Festival Promotion makes or breaks!
It’s unfortunately the case that for most festivals, all the profit is made in the last 10% of ticket/food/drink sales
Put another way, just a few extra ticket sales make all the difference. Festival Promotion is key to success!
Organisers will work hard to get the right acts, the right food, the right attractions, to maximise those sales.
To add surety, will probably they do “Early bird” ticket discounts to get cash, and commitment, as early as possible
But, those early bird tickets are a relatively small percentage of total sales. The last couple of weeks, and , crucially the last 4-5 days are when the majority of tickets are sold
It is therefore essential to promote the event throughout the year, but particularly during that period
It is the case that organisers cannot know – in micrometric detail – where it is best to promote, but all of these can be considered
Local papers
Flyering
Social media
Interviews on local TV/radio stations
Of these, consistent data shows that social media has the highest benefit/cost ratio. Even more important than that, videos – particularly short ones, are the most effective way of driving audience attendance
So what should be the content of the promotion? You need top ask yourself “Why do people go?
What attracts people?
Using both conversations with organisers and previous year attendees, and previous year videos, we analyse the likely drivers
The list might include:
Fun
Family day out
Friends day out
Music
Food
Special attractions
Child friendly
Dog friendly
Quality of acts
Friendliness
Timing
Drinks
Parking
Location
Inclusiveness
Disabled access
Quality/number of toilets and showers
Shopping
Sense of belonging/ meeting similar people
We will then create festival promotion videos that emphasise the things that matter to potential attendees. There’s no point in making a generic video – it has to be targeted at the specific audience that you wish to attract.
Examples of festival promotion videos can be found here and here