Music star Zayn‘s Stairway to the Sky tour, his first solo tour since leaving One Direction in 2015, launched in the U.S. in October and concluded in March, using innovative approaches to engage superfans, including a “Zayn VIP Key.”
The musician’s manager and the team at UTA Music used Fan3 ticketing technology and innovative fan-centric experiences to super-serve Zayn fans rather than online ticket scalpers.
Fan3, co-founded by CEO Ross Taylor, is a fan community platform that summarizes its mission as “Fandom – Data – Anti-Fraud,” describing its focus as creating “a new entertainment ecosystem rewarding both those that create it, and those that love it.”
Zayn and his teams at UTA and ZenKai Management focused on an approach and strategy akin to a fan club experience, leveraging Fan3’s next-generation platform to streamline access to presale tickets and elevate superfans’ journey leading up to the live shows.
With the so-called “Zayn VIP Key,” superfans were granted exclusive early access, priority perks and a deeper connection with the artist, helping to boost excitement around his comeback. In fact, the technology gave superfans exclusive first access to tickets through mobile wallet passes in what Zayn’s team says marks the first time ever this approach has been used for a tour.
Fan3 also allowed Zayn’s team to collect valuable first-party fan data, giving them opportunities to tailor custom experiences in new ways.
Fan3 added an extra layer of security on top of Ticketmaster, AXS and Eventim that prevented scalpers from snatching up tickets for resale on third-party websites.
Zayn VIP key
The innovative Zayn partnership with Fan3 led to positive results beyond 22 sold-out venues across the U.S., U.K. and Mexico. For example, a total of 78,291 tickets were sold during the VIP Key presale alone, with 343,377 VIP Keys claimed by fans in 211 countries, The Hollywood Reporter can reveal. And only 2.5 percent of tickets sold were reported listed on secondary ticket sites, meaning ticket resale sites.
“Zayn wanted this tour to feel different — more personal, more intentional and closer to the fans,” explains his manager, Nicola Carson of ZenKai Management, to THR. “We recognized a unique opportunity that aligned with that vision: a way to create a fan club-like experience and build a community without asking fans to pay for access. It was about removing the noise and making space for a deeper, direct connection. Getting the limited tickets we had in the hands of fans was key.”
Eddie Clemens, head of tour marketing at UTA, says: “Zayn x Fan3 really has set a new gold standard for how artists and their teams can use technology to bring fans closer to their favorite artists, while ensuring we’re getting them tickets directly — and keeping tickets off of the secondary market.”
Taylor lauds Zayn for putting his fans first and his company’s “pioneering technology to tackle a huge music industry problem: getting genuine tickets in the hands of genuine fans.” He describes the results of the partnership as a win-win for fans and the star, concluding that Fan3 allowed Zayn “to understand and own his data while ensuring his tickets end up in the hands of the people who truly matter: no bots, no scalpers, no fraud.”
