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March 3, 2015 Durham Festival 2
Objective:Primary Objective: To increase the number of festival attendees to include approximately 20,000 males and females between the ages of 10-25 (Durham Region residents will be the focus)Secondary Objective: To increase the attendance of youth and young adults to the festival (attendance target of 5,000)
Strategy: An integrated marketing communications’ approach will be developed that focuses on the consumer touch-points most utilized by youth and young adults. The goal of all communication pieces will be to direct the audience to social media channels where interactive opportunities will engage and entertain as well as inform on festival events.
Since youth and young adults are not big planners they will need to be reminded ongoing of events they may wish to attend. This requires ways to collect personal contact information in the planning stages of the campaign so direct marketing via email, text messaging, and social media can be utilized both leading up to and during the actual festival.
The recommended approach is to have an integrated marketing communications approach utilizing the following promotional tools:
1) Social Media – Content Development
2) Media Relations
3) Special Events
4) Sales Promotion: Contests
5) Publicity Stunts
6) Advertising
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Media & Promotional Tactics:1) Social Media: Our key component to tackling our integrated marketing communication plan is to have consistent and relevant content throughout all media being utilized. All content must represent the core values and mission statements of Durham Festival 2015, which is a celebration of culture through food, concerts, cycling, innovation, performances and creative expression of all kinds. This will be achieved through a social media content development plan to inform followers about details on events and contests taking place during the festival. Focusing on festival events and contest details via social is an effective way to allow consumers to interact with the festival team as well as create awareness about the events. It creates more website traffic, conversions, awareness, positive brand associations, communication and interaction with the audience. The main social media techniques to be employed are those most utilized by a millennial/gen Z target, which include: Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Snapchat. Gaining permission from festival sponsors for use on their websites, we would capture event photos and create content to be used in shareable posts. Below are examples of posts before & during Durham Festival to promote Ride4UnitedWay:
[Example of post & photo before event]
1. “Lets start this morning off with a laugh! Ride4UnitedWay is a great way to contribute to your community and stay in shape while meeting friends along the way! For more info about joining: www.Ride4UnitedWay.com #DurhamFestival”
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[Example of post & photo during event]
2.c “Check out the newest member of our cheering squad! Got any pictures or videos cycling? Use the hash tag #DurhamFestival and tag us for your chance to win some cool gear! Check out www.Ride4UnitedWay.com to find out ways to win more prizes! #DurhamFestival”
[Example of post before event]
1. “Did you know a study found that just 25 minutes of cycling boosts creative thinking and relieves stress? Ride with us and @Ride4UnitedWay this August & find out for yourself! More info at: www.Ride4UnitedWay.com #DurhamFestival”
[Example of post after event]
2. “Looking forward to seeing everyone 8am sharp! Registration & rider check opens at 6:30am. Be prepared for a full day of fun, food and massages! #DurhamFestival”
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Snapchat (post on “Our Story”)
[Example of post before event] [Example of post during event]
1. “Are you ready???? 2. “And we’re off!!! Follow the
@DURHAMFESTIVAL” journey live! @DURHAMFESTIVAL”
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[Example of post & photo before event]
1. “Get ready for the epic bike ride that will get you moving across the region! There’s 3 distances you can be apart of: 60K’s, 100K’s and 160K’s! Learn more at: www.DurhamFestival.ca/Events #DurhamFestival”
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[Example of post & photo during event]
2. “Riders are on their way to the finished line! Tag your friends are that participating in the big ride! To see if you or any of your friends are in our photo gallery, check out www.DurhamFestival.ca & www.Ride4UnitedWay.com #DurhamFestival”
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2) Media Relations: A huge opportunity for the Durham Festival to capitalize on involves the timing of the Pan Am Games. Pan Am Games is the third largest international multi-sport game and will feature roughly 7,600 athletes from Latin American, and the Caribbean and is expected to bring 250,000 visitors to Ontario. The promotional potential is at its maximum as the Durham Festival will be able to build on the momentum of the games. Opening up a pop-up promotional tent at the Pan Am Games would be an efficient way to create awareness and excitement for Durham Festival as it
would be reaching the target audience and generating more attention. Available at the promotional tent would be brochures, booklets and posters with event information as well as all social media handles. (In additional, I have created a tiny business card as an example to hand out to as many people as possible to direct target audience to Durham Festival social media channels)
Another way to utilize Pan Am Games would be talk to their media team and see if there is a possibility of submitting a 30 second video or commercial, promoting Durham Festival details, events and contests to create more awareness.
3) Special Events: Targeting youth and young adults through their school is another effective method to convey information about Durham Festival.
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Elementary and Secondary schools present many opportunities to engage the community as they hold ongoing school assemblies, often one every few months. This will allow us to create awareness for Durham Festival as well as present incentives to students to provide their e-mail addresses and social media accounts so we can target with reminders about the event before it takes place. Presenting towards the end of April or throughout May would be a suggestion as it leaves time for us to send reminders through e-mail and social media to students and their families.
4) Contests: Contests are another great tool that would engage the target audience and increase awareness for Durham Festival. Over the 3-day festival, a contest could be created where prizes are awarded ongoing through the day’s events. All contest submissions from contestants as well as any other details would be communicated via social media.
The contest would take place over Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Snapchat. Contestants would be required to follow/add Durham Festival on social media channels after sending either a ‘selfie’ or a photo with a group of friends while in attendance at the event. They need to know that when posting on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook, they must directly tag Durham Festival’s account as well as use the hash tag “DurhamFestival2015.” Photos will be selected throughout the day by a team of judges who will post their favourites acknowledging the winners and the prizes to be won. Prizes will include anything in Durham Festival’s budget range such as: Gens game tickets, free dinners at sponsor restaurants, gift cards, any Durham gear (water bottles, t-shirts, hats etc.), movie tickets and more.
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5) Publicity Stunts: A local radio broadcasting of Durham Festival would be another method of reaching the target demographic cost effectively. There are numerous local and regional radio stations to be used to promote the event but KX96 appears to be the most appropriate as it promotes many regional events both on their website and on air. On-air talent could promote the event during their programs or a: 30 second spot could be produced focusing on the creativity and culture to be celebrated at the festival as well as include a call to action about the social contest.
6) Advertising: Durham Festival could also benefit from local advertising. Any printed material such as posters, brochures and small business cards could be distributed at promotional partner locations (e.g. have collateral included in consumer purchases e.g. bags of purchased products, take-out food orders etc.,). There are also many coffee shops such as Starbucks and Coffee Culture with poster boards that the public can post on e.g. Starbucks embraces diversity and harmony and would be very open and excited to encourage an event such as Durham Festival. It is essential to make sure the Durham Festival’s hash tags and social media handles are emphasized throughout mediums. Another major method of adverting that would benefit Durham Festival is advertising through local sponsor websites and newspapers.
Rationale:Often times companies use tools such as advertising, websites, direct marketing, sales promotion, publications and event sponsorship to communicate their product, or in this case, event. It is critical to find the right combination of marketing communication tools in order to effectively market to the target audience. Accordingly, many companies use integrated marketing communications to link or connect their promotional tools and
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communicate with their current and prospective customers. Integrated marketing communication (IMC) plans are created so each promotional tool retains its unique communication effect while the combination of promotional tools contributes to the overall impact of the brand or message.
Social media has also completely transformed the dynamics of how we do business. Consumers are no longer passive and there is a new expectation for
quick satisfaction when it comes to search, finding and having information. Social media has also allowed customers to customize their own platforms and for their voices to be heard allowing for two-way conversation encouraging transparency, engagement, and
informal language that is uniquely personal.
On instagram alone there are more than 300 million active users and 75 million active users who are prominently youth and young adults aged 18-25. Instagram is a great way to connect with the audience as it’s visual and grabs attention with photos and videos and builds community through hash tags, tagging, posting and sharing. It’s effective because the audience gets to be
marketed with visual and short messages. Using Instagram would allow the excitement of Durham Festival to be showcased in a manner that makes people feel they are missing out of they didn’t
attend. Instagram also a great way to host any contests because it creates engagement of users and creates awareness of the event.
On average, there are roughly 6,000 tweets on Twitter per second, which is roughly 350,000 per minute, and 500 million tweets per day. Thirty percent of Twitter users are aged 18-29 and 15% of users are under 17 years of age. This will allow interactions and
engagements with the youth and the ability to share content and contest details directly to their phone.
New social platforms are constantly emerging online and creating opportunities for companies to communicate with their audience. One of the newest trends has been the introduction of Snapchat. This photo messaging application allows users to take photos, record videos, add text and drawing then send to a list of recipients. Snapchat since it’s launch in 2011 currently has 100 million active users and sends over 400 million snaps chats per day. Snapchat would hugely benefit the Durham Festival, as 60% of users are less
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than 25 years old. Snapchat is a great way to allow for behind the scene shots, videos and pictures that could form a community for our audience. It’s another new and innovative method to engage youth in updates of the event live as well as contest details. On many social media platforms, viewers scroll through content quickly. A study shows marketers are only catching that up to
50% of users’ attention. Snapchat is unique because users can’t look back which entails that marketers have 100% of their audience’s attention for that short duration of time. The consumer will not see it again, unless posted on “your story” or if they
screenshot the frame which are both beneficiary to Durham Festival. As owners of our own account we will also be able to screen shot all photos that are received and post them via other social media accounts.
The social media methods mentioned above are mainly targeting to youth and young people less than 25 years old. Although Facebook still reaches young people, only 5.4% of Facebook users are aged 13-17 while the rest are over 18. Facebook will be the more mature and older age groups that we target as we tailor our posts to appeal to that audience range.
All of these social media channels are powerful in their own way and through the teamwork and unity between them, it unfolds the potential to reach our entire audience. The idea behind encouraging contests via social media is to stimulate interest from followers as well as a sense of ownership from those that participate. This creates a sense of community, as followers become a part of the experience and on-going conversation, which is more valuable than any kind of paid marketing research. It will also cause more traffic to websites as each Tweet, Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook post gives the audience a reason to click through and visit websites for any additional information. From there, we are given further opportunity to inspire visitors to learn more about events and more about the core culture of Durham.
Encouraging Durham Festival through a local radio station is another dynamic tool that has a lot of strengths. It’s not only cost efficient but has geographic coverage and scheduling flexibility to focus directly on our age demographics. Local radio stations become an integral part of many communities and are a respectable way of creating awareness to people that are within range to attend it.
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Newspapers have a number of characteristics that make them popular among local and national advertisers. Many companies take advantage of the geographic coverage of newspapers to concentrate their advertising in specific areas they can’t reach with other media. Durham Festival could put a creative pre-printed insert into local, community and daily newspapers to attract viewers as well as become a good reminder to keep. The pre-print could also have an incentive, coupon or discount on it which would further boost the likelihood of the consumer keeping it in a memorable place.
Durham Festival is a time for family and friends to get together and embrace the culture and diversity that Durham Region has to offer. Durham Festival is an event that should have the proper promotional tools that work together in unity to create as much awareness among the target audience as possible. I
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know this integrated marketing communications approach has the power to successfully reach our objectives by using the many different social media channels utilized by youth and young adults. Through the display of worthy content posted through social media, Durham Festival will inspire and encourage visitors.
