Shakedown Festival - A Case Study

In late 2010, Brighton began to buzz with news of a serious contender for the much-needed and very vacant position of a summer music festival that the city could call its own. Shakedown was pitched as a one-day festival in Stanmer Park, promising to bring together the cream of UK and international music - an exciting prospect and one that the city rightly deserved. Example, Ed Sheeran, 2ManyDJs and a reborn Razorlight were among the chart-dominating talents on the Shakedown bill.

With massive potential for success, Festival Directors Matt Priest, Radio One’s former Head of Events, and Juice FM’s Steve Jones required a complete digital strategy for launch, promotion and execution of the festival.

Cue Bozboz.

 

 The Brief

 - To initiate and innovate in the promotion of Shakedown Festival with a full-service digital package - website, social media and SEO services.

- To create an identity and following that will establish Shakedown in Brighton’s consciousness.

- To provide full online and technical support throughout, from inception to execution.

With a complex understanding of the target demographic, and extensive knowledge of the music industry, Bozboz was ready for action.

The Website

The first step was to establish the Shakedown brand and build a website that would form the centrepiece of the festival’s online presence. The homepage design needed to convey numerous elements, such as video, photos, news and social media feeds.

The website build included a bespoke CMS, providing an extensive gallery, a blog, full social media integration, and allowed for quick and easy updates. 

 

 Social Media Strategy

 The demographic for Shakedown was typically 18 – 35 making Facebook and Twitter the ideal platforms for targeted, cost-effective marketing. The focus was on building a strong and measurable fanbase, a loyal and engaged community that would spread the word about Shakedown and ultimately convert that interest into actual ticket sales.

Promotion on Facebook and Twitter began in March 2011, and by the end of that month the Facebook page reached 1,000 fans, with Twitter close to 400 fans. Over the next two months, fan numbers continued to rise in response to regular, well-executed and interesting content that focused on fan engagement alongside the cross-promotion and collaboration with artists that Facebook makes possible.

Reputation Management

In May 2011, Shakedown was forced to change the date of the festival from July to September. This unfortunate event posed a potential crisis for confidence - situations such as this highlight the importance of social media in customer service and reputation management.

Facebook and Twitter provided an immediate and effective channel by which to communicate with fans and in this case they were hugely effective in maintaining transparent dialogue with ticket-holders.

User engagement and viral promotion

By July 2011, anticipation and excitement was resonating throughout Brighton and the online communities, and it was full steam ahead to the main event. Bozboz was closely involved in an array of pre-event initiatives. These included:

- Soundcloud based DJ competition – this achieved global interest, with entries from DJs as far away as Argentina.

- ‘Shakedown Showcase’ – a warm-up event at Concorde 2 featuring homegrown talent coupled with a series of artist interviews on the Shakedown blog called ‘Brighton Homegrown’.

- Various social media based ticket competitions and giveaways in association with HMV and Brighton Pride.

Bozboz created a fan-gated ‘Free Download’ app for the Facebook page featuring exclusive mixes and tracks from artists on the Shakedown line-up, including the Freemasons and Kissy Sell Out.

Early August saw the milestone of 4,000 Facebook fans passed without pause. By the date of the festival, the Facebook Page had over 5,200 fans.

Shakedown took place on September 17th attracting a crowd of almost 10,000, widespread acclaim and even a special mention from Ed Sheeran. Without doubt Shakedown is set to become a major player in the festival calendar – roll on 2012!

Key Stats:

Facebook: 5,413 fans
Twitter: 1,281 followers
YouTube: 8,864 upload views
Soundcloud: 2,627 track plays

See more at:

www.shakedown.co.uk
www.facebook.com/ShakedownFestival
www.twitter.com/ShakedownUK
www.soundcloud.com/shakedownfestival
www.youtube.com/shakedownfestival