Harnessing the power of technology

With new apps, new technology and the availability of information online keeping us glued to our screens, it’s likely that even at your event many people will be constantly glancing at their phones. You can either find this frustrating or use it to your advantage by tapping into this new digital lifestyle.

Before your festival begins

Social Storytelling: Festivals that build sustained relationships with their audiences do more than promote their ‘exciting’ line up. They tell the story of who they are, not only the people behind the event, but also how their programme, aims and mission connect with their audience. A great story evokes emotion, persuades, even compels. More importantly, people who have felt something while being lost in a good story want to share, taking your story to a new and wider audience.

Giving audiences a glimpse behind the scenes allows them to feel special – to become part of the festival family. Sharing pictures of how the sight is being designed and developed, introducing the team and sharing their excitement for the upcoming event or encouraging audience involvement through engaging them in the design process or making of props are just a few ways to engage audiences through sharing the festival story. By allowing people to contribute, it gives audiences a sense of ownership and lets them know that the event exists for them and not the other way round.

Artists are more often than not, keen to help small festivals thrive. Pre-festival interviews that reveal an artists personal story and how they connect with and support your mission as a festival, bring audiences closer to your event, provide interesting content for press releases and potentially grow a new audience for that artists.

This year I was wowed by Just So Festival who sent a CD to each family that booked a ticket – a taste of each band who would be playing at the festival. Children and their parents sang the songs on the journey there, entering the world of Just So before they had even arrived.

Running competitions is a tried and tested way of using social media to grow awareness of your festival . Using Facebook as the platform for the competition allows you to benefit from social sharing and easy data capture. Choose a prize that potentially encourages someone new to attend your event such as a pair of free tickets, a free meal from an urban food stall, free parking or camping and ask them to share their experience on social media.

During your Festival

During your event there are tools like Webinar that can engage those that couldn’t make it to the festival. You don’t need anything specialist, just a webcam, a YouTube account and a good internet connection. The ‘Hangout on Air’ feature lets you quickly set up an event and broadcast it live to those tuned in. If you wanted to take it a step further – you can enable a live chat facility and your viewers will be able to interact with you by asking questions and making comments.

How often have you been infuriated by having to peer around a sea of phones held high as audiences experience the event through their screens, capturing to show friends they were there rather than enjoying the moment? While some argue phone use is distracting for audiences who want to immerse themselves in the experience, others argue that social media is now too powerful to ignore and that a festival-goer sharing their thoughts and feelings about an event in real time, will attract new audiences. For me it feels essential that we make the most of this activity and one way to do this is to ensure a dedicated festival hashtag is clearly visible, allowing us to track what our audiences are saying. Another interesting idea is that of ‘Tweet Seats’ – designated seating (often a back row) where those who can’t tear themselves away from their phones can sit.

We have focused a lot on social media but there is an abundance of additional technology that is exciting for us to explore. Hand held projectors and other easy to use equipment can enable us to wow audiences with projections across blank areas and walls around our festival sites. If done properly this can be a really beautiful array of light, information, film and of course technology. Check out the work of Blast Theory for some inspiration for how technology can be used in new ways to engage audiences.

Tablets are a great way of getting audience feedback about certain events, talks and performances as the festival takes place. If your budget allows, you could have an assistant who could scroll through the questions, comments and feedback that arise and keep a live conversation going across social media throughout your festival. People trust feedback from other festival-goers and this could be a great way to share what people are saying about your event.

After the festival

So, the event happened, it was a HUGE success – but now the dust has settled, you are exhausted and the temptation is to hide away until you begin to think about the next event. Dropping the audience with who you have now built an relationship will mean you will need to begin again from the beginning rather than capitalising on this years hard work.

So, how can you stay connected with your audience? Social media is one of the biggest platforms to stay in constant connection with attendees. It allows you to directly contact your audience, post photos and share future event information. The buzz can continue and the enthusiasm around it will help provide a great opportunity to grow future events. You can use a common hashtag to connect your conversation on Twitter. Facebook is an excellent was to begin a group for the audience to join and discuss what they loved at the event, whilst interacting with fellow attendees. This would also be a central location for you to promote volunteer or work opportunities with former attendees.

Always ask for email addresses when customers buy tickets online, as these can be stored on a database to allow you to promote yourself directly to attendees. Email is still the number one direct channel in terms of daily use and consumer preference for both personal and marketing communications, with 91% of people checking their email on a daily basis. MailChimp is an excellent programme, which allows the user to create lists of addresses to send relevant festival information to. The key is to find a unique way of standing out and encouraging audiences to open your mail. Use a creative subject lines, and only use valuable content. A calendar of events that spans throughout the year is a good way to regularly connect with and build your audience but that deserves a blog post of its own!

Technology is here to stay, so finding unique and innovative ways of incorporating digital entertainment in to an event to improve experiences and push boundaries is one of the tasks facing today’s industry. With rapidly evolving technologies, we need to stay connected and to offer cutting edge events that will feel fresh, whilst wowing the audience. Be sure to stay creative and active with your communications, as long as you provide value to your audience, they will appreciate your efforts to staying connected.