CAMPAIGN: #HELLOSTRATHALLAN - T IN THE PARK 2016 AGENCY: DF CONCERTS & MATERIAL_UK CATEGORY: 3.5 EVENT MARKETING PRECIS
T in the Park (TITP) is one of Europe’s leading festivals – a cornerstone of Scottish culture and a rite of passage for music fans across the country.
Co-founded in 1994 by DF Concerts and Tennent’s Lager, over the past 22 years the festival has grown in influence and reputation and is now a major player on the world stage. THE CHALLENGES
In 2015, T in the Park faced the biggest challenge of its 22-year history, with the festival relocating from its much-loved Balado home to a brand new site – Strathallan Castle. The complexities involved with moving Scotland’s biggest music event were not to be underestimated, and neither was the level of media attention this would inevitably generate. Understandably festival-goers were apprehensive – how would the new site compare to their beloved Balado? This fell at a time when T in the Park faced increasing competition from the wider UK and European festival market. It was imperative that T in the Park upheld its reputation as an unmissable festival experience.
AMBITIONAMBITION ANDAND OBJECTIVESOBJECTIVES TARGET MARKET
We knew our marketing and communications strategy had to be confident, savvy and engaging for our target market, which comprised:
• Primary target market - music fans in Scotland (core demographic: 18-24 year-olds) • Secondary target market: music fans outwith Scotland - across the UK and Europe
CAMPAIGN OBJECTIVES
• Capitalise on the PR and marketing opportunities presented by the new site move • Reinforce TITP’s stature as an internationally acclaimed festival and a major event on the global stage • Create a high ATL and media profile for the event to drive ticket sales and consumer engagement • Drive sales of key revenue generation initiatives and services ie. Refresh pamper parlour (target: 9000), Residence luxury camping packages (target: 300)
Key Messages • #HelloStrathallan - 2015 is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make TITP history by being a part of the first ever event at Strathallan Castle • T in the Park is more than music – it’s about the community vibe, the atmosphere and the camaraderie
COMMS OBJECTIVES
Digital • Increase Facebook likes by 10,000 • Increase Twitter followers by 10,000 • Achieve 5,000 downloads of TITP mobile app • Grow no. of subscribers to T Lady e- newsletter to 130,000
PR • Ensure high event profile through widespread media coverage (2500 articles)
STRATEGY & EXECUTION
STRATEGIC PLANNING
Social insight revealed a degree of fan apprehension regarding T in the Park’s move to Strathallan Castle. It was an unknown venue, so we decided that converting this fear of the unknown into excitement would form the backbone of the strategy.
The stunning beauty of the new site, which had its own 19th century baronial castle, would therefore become a key message of the campaign. We knew we had to capitalise on the excitement and intrigue that this unique opportunity presented.
It was also important that TITP’s world class line-up – and its distinction as the biggest and best-loved event in Scotland, and one of the best festival experiences in the world – didn’t get lost.
CAMPAIGN LAUNCH - TEASER
One of the bands headlining T in the Park 2015 was The Libertines – a major coup for the festival given the band’s recent reformation was causing major excitement amongst our target audience. However we also knew that they were playing competitor events. These events had yet to announce their line-up - so we capitalised upon the band’s love for the Scottish crowd to negotiate permission to announce the band early – in advance of any other UK dates. By announcing the band as a pre-launch standalone announcement, we were able to maximise the reach of this across the UK. CAMPAIGN LAUNCH - TEASER
We positioned this as a major coup – TITP was the first UK festival to have the band as headliners – resulting in high profile media coverage, including an exclusive interview with Libertines’ frontman Pete Doherty on BBC Radio 1’s Zane Lowe show and BBC 6 Music’s Music News, leading to the announcement trending UK and world-wide. CAMPAIGN LAUNCH
With the campaign off to a strong start, we kept momentum going by launching the festival line-up with a high impact campaign a couple of weeks later.
Analysis revealed the TITP audience was most active online between 6.30pm – 9.30pm, so our launch strategy led with a 7pm announcement across BBC Radio 1 and TITP’s digital and social channels. This led to “T in the Park” and artists’ names trending worldwide on Twitter, and was complemented by integrated digital, print and outdoor ATL campaign.
HOUSEWARMING PARTY
We also hosted a “housewarming”-themed launch party for artists, media, friends of the festival, and key stakeholders, celebrating the move to a new site and the festival’s journey to date to generate excitement.
ABOVE THE LINE
With visibility and profile a key objective, we launched a strategic ATL campaign which incorporated outdoor, print, digital and broadcast media. Using valuable insight from sales data, the campaign targeted key demographics and audience segments, and media ads were placed in outlets which complemented the PR campaign.
PRINT AD EXAMPLE
ABOVE THE LINE
DIGITAL AD EXAMPLE
ABOVE THE LINE
OUTDOOR & HIGH FOOTFALL TRANSPORT HUBS
RADIO
A national radio campaign brought our Hello Strathallan campaign to airwaves across the UK. Stations were targeted based on their playlists, so we knew we were reaching our key audience demographic. The campaign ran across multiple commercial radio stations.
DIRECT MARKETING
With DF Concerts staging gigs featuring TITP artists throughout the year, we targeted audiences attending gigs by TITP acts through an in-venue flyering and poster campaign.
We also teamed up with Slam – programmers of the Slam Tent at TITP – to target audiences at gigs promoted by them throughout the year, including posters in Scotland’s premier EDM/dance music venue The Arches and on- site at the Riverside Festival, a major urban festival in the heart of Glasgow, of which Slam are co-promoters. DF Concerts’ iconic venue King Tut’s also featured TITP posters and flyers in the months running up to the event.
KEY MESSAGES
EDUCATING FANS
It was important that we dispelled myths and educated our fans about the new site – making sure important pieces of information such relating to operational changes were communicated in a way which was engaging.
We created a Social Media Advent Calendar which offered followers the chance to enter a draw to win a pair of VIP tickets and also to educate them on Strathallan Castle facts ahead of new site move.
REVEAL OF NEW SITE
We also decided to recruit fans as ambassadors and hosted a “sneak peek” tour of the new site for media and fans. At the event, a pop-up Tennent’s At the Heart of T in the Park-themed bar served Tennent’s-based cocktails, whilst fan favourites The View and Admiral Fallow entertained fans.
Founding partner Tennent’s Lager announced that an experiential bar would be a major new addition to TITP during the site tour, generating positive fan conversation.
The response from fans and media was overwhelmingly positive, providing valuable pre- festival endorsement to drive ticket sales.
REVEAL OF NEW SITE
#WEARETINTHEPARK
As well as generating excitement about the new site – it was imperative that fans understood that the T in the Park they knew and loved would not be compromised by change. So we rolled out a breakout campaign - #WEARETINTHEPARK – which focused on the unique community spirit which makes the T in the Park experience so special. We created a series of memes and an emotive video edit which celebrated the unique spirit of T in the Parkers.
WATCH VIDEO EDIT HERE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zvivw_yT1vo #WEARETINTHEPARK
We asked T in the Park followers to send in their reasons for loving the festival as well as pictures of themselves and their mates enjoying T in the Park. It encouraged festival goers to come together and share the excitement for attending the 2015 festival and thus, increased our social media engagement.
#WEARETINTHEPARK
We carried this theme throughout various pieces of social media engagement, such as a #Telfie campaign on social media was used to maintain momentum after the festival and encourage early bird ticket sales.
ARTIST ENDORSEMENT
Given we were positioning the move to Strathallan Castle as a landmark moment in TITP history, we used this as an angle to negotiate access to artists for emotive content which tapped into their relationship with the festival. Not only would this drive social engagement with fans, but it would provide with high profile artist endorsement for the move to the new site, creating sharable social content generated and high impact media coverage. ARTIST ENDORSEMENT
#TBTINTHEPARK
To further generate excitement about the move to the new site, and reinforce its significance for the event, we reached out to acts on the T in the Park line-up and collated a series of quotes from them on their favourite TITP memories, which was then pushed out to media and via social platforms.
BREAKOUT CAMPAIGNS
We implemented breakout campaigns for both event and Tennent’s’ revenue generation service initiatives – such as Refresh pamper parlour, Residence boutique camping packages, and the Be Chilled pre-order service - to drive sales and awareness of the wider festival experience. These were promoted via a strategic media promotions campaign in key lifestyle outlets, targeting festival- goers travelling from further afield (estimated reach: +48,560,655).
OUTCOME & EVALUATION
CAMPAIGN RESULTS
2015’s marketing and communications successfully drove consumer engagement and reinforced TITP’s stature as Scotland’s favourite festival, and generated a major buzz around the new site.
• Majority of festival tickets sold • Refresh sold out – 9470 wristbands sold (vs 9000 target) • 366 Residence luxury camping packages sold (vs 300 target)
COMMS
• High media profile – overwhelmingly positive coverage communicating key messages in target outlets • 3280 pieces of editorial placed in high profile print and online media, with 30% of articles carrying a call to buy tickets - estimated PR value (print & online): £30,216,415.08 • Extensive BBC coverage enhanced brand profile - BBC broadcast/digital coverage reached combined audience of over 7.7m • Mobile app proved a massive success with 10,166 downloads • T Lady subscribers increased to 131,262 (surpassing target of 130,000) • TITP trending globally on Twitter at launch and over festival weekend • 31,208 new Facebook likes (target: 10k) increasing total fans to more than 340k • 65,189 new Twitter followers (target: 10k), taking total followers to 237k