Vivid Seats Inc. (NASDAQ:SEAT) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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Larry Fey: Yes. Thanks Ralph. The seasonality I would say is pretty similar to what we’ve historically pointed to 23% to 24% of our full year GOV in each of quarters one, two and three. And in the balance coming in Q4, which we expect will remain our strongest quarter of the year. Against that, I’d say we’ve seen robust performance and demand continue into Q1, which we’re excited to see. Leading about the year-over-year comparison that we’re lapping, last Q1 and this will hopefully be the last time we ever say this, we were fighting COVID, the omicron variant, which impacted the January volume. And then we had abnormal cancellations for non-COVID reasons, the MLB issues swaying the ARPU traders. So we have not seen those recur, you see just being canceled but in general much lower canceled than prior year.

No COVID impact. So I think we are expecting a pretty healthy year-over-year Q1 performance. The other part I’ve noted, we’ve been a little wider on some of our marketing efforts out of the gate in Q1 to make sure we have the target drives as we get to the back half of the year with full sports season. So maybe actually see some margins above full year levels in the quarter.

Ralph Schackart: Great. And then Stan, you talked about brand investments helping repeat rates, maybe just kind of help us think through those investments for 2023 and how they could continue to, I guess, benefit the repeat rates to potentially offset some of the higher levels of CAC that you’re seeing?

Stan Chia: Yes. Sure thing, Ralph. I think we’ve seen a lot of success. When we look at our loyalty program, the components of that driving increase repeat rate. I think whether we’re building that into the economics of our buy 10 get one free program, whether it’s the experiential components, I think we continue to look to innovate along those dimensions, can we find new things that drive differentiated value to users? And I think you’ll see us continue to drive integrated and innovative play options through Vivid Picks. We’ve talked about having our user base there on that platform just grow 300% on a year-over-year basis where we can then use those two ecosystems to drive engagements where €“ where we’re looking at that with, now I think on average close to 15 entries per month on that.

So when you put together kind of innovation in the loyalty program itself, combined with an engagement vehicle with 15 entries per month, I think we feel pretty good about the ability to continue to drive increased engagement and loyalty to our collective ecosystem and platform.

Ralph Schackart: Great. Thanks Stan. Thanks Larry.

Operator: Thank you. And our next question coming from the line of Maria Ripps from Canaccord. Your line is open.

Maria Ripps: Great. Thanks so much for taking my questions. First appreciate all the color around the 2023 outlook. Can you maybe just talk about how sort of competitor marketing spend has been trending so far this year and what is embedded in your outlook in terms of expectations for competitor marketing activity? And then I have a quick follow up.

Larry Fey: Yes, thanks Maria. I think throughout 2022 we saw a fairly consistent trend where competitor intensity was increasing with a particular shift upward starting in early Q3. That intensity continued through Q4. I’d say for the large part, it’s continued into Q1 and so we have presumed that persists throughout the year in our guidance. I think we’ve alluded to it before, but we continue to be of the mindset that one can only lose money for so long before gravity catches you. And so if we don’t want to predict the win with too much precision, but it does feel like the current environment that has persisted in the Q1 feels unsustainable given some of the €“ our understanding of some of the profitability implications of those decisions for others.

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