“Halloween is our Christmas,” said Bronson Christensen, Founding Partner at Lonely Ghost."
Having started “Indy The Label” in 2019 alongside Indy Blue Severe, the company’s name was updated and, in two years time, the duo became heads of a ghost-themed empire.
“It sprung a real business when they made the name change,” said Austin Neill, Head of Creative at Tixr and close personal friend of the co-founders. “The shifting speed of the market is so crazy for apparel and retail. To get their product in front of customers, they made a quick pivot into the event space.”
That’s when, early this fall, Neill suggested a partnership between Lonely Ghost and Tixr.
They’re the masters of what they do, we’re the masters of what we do,” said Christensen. "What they’re doing is so needed. Events and ticketing, how it’s been, is so dinosaur and they’ve changed that."
Considering that the turnout for Lonely Forest in October surpassed one thousand attendees, Tixr Door app could certainly be considered Lonely Ghost’s early “Christmas” gift. As the business partners’ inaugural collaboration, both merchandise and tickets sold out ahead of the event in American Fork, Utah.
“The line got pretty long and someone who we trained on Door quickly was like, ‘no, we can put Door on any property device that supports iOS,” recalled Neill, proud of the new users’ sharp reaction. “They downloaded it on four other phones and in 15 minutes they had four lines going and no more congestion. That was a stand out moment.”
Another exceptional moment from Lonely Ghost’s Halloween event was how well ticket and merchandise sales complimented one another at checkout.
"We’re very particular about who we work with, but they don’t have what Tixr has and that’s a beautiful user experience. It’s so easy to check out. With the merch sales… that add-on was so buttery," Christensen continued. "Almost as many people who were buying tickets, were buying merch. That’s when we were like, ‘whoa! Production might not be able to make as much as we’re selling.’”
Within days of making Lonely Forest’s tickets publicly available, staff removed Tixr’s add-on allowing for purchase of merchandise. This signaled that not only was Lonely Forest a smashing success, Lonely Ghost’s combination of eventing, merchandise, and social media yields an internationally groundbreaking brand reach.
While it may be tempting for businesses to try a similar model, Christensen knows with more than a decade of experience building brands, Lonely Ghost’s success is more than a formula.
“There’s not a lot of brands with soul,” he said. “We think that that’s the new way of building brands– community. If you see someone wearing Lonely Ghost, you’re going to run across the airport and give them a hug. It’s so much bigger than us and our team.”
