“National ads are great...but community engagement key to get buzz” – Live Nation discusses social and campaigns
The summer is festival season, and entertainment company Live Nation is revving up for what is annually the busiest time of year for its digital team.
Speaking to The Drum ahead of this year's Download festival, Ellie Parker, social media manager, and Jo Young, head of campaigns at Live Nation, admit that the core objective for the company is to sell tickets to each of the company's festivals - which also include Wireless, BluesFest and a number of tours - in as efficient a manner as it can.
“Social is key to achieving this within our marketing mix, as it allows us to build communities of music lovers that we can talk to at any time – and putting spend behind our social activity allows us to reach the specific act’s fan base, and grow our own channels in turn," Young explains.
Live Nation believes in using its fans as brand ambassadors, which can be seen by the setting up of ‘Tribes’ on the Download Facebook page ahead of the festival, which is taking place this weekend (13 June – 15 June).
The Tribes app allows users to take on challenges and win prizes in order to grow anticipation for the festival itself.
“The aim of the Tribes activity was to connect the huge Download community around the thing they’re most passionate about: rock music. By joining people in groups, we got them talking and will also use this as a platform to build on the onsite experience too. We’re really happy with the results –tens of thousands of people joined in, generating millions of impressions and most importantly – the fans loved it too,” Parker explains.
Word of mouth is key to keeping momentum going on ticket sales when advertising spend may have eased up, she continues to explain, adding that the key focus of Live Nation’s social channels is to keep conversation going and giving fans the content to do so.
“If launching an event in a new area, we’ll also look to create both on and offline street teams of the target audience (students, young adults usually). As well as prompting them to ‘spread the word’ it’s also really important that we ask for feedback and listen to their comments – who would be on their ideal line up, where have they seen our ads, what more do they think we could be doing locally etc.
"National ads are great and certainly work launching/establishing an event – but community engagement, whether on or offline, is key to get a buzz started about your festival, Young confirms.
And it is not just traditional channels such as Twitter and Facebook which Live Nation uses: “we’ve experimented with newer platforms such as Snapchat and are always open to trying new things – we’ll go where music lovers want to hear about our events," Parker concludes.
TunePics, the app which allows users to connect images with music, is one of a host of music-based platforms which Live Nation is currently assessing.
During each show, the entertainment company aims to entertain fans with content, engage them in conversation and keep them informed about what’s happening on site, while also providing a place for the company to monitor conversations “for opportunities to make festival goers experience even better”.