickets from an informal network of individual sellers and brokers across the country and internationally. For legal reasons, the company then sells the tickets as part of a package that may include dining vouchers, travel arrangements and accommodations -- never on their own.

"Just being in the ticket business, you get to know different contacts, and through those you meet other ones," Della says. "We'll buy the tickets at a little more money to get a better seat for our clients."

Revenues: Would not disclose.

"Every single year, we've done better than the last one," Nick says. In each of the last two years, the company grew 35 percent, and Nick and Della anticipate a 50 percent jump in revenues this year.

Best idea: "Our best idea is probably our Web site," Nick says.

Since VIP's site went live in 1994, it's been updated five or six times. After a decade's worth of fine-tuning, Della says, "It's almost perfect."

VIP also uses enterprise point-of-sale software that lets them track sales per event and facilitates their communications with clients and travel agents.

"Technology has really pushed our sales up," Nick says. "It's evolved so quickly, and thank God we evolved with it."

A close second in the Best Idea category, Nick says, was focusing the company's marketing efforts, particularly in promoting the Super Bowl. Last year VIP created a special Web site, www.vipsuperbowltickets.com, to sell its Super Bowl XXXVIII tickets and packages, and sales dramatically improved.

January sales showed a 200-percent increase over that month's figures from 2003. "Our Super Bowl sales went through the roof," Nick said.

"Instead of just spending on advertising and saying, 'OK, we do any ticket of any event anywhere. Call us,' " he says, "we're actually getting more bang for our buck out of our advertising, because we're target marketing to specific people where the demand is."