How it works?

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I thought The Source presentation was excellent and you have really taken this idea and made it real and applicable. It will absolutely make a difference to the Scottish arts scene, I really believe that.

David Stark, Director of Marketing & Communications, Royal Scottish National Opera

Jargon Buster

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Complimentary or comp

What does this mean?

An admission that has been allowed to a charging space for no charge, that has been issued as a gratuity by the presenting organisation, with the implied loss of income to that organisation.

Such ‘complimentaries’ should also include admissions made at no charge for direct business reasons (for instance for business development, press and PR, as an apology or correction for customer service errors), as a reward or an incentive for someone acting as a group booker, or as part of an audience development scheme.

If relevant, the free portion of a TWOFER (‘two tickets for the price of one’) or BOGOFF (‘buy one get one free’) offer should be recorded and reported as a ticket issued at 50% of its published face value. Therefore these should not be treated as ‘comps’. But experts in the field (such as Roger Tomlinson and Tim Baker) point out that customers expect to be able to identify a free ticket issued as part of such an offer, so the price printed on the ticket should be shown as £0.00

How did we get this definition?

It can be a common practice for arts venues, galleries and other facilities to offer free admission to selected individuals. However, the issuing of such ‘complimentaries’ (or ‘comps’) can be done for a range of reasons. Some of these reasons are entirely legitimate, others – such as those that could be construed as essentially being individual favours – teeter on the boundary with the less legitimate.

Consequently, because it seems only fair to assume that all colleagues working in the arts want their practice to be ethical and above board, there is a pressing need to introduce an enhanced degree of rigour in recording and documenting such transactions, especially if they could be open to misinterpretation.

What’s more, not classifying the issue of such complimentrary admissions according to their purpose runs the risk of obscuring the true patterns of resource deployment, income and admissions for an organisation. This in turn potentially undermines the picture of that organisation’s operations provided to its funders and stakeholders.

Related and similar definitions

Greater clarity will be obtained if (where possible) the ‘complimentaries’ issued are classified according to their purposes according to the tree or ‘schemata’ shown below.

[Diagram of complimentary ticket types according to purpose]

However, it is recognised that few – if any – arts organisations might consider it practical to introduce a swathe of complimentary ticket types.

Therefore, in recognition of the need for a practical solution, combined with the varied purposes to which such complimentary admissions can be put, it is recommended that the terminology being used be clarified and changed slightly.

It is suggested that a complimentary be considered, recorded and reported upon as

A free admission that has been allowed to a charging space for no charge, that has been issued from its own supply of tickets as a gratuity by the contractually benefiting organisation, and where the implied loss of income applies to that organisation.

Such ‘complimentaries’ therefore will include admissions made at no charge for business reasons (for instance for business development, press and PR), issued as a favour (or gratuity), as a customer service (apology), as part of an audience development scheme, or as a reward for a group booker. Thus free admissions made for these or similar purposes should be recorded as ‘complimentaries’.

However, where relevant if a TWOFER (two tickets for the price of one) or a BOGOFF (buy one, get one free) offer is made, both tickets should be recorded and reported as tickets issued at 50% of their full face value. But at the same time, the price printed on the notionally ‘free’ ticket should be £0.00.

When to use

Formulae & Worked Examples

A consequence of the above logic is that any ticket for which income is received should be included in a calculation of average yield. But any complimentaries should not be included in such calculations. Hence here the preferred formula for average yield would be:

Total income generated through admissions / Number of paid admissions for which money has been received