LINCOLN, Neb — Ticketmaster’s troubled rollout of ticket sales for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour on Nov. 15, 2022, quickly spiraled from a technical failure into a reputational and political crisis, according to a new case study by a University of Nebraska–Lincoln crisis communications expert.
Within minutes of the first “verified fan” presales opening, Ticketmaster’s site began crashing, and the problems worsened throughout the day. Communication from the company was minimal and defensive as the situation unfolded, and Swift later apologized to fans and demanded accountability.
Dane Kiambi, an expert in crisis communications and an associate professor of advertising and public relations at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, said Ticketmaster’s actions — and inaction — helped turn a digital service platform failure into what he described as a scandal with political implications. Kiambi recently published a case study examining the company’s crisis communication response and how it deepened already low public trust and contributed to an antitrust lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Although a settlement was announced on March 9, it has been rejected by more than two dozen state attorneys general, and continued negative coverage has further damaged Ticketmaster’s reputation, Kiambi said.
“When crisis communications are done well, they stay hidden, but when they go wrong, it’s visible everywhere, and Ticketmaster did everything wrong,” Kiambi said.
Using the Situational Crisis Communication Theory framework, Kiambi traced Ticketmaster’s communications from Nov. 15, 2022, to Jan. 24, 2023, when Live Nation President Joe Berchtold testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. He also examined social media reactions and media coverage from Nov. 15-19, 2022, a period he said marked the most dramatic shift in public sentiment.
“Ticketmaster went completely against the textbook prescription of what to do in a crisis,” Kiambi said. “Number one, they did not respond very quickly. They were not proactive; they were reactive. It was not until the ticket sale completely collapsed that they started issuing a statement, and it was a halfhearted statement.”
Kiambi said Ticketmaster compounded the situation by deleting a blog post, repeatedly blaming bots, and citing its past handling of high-demand events.
“What could have been a technical issue crisis, it arose to become a scandal,” Kiambi said. “They were not being genuine in the conversations with the public. They avoided taking full responsibility and didn’t establish next steps, or corrective action — how will we keep this from happening again. There was a lack of transparency, and that shows there was something they were hiding.
“Every new Ticketmaster deflection became fresh material (for the press), and the endless reporting kept public anger alive long enough for it to attract regulatory attention.”
In his review of social media and mainstream coverage at the time, Kiambi said questions about whether Live Nation, Ticketmaster’s parent company, operated as a monopoly grew louder, along with disbelief that a company of its size could not have prevented the breakdown.
“Once the perception of the public shifted to ‘this was preventable,’ Ticketmaster should have treated the crisis differently, issued a full apology and considered some type of compensation,” Kiambi said. “Instead, you had the president of the company summoned to Congress, where they asked very tough questions, and the CEO was evading responsibility and bragging about how many tickets were sold. That led to the lawsuit, because Congress said ‘we have to break this up.’”
Kiambi, who has taught crisis communications for 13 years, said the Swift-Ticketmaster episode was raised by a student, Katie Zabel, in an assignment as an example of what companies should not do. Zabel is a co-author on the study. Kiambi said he plans to incorporate the case study into his curriculum to spur discussion about what Ticketmaster should have done differently and why organizations need crisis communications plans.
Kiambi said Ticketmaster should have shifted its messaging early, particularly once social media posts began blaming the company.
“As soon as the very first social media posts appeared that blame the organization, they needed to make a full apology, take full responsibility, be transparent about what happened and offer some kind of corrective action and compensation.
“Don’t wait for Taylor Swift to come out and give a statement three days later saying she is frustrated and unhappy. Be proactive, admit the mistake and state how you are fixing it.”
