Energetica Summer Festival, May - Aug 2016 End of Festival Report

The 2016 Energetica Summer Festival ran from May through to August, showcasing the stunning coastal scenery and diverse wildlife of the Energetica corridor, from the north of Aberdeen to Peterhead. The fourth annual festival, this was the second year that it spanned across the duration of the summer season, rather than a single weekend.

The following provides an overview of the promotion and performance of the 2016 Energetica Summer Festival.

Marketing & Advertising Overview Date Activity 16/02/2016 Blurb in Aberdeen May Festival Guide

07/04/2016 Events listings live on energetica.uk.com/festival2016

12/04/2016 4 weeks of adverts on Original 106 – 100 x 30 second slots during prime time

12/04/2016 2,500 Festival brochures ordered & distributed – See Appendix 1 for distribution list 12/04/2016 Branded seed packets ordered, for distribution at events

14/04/2016 Press release announcing festival launch distributed

15/04/2016 Press & Journal request for info/ quote/ images on Festival for feature

15/04/2016 Agreed dedicated eblasts from VisitAberdeenshire, promoting upcoming events 16/05/2016 Advert in Summer edition of Raring2Go! Magazine

18/04/2016 Coverage in P&J, Evening Express and Aberdeen Business News

21/04/2016 Advert on digital screen in Elevator offices at The Hub

22/04/2016 Coverage in Fraserburgh Herald, Inverurie Advertiser and Ellon Times

26/04/2016 Booked Twitter/ Facebook promotional campaign to begin on 6/5/16

05/05/2016 Coverage in P&J Features section

06/05/2016 Coverage in Daily Mail What’s On

10/05/2016 Logo to First Group to promote events on buses

17/05/2016 Images to The Scots Magazine to feature in July issue

18/05/2016 Featured in VisitAberdeenshire What’s On Super Summer Special newsletter

Author: Danielle McKinlay September 2016

21/06/2016 Featured in Aberdeenshire Council’s internal newsletter All Go

01/07/2016 Featured in VisitAberdeenshire What’s On in July newsletter

Ongoing Posts on social media promoting events and engaging with organisers and relevant bodies to aid with the promotion Ongoing Coverage in local What’s On listings and newsletters/ publications

Festival Events & Attendance

Date Event Attended Thurs 5th - Sun 8th May RSPB's Scotland's Dolphin Watch NA Sat 7th May Festival launch in the Gardens 150 Sat 7th May Dolphin Cruise 7 Thurs 12th - Sun 15th May RSPB's Scotland's Dolphin Watch NA Energetica Walking Festival: Forvie Nature Sun 15th May Reserve 14 Thurs 19th - Sun 22nd May RSPB's Scotland's Dolphin Watch NA Sat 21st May Newburgh Gala Day NA Sun 22nd May Nature Photography for Beginners 6 Thurs 26th - Sun 29th May RSPB's Scotland's Dolphin Watch NA Sat 28th May Seabird Watch 74 Sat 28th May Archaeology Walk – Walking a March 12 Biodiversity Bonanza at University of Sun 29th May Aberdeen 259 Thurs 2nd - Sun 5th June RSPB's Scotland's Dolphin Watch NA Sat 4th June Puffin Walk 9 Sat 4th June Batwatch at Haddo House 12 Sat 4th June Macro Magic 8 Sun 5th June Rebel PT Balmedie Beach 50 Sun 5th June Open Farm Sunday NA Thurs 9th - Sun 12th June RSPB's Scotland's Dolphin Watch NA Sat 11th June Puffin Walk Postponed Sat 11th June Batwatch at Haddo House Postponed Sun 12th June Guided Nature Walk 3 Sun 12th June Guided Walk - Cruden Bay to Longhaven 11 Thurs 16th - Sun 19th June RSPB's Scotland's Dolphin Watch NA Sat 18th June Seabird Watch 27 Sat 18th June Dolphin Photography Cruise TBC Sat 18th June Puffin Walk TBC Sat 18th June Batwatch at Haddo House TBC Sun 19th June Nature Photography for Beginners 5 Thurs 23rd - Sun 26th June RSPB's Scotland's Dolphin Watch NA Sat 25th June Wooden Ships and Iron Men 10

Author: Danielle McKinlay September 2016

Thurs 30th June - Sun 3rd July RSPB's Scotland's Dolphin Watch NA Sat 2nd July Dolphin Photography Cruise Sun 3rd July Rebel PT Balmedie Beach 46 Thurs 7th - Sun 10th July RSPB's Scotland's Dolphin Watch NA Sat 9th July Rockpooling 43 Tues 12th July Dynamic Dragonflies 6 Thurs 14th - Sun 17th July RSPB's Scotland's Dolphin Watch NA Thurs 14th July Family bug and beast hunt 14 Thurs 14th July Birdwatching for Beginners 11 Thurs 14th July Forvie Wild Flowers 8 Thurs 21st - Sun 24th July RSPB'S Scotland's Dolphin Watch NA Sat 23rd July Open Day at the gardens 300 Sun 24th July Summer Wildlife Wander TBC Thurs 28th - Sun 31st July RSPB'S Scotland's Dolphin Watch NA Sat 30th July Red Squirrel Guided Walk TBC Sat 30th July Southern Trench - Whale & Puffin Adventure Cancelled Sun 31st July Southern Trench - Whale & Puffin Adventure Cancelled Wed 3rd August Kids Summer Bushcraft Session TBC Thurs 4th - Sun 7th August RSPB's Scotland's Dolphin Watch NA Sun 7th August Rebel PT Balmedie Beach 30 Thurs 11th - Sun 14th August RSPB's Scotland's Dolphin Watch NA Energetica Walking Festival: Forvie Nature Fri 12th August Reserve TBC Sat 13th August OPAL Bugs Count Survey 20 Sat 13th August OPAL Pond Survey 13 Thurs 18th - Sun 21st August RSPB's Scotland's Dolphin Watch NA Sat 20th August From the Cradle to the Grave 10 Thurs 25th - Sun 28th August RSPB's Scotland's Dolphin Watch NA Sat 27th August Open Day at the gardens 80 Sat 27th August Southern Trench - Whale & Puffin Adventure TBC Sun 28th August Southern Trench - Whale & Puffin Adventure TBC Energetica Walking Festival: Get on your bikes 6 Sun 28th August and Ride!

Total attendees 1 ,244

Author: Danielle McKinlay September 2016

The above demonstrates attendance at the individual events. Please note that at the time of writing, not all organisers have fed back to us so it is expected that this number is actually larger.

This graph highlights festival attendee numbers, and represents a 118% increase year on year.

This increase is a result of increased promotion, social media activity and general awareness of Energetica.

Engagement

Website As a result of the promotion of the Energetica Summer Festival, our various communications platforms received increased levels of traffic. Appendix 2 shows that 4,626 visitors to the site during the period of the festival arrived directly to the Summer Festival pages. This represents 65% of the overall traffic during this period (2 May – 28 August).

Appendix 2 shows that in total the Summer Festival pages received 5,624 views (including those referenced above that arrived on the page). This represents 53% of all website traffic. As per the previous year, the various peaks highlighted in Appendix 3 are explained by tweets and Facebook posts promoting the various events, including sponsored social media posts.

Twitter The Festival allowed us to generate interest in the @Energetica_UK Twitter account. An approximate additional 120 followers were gained during the duration of the Festival whilst our Klout score increased from 44 to 48 (Klout measures your influence in your field). During the Festival, the majority of our most popular tweets were around this subject, generating increased engagement with our followers. Examples of tweets are shown below:

Author: Danielle McKinlay September 2016

A promoted Twitter campaign was implemented with a budget of £500, targeting Twitter users who are local to the area and interested in similar accounts/ activities, e.g. VisitAberdeenshire, Aberdeen Festivals Collective, etc. This resulted in 1,233 clicks of the four separate posts promoting various events.

Facebook A promoted posts campaign also with a budget of £500 was implemented for Facebook. This means that a sponsored post would appear on the homepage of our target audience, allowing them to click-through.

Four posts were sponsored, highlighting individual events. These posts had a potential reach of 77,752 with 4,692 interactions, including likes, shares and comments. This is a key method of raising awareness of the festival, and website traffic shows that Facebook posts are more successful than Twitter, a key learning for next year’s festival.

Author: Danielle McKinlay September 2016

Coverage

Evening Express, 19/04/2016

Press & Journal, The Weekend, 05/05/2016 Daily Mail, 06/05/2016

Arcadia, July 2016

Author: Danielle McKinlay September 2016

Press & Journal, 18/04/2016

Conclusions The 2016 Energetica Summer Festival spanned across the summer featuring a line-up of 42 events, an increase from 37 featured in 2015. New additions to the festival included Open Day events at Ellon Castle Gardens, Balmedie Beach training session with Rebel PT and Wildlife Cruises with Clyde Cruises.

This year’s festival was implemented at an increased cost of approximately 40%, however this resulted in a 118% increase in attendee numbers. In addition, we ensured attendees were reminded that the event was part of the Energetica Summer Festival with the addition of the branded seed packet giveaways.

Increased social media activity resulted in higher levels of engagement, and we regularly used this medium as an effective method of engaging with event organisers, informing the public of events and sharing experiences. Much of our website traffic originated from Facebook and Twitter, proving the value of investing time in social media.

A hashtag (#energeticafest) was promoted for use with the festival but uptake was limited. We will consider how to encourage social sharing for the next festival.

Author: Danielle McKinlay September 2016

There was not an obvious correlation between website traffic and the radio adverts. Based on the 2016 performance, it is believed that the budget would be better allocated on social media promotion in the future.

The team worked closely with venues within and close to the Energetica boundary, who supported the Festival through organising and promoting events. Providing the local community with ownership of individual events has been fundamental to the success of the overall Festival, and all of those who kindly supported the Festival have been hugely enthusiastic.

The Festival also once again generated significant coverage in the local media, examples of which are included within this report. None of this editorial was paid for, instead being the result of successful pitches and an interest on what was on offer.

Author: Danielle McKinlay September 2016

Energetica Summer Festival 2016 Brochure Distribution

Venue/ Contact Quantity Delivered Libraries/ VisitScotland Visitor 800 22/04/2016 Information Centres (via Aberdeenshire Council) Haddo House/ Diana Spencer 60 07/05/2016

University of Aberdeen/ Laura Young 200 05/05/2016

Aberdeenshire Council/ Woodhill 100 27/04/2016 House Aberdeen City Council/ Marischal 50 27/04/2016 College The Hub/ Elevator 50 05/05/2016

VisitAberdeenshire 10 01/06/2016

RSPB/ Dolphinwatch 25 14/05/2016

Scottish Enterprise 100 27/04/2016

Bennachie Visitor Centre 100 16/05/2016

Forvie Visitor Centre 150 27/04/2016

Formartine Area Office 100 27/04/2016

Ellon Castle Gardens 100 07/05/2016

Buchan office 100 24/05/2016

The Store, Foveran 100 24/05/2016

Aberdeenshire Council/ Woodhill 50 01/07/2016 House Libraries/ VisitScotland Visitor 300 01/07/2016 Information Centres (via Aberdeenshire Council)

Author: Danielle McKinlay February 2016

http://www.energetica.uk.com/ http://w… Go to this report www.energetica.uk.com/

Landing Pages May 2, 2016 Aug 28, 2016

All Users 100.00% Entrances

Explorer

Summary

Sessions 200

100

June 2016 July 2016 August 2016

Acquisition Behavior Conversions

Landing Page Goal % New New Bounce Pages / Avg. Session Goal Goal Sessions Conversion Sessions Users Rate Session Duration Completions Value Rate

7,143 79.49% 5,678 78.82% 1.49 00:01:01 0.00% 0 £0.00 % of Total: Avg for % of Avg for Avg for Avg for View: Avg for View: % of Total: % of 100.00% View: Total: View: View: 00:01:01 0.00% 0.00% Total: (7,143) 79.48% 100.02% 78.82% 1.49 (0.00%) (0.00%) (0) 0.00% (0.02%) (5,677) (0.00%) (0.00%) (£0.00)

1. /festival2016 4,626 80.16% 3,708 89.00% 1.20 00:00:38 0.00% 0 £0.00 (64.76%) (65.30%) (0.00%) (0.00%)

2. / 1,781 79.56% 1,417 56.77% 2.13 00:01:54 0.00% 0 £0.00 (24.93%) (24.96%) (0.00%) (0.00%)

3. /newsandevents/festival2016 109 65.14% 71 89.91% 1.16 00:00:47 0.00% 0 £0.00 (1.53%) (1.25%) (0.00%) (0.00%)

4. /keyprojects/blackdogproject 69 73.91% 51 73.91% 1.58 00:01:54 0.00% 0 £0.00 (0.97%) (0.90%) (0.00%) (0.00%)

5. /about/whatisenergetica 65 70.77% 46 58.46% 2.00 00:01:43 0.00% 0 £0.00 (0.91%) (0.81%) (0.00%) (0.00%)

/workandinvest/businessparks/balmacassie 59 0 £0.00 6. 64 92.19% 81.25% 1.34 00:01:42 0.00% commercialpark (0.90%) (1.04%) (0.00%) (0.00%)

7. /liveandvisit/naturalenvironment/wildlife 38 97.37% 37 84.21% 1.37 00:00:19 0.00% 0 £0.00 (0.53%) (0.65%) (0.00%) (0.00%)

8. /liveandvisit/footpathsandcycleways 30 76.67% 23 53.33% 1.77 00:01:01 0.00% 0 £0.00 (0.42%) (0.41%) (0.00%) (0.00%)

9. /newsandevents/latestnews 30 66.67% 20 20.00% 3.07 00:02:29 0.00% 0 £0.00 (0.42%) (0.35%) (0.00%) (0.00%)

10. /www1.freesharebuttons.top 26 100.00% 26 7.69% 2.81 00:00:00 0.00% 0 £0.00 (0.36%) (0.46%) (0.00%) (0.00%)

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Pages May 2, 2016 Aug 28, 2016 ALL » PAGE: /festival2016

All Users 52.96% Pageviews

Explorer

Pageviews 200

100

June 2016 July 2016 August 2016

Page Pageviews Unique Pageviews Avg. Time on Page Entrances Bounce Rate % Exit Page Value

5,624 5,004 00:04:13 4,626 89.00% 85.86% £0.00 % of Total: % of Total: Avg for View: % of Total: Avg for View: Avg for View: % of Total: 52.96% 54.92% 00:02:06 64.76% 78.82% 67.27% 0.00% (10,619) (9,111) (100.75%) (7,143) (12.91%) (27.65%) (£0.00)

1. /festival2016 5,624 5,004 00:04:13 4,626 89.00% 85.86% £0.00 (100.00%) (100.00%) (100.00%) (0.00%)

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