‘Completely Sold Out’: London Sound Bath GONG Reports Exponential Growth With Eventbrite

We talk to Selma Studer, founder of in-person and virtual sound bath experience GONG, about her journey finding the perfect ticketing partner and how Eventbrite supports her team’s social, supportive, and stress-free approach. Our writer attended the event to find out more.

It’s 7.55pm, and I’m getting ready for bed. Me and 49 other adults. A group of friends pass around pillow spray; a couple tell each other about their day; the woman next to me pulls on thick socks and adjusts her eye mask. 

During the evening, many of us will feel so relaxed we’ll nod off beneath the twinkling lights and stained glass windows of a North London church. But really, we’re all here to be bathed in sound waves by practitioners Mark and Carlo and their collection of shimmering bronze gongs and Tibetan singing bowls. 

And though you might think a sound bath is a pretty solitary activity, Selma and her team have turned it into a social experience. Catching up with her after the session, she shares how Eventbrite has helped make her events a success as well as find and build a larger community. 

Since moving to Eventbrite in May 2021, GONG has seen exponential growth. “In the first month, our events were 75% sold out,” explains Selma. “But since October 2021, those at venues where we’ve established a presence are consistently 90% sold out—often completely sold out, which means we often operate a waitlist.”

Compared to their previous ticketing platform, Selma and team found consumer discovery on Eventbrite to happen much more rapidly, elevated by the effectiveness of built-in email marketing and social media advertising tools, as well the vast amount of automated marketing that Eventbrite runs for event organisers.

“Access to a whole ecosystem of other communities”

GONG moved to Eventbrite after trying MindBody and Arketa, two platforms focussed on the health and wellbeing market. “We didn’t want to pigeonhole ourselves because our mission is to make sound baths available to all,” says Selma. 

Since broadening its reach, Selma says there’s no average GONG attendee; sessions appeal to a whole spectrum of people—curious first-timers, experienced meditators, families with young children, and visitors to London who want to try something new. 

The GONG team believes Eventbrite helped them reach a wider audience, adding that 20% of ticket sales come from the platform’s discovery channels, such as the consumer app and personalised recommendation emails. “People might be simply looking for something relaxing to do,” says Selma, “whether that’s a cookery class, a therapeutic experience, or something fun for a Friday night with friends. Eventbrite puts us in front of all those people.” 

Since moving to Eventbrite, GONG has built a follower base of more than 2000 on the platform. “Eventbrite does a lot of awareness-raising,” says Selma. “People who follow our profile get an alert when we add a new event, so that’s a kind of bonus to the marketing we’re doing from our side.”

“A stress-free booking experience” for customer and creator 

Selma wants GONG’s ethos of sociable serenity to start long before attendees walk through the door—and that’s why she moved ticketing to Eventbrite. “With other platforms we used, we would regularly get feedback from attendees saying the booking process was stressful, so we knew something had to change,” she says. 

“Having the ability to book tickets for friends was a huge consideration for us and one of the main reasons we moved to Eventbrite,” she adds. “Now you can add however many tickets you want to your cart and checkout.” Testament to the social nature of the events, GONG often runs ‘3 for 2’ promotions that generate 40% of ticket sales.

And that isn’t the only special offer she’s seen growth from. GONG recently moved its virtual events to Eventbrite to reach more people. “For these, 70% of traffic comes from Eventbrite, and 30% is direct,” she says. “We offered all our tickets for free during April as part of Stress Awareness Month, which catapulted our growth. Some virtual events had up to 70 attendees!”

Keen to make attending class as stress-free as possible for her customers, Selma believes Eventbrite inspires trust. “When you’re paying for things online, you sometimes wonder, ‘Is this company real? Is this event going to happen?’ But with Eventbrite as the gatekeeper of our payment system, people are reassured. They’re familiar with Eventbrite and probably already have an account. Plus, the platform is user-friendly.”

From an event creator perspective, the platform makes listing events at different venues and times “super easy”. At Eventbrite, creators can copy an event page (while maintaining all the main information, but changing the location or time as needed). GONG’s UK Country Manager, Mark Smallman, also points to the 48-hour automated reminder emails and the ease of issuing refunds as just some of the ways Eventbrite has made life easier. 

Built-in marketing tools that increase ticket sales and savings

Eventbrite helps organisers save time and money (up to £2360 per year) with its full suite of built-in marketing tools. When it comes to event listings, agenda, FAQ, video, and image carousel allows the team to make their listings stand out with so much ease–in fact, traffic to listings pages for events with a video is 74% higher.

As well as effective event listing pages, Selma also wanted a platform that integrated with GONG’s website: “I don’t necessarily need to drive people to our Eventbrite page. They can land on the website and get the value from that before Eventbrite handles the magic of the booking process. Of course, people booking from our Eventbrite page get a good experience there, too!”

With user experience always front of mind, integrations have also enabled GONG to more effectively serve their community’s needs as well as gather valuable feedback—from using Gift Up so attendees can purchase gift cards (while generating an extra source of revenue for GONG) to a Mailchimp-managed survey designed to gauge attendees’ interest in GONG hosting daytime and/or family-focused events.

“We communicate with our community through our newsletter,” says Selma, “and the Mailchimp integration means anyone who ticks the box to sign up from our Eventbrite page is added to the mailing list. Since moving platforms in May 2021, our newsletter has grown by 65%, with around 40% of new signups coming from Eventbrite.”

And because communities are built on two-way conversations, GONG’s post-event email encourages attendees to leave a Facebook or Google review and asks them to share ideas for potential venues in their neighbourhood. In a bid to expand their reach beyond North and East London, the team is currently trialling a new site in Covent Garden. 

“Access to support that can help us scale”

On the topic of expansion plans, Selma and her team continue to explore the pros and cons of moving to a permanent venue. 

“Our travel costs are a big consideration,” she says. “We need to transport heavy gongs, plus we’d like to have mats and blankets on-site. My original intention was to have one location and we almost signed a contract before the pandemic hit. Since then, lots of studios have unfortunately closed, so we’re waiting to see where all this lands.”

In the meantime, Mark says they’re lucky to have partnered with venues that have the acoustics to enable them to deliver the right kind of experience. “However, high competition to host classes during prime hours and the need to diversify venues in the face of closures means it’s an ongoing logistical challenge” 

As a result, the team has already scheduled sessions for the rest of the year—even into January 2024—to ensure they can work with the venues they want. 

As new venues are added, Selma plans to ramp up GONG’s marketing activities and look to Eventbrite’s marketing tools to optimise their adverts. 

“On social media, we currently post organically on Instagram,” she says, “as that’s where our community tends to be, and a little bit on Facebook. At the same time, we tend to have Google Ads running in the background, as that tends to do quite well in terms of SEO and boosting our ranking. In addition, our practitioners share our events with their communities, which helps reach a broader audience.”

For Selma, GONG’s success has been about creatively responding to challenges with the tools available, as well as having an incredible team to help plan, promote and deliver beautiful sound bath experiences.

“You walk this fine line between being organised and being flexible,” she says. “You need to plan in advance and actively listen to attendees to give them what they want. After all, we’re creating events for others, not for ourselves. My advice? Ask for feedback, act on it and make everyone feel really welcome.”