Nonprofit Event Marketing

Savannah Music Festival initiated 148 sales with digital ads

SAVANNAH MUSIC FESTIVAL

2 min read

Aug 11, 2022

22K

Net-new audience

148

Sales initiated

308K

Ad impressions

THE CHALLENGE

The Savannah Music Festival relies heavily on ticket sales to coordinate and run its 17-day event each year. The nonprofit needed to increase its online presence to spread the word to a larger audience about its incredible lineup of artists.

THE SOLUTION

Using Feathr Ads, the festival marketing team ran retargeting campaigns, reaching a new audience of 22,721 people while initiating 148 ticket sales transactions.

The Savannah Music Festival brings in a broad range of artists from all over the world. Performances run in various venues for 17 days in historic downtown Savannah. Gaining an audience for such a diverse program takes a lot of hard work.

Larissa Thut Davidson, marketing director for The Savannah Music Festival, was looking for ways to meet board pressure to increase online exposure. The team placed banner ads on websites that catered to target audiences and purchased ads in related newsletters, but they wanted to get more eyes on the festival’s offerings.

Thut Davidson wondered about her personal shopping experiences: "How does it work when I go to Zappos and look at a pair of sandals, then all of a sudden, everywhere I go on the web, there's a pair of sandals in my sidebar? Who does that?"

That’s when a sales email from Feathr landed in her inbox with precisely what she was looking for, at a budget the nonprofit could afford. “I get a lot of cold emails from people trying to sell something. It’s not often that my ears perk up and I think this could really work for us.”

Diversified marketing to generate increased awareness

Thut Davidson appreciated the monthly sales calls, check-ins, and technical support. “Even though I imagine we weren’t Feathr’s largest client, I never felt that way. They understood our goals, and I always felt really well taken care of.”

With billboards, print and radio ads, and social media already in place, Feathr gave the festival team more ways to spread the news about upcoming concerts online. Using Feathr Ads and retargeting strategies like email mapping, lookalike audiences, and geofencing, they could keep current contacts engaged and grow their audience by attracting those interested in similar events nearby.

Example: ad promoting ticket sales for the annual festival

Analytics to track promotional impact

Thut Davidson is pleased with the increased exposure. All of their Feathr campaigns together brought in 308,730 ad impressions, resulting in 22,721 new people interacting with their brand and 148 event ticket sales.

One specific campaign targeted website visitors who had made it to checkout but never purchased a ticket. With less than $200 in ad spend, they made 52,000 impressions with a 5% click-through rate and brought in 42 of the 148 ticket sales.

“In the past, if someone saw an ad in a printed program, they couldn’t act on it, so we never would have known if it was working. Now, in our dashboard, we can see click-throughs, see the source and measure the resulting web traffic. A huge benefit is being able to follow that journey.”

The festival team is looking forward to using Feathr post-pandemic, with longer ad campaigns and new strategies like targeting audiences specifically for shows that aren’t meeting sales goals. With Feathr’s help, along with changes to the festival structure and venues, they’re looking forward to higher ticket sales and a wider audience.

“Even though I imagine we weren’t Feathr’s largest client, I never felt that way. They understood our goals, and I always felt really well taken care of.”

Larissa Thut Davidson

MARKETING DIRECTOR, SMF

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ABOUT

The Savannah Music Festival is one of the region’s leading arts presenters, producing an internationally acclaimed cross-genre music festival, education programs for local schoolchildren, a weekly public radio series, and off-season concert events.