Grow Your Festival With New Technologies

Katie McPhee Steve Jenner Ian Forshew

Starting at 4pm GMT (12pm EDT)

UK festival scene

In 1998 there were 20 UK music festivals. There are now 400+ (Festival Awards)

UK Festival Scene

Attendance has risen from 30,000 to 3,000,000 (Mintel)

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The UK festival market is valued at £500m (PRS)

UK Festival Scene

Income to festivals has increased 20% over the past 2 years (PRS)

Ticket to Glastonbury cost £98 in 1999, £205 in 2013 (Festival Awards)

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Growing your festival using new technology

Photo - GoldenPlec.com

In this webinar we will discuss

Technology

Getting to know your audience

Growing your audience

Increasing profit

Getting to know your audience

Getting to know your audience - Past

• No organiser/customer contact

• Customers’ needs weren’t met

• Lineup took priority over experience

• No chance for customers to express their views

• Growth curves were flatter

Festivals rarely sold out

Getting to know your audience - Eventbrite

In order to help you get to know your audience, Eventbrite offers Survey Monkey integration, giving you real time insights into how

your customers feel

Getting to know your audience

Full infographic available on request(CGA Strategy, Festival Awards,UK Festival Awards Market Report 2012)

Getting to know your audience - The present

Some of the new tools available:

• Ticket prices have risen above inflation, and expectations have grown with them

• Customers are in touch with organisers, and can express their desires/frustration

• Festival organisers can be reactive, creating a better experience and driving brand loyalty

• Understanding audiences better increases relevancy of sponsorship/branding

Getting to know your audience - The present

Festival marketing in future will target one person above all; The Alpha Consumer

The Alpha Consumer:

• Chooses festival• Buys tickets• Influences friends

Getting to know your audience - Future

(CGA Strategy, Festival Awards)

Growing your audience

Photo - Reuters/Cathal McNaughton

Growing your audience - Past (Pre-Internet)

Word of mouthFlyersPrint ads

Media Partnerships Diverse Lineups

Growing your audience - Pre Social Media (1999-2004)

Message Boards

Desktop Alerts

Community Portals

Growing your audience - Present

Targeted advertising and social sharing has taken us from:

TONet fishing - casting a wide net,

hoping potential customers see your advertising and are interested

in what you offer

Spearfishing - using what you know about your audience and

social tools to target people with a specific interest in what you offer

Images: The Painted One & Is This Cool

Growing your audience - Present

70% of Facebook’s 60 biggest

advertisers get an ROI on ads of 300%

(Source: http://bit.ly/MMXM0Y)

89% of the UK festival-going population regularly uses

Facebook

70% of 16 and 17 year old festival-goers use Twitter

(UK Festival Awards Market Report 2012)

51% of the UK population is on

Facebook

(Source: http://bit.ly/pULRBU)

67% of UK Facebook users are between 18 and 44

(Source: http://bit.ly/YPl08D)

Growing your audience - Present

Festivals are a shared experience, making social networking a natural ally. Opportunites for organisers to use social include:

Social Networks

Thinking beyond the

event - connect to the

networks of your artists

and partners

Social apps, like Bestival’s personalised lineup web app

Viral content, either made in-house or

crowdsourced

Targeted online advertising to an

audience you know is engaged

Growing your audience - Present

Festivals are a shared experience, making social networking a natural ally. Opportunites for organisers to use social include:

E-Team systems, incentivising your

audience to promote your

event in their area

Mobile - Stay connected to your

audience no matter where

they are

Growing your audience - Social Sharing

ONE TICKET SALE

3.5 5.3

5.4

How many shares to sell ONE incremental ticket?

Growing your audience - Social Sharing

(Eventbrite)

Case Studies

Photo - Independent

1. RFID and the contactless festival

Photo - IdeasByNet,com

The festival of the future will be wireless.

Intelligent Venue Solutions worked with the Barclaycard Wireless Festival 2012 to make it the first large scale outdoor European festival to integrate RFID cashless payments, access control and socially connected experiences.

Activations included:

Case Study - Intelligent Venue Solutions

This high tech festival experience sped up processes, enhanced security, increased efficiency, gave Barclaycard data on attendees and made social sharing far simpler

2. Firetext SMS

Photo - thisera.com

How do you remind attendees that your event is taking place, alert them to when their favourite band is taking the main stage and provide them with helpful tips and advice for during their time with you?

The answer is SMS. SMS is:

•Cheap•Immediate•Not dependent on 3G

Firetext offer their clients to communicate with their customers cost effectively and simply.

You can use the code EVENTBRITE to receive 20% off Firetext products for the first 3 months

Case Study - Firetext

Increasing profits

Photo - 201beats.com

More effective, targeted marketing allows you to save money on conventional advertising and know what works in real time, redirecting

funds to other parts of your business

Decreased costs

• A bigger, more loyal audience means more F&B and merchandise sales on-site

• A connected audience will buy merchandise and generate digital advertising revenue all year round

• Live video streaming is becoming a lucrative new income stream from Bloodstock to Bestival

• A festival with a well-profiled audience will be much more valuable to sponsor brands

Increasing profits - new revenue streams

Thank you!

For more info

Eventbrite UK

/EventbriteUK@BriteUK

UK Festival Awards

/FestivalAwardsLTD@Festival_Awards

Beach Break Live

/BeachBreakLive@BeachBreakLive