Overview of Submersion
Submersion Festival is an event produced by The Rust Music (NYC) & Aspire Higher (PHL). These teams joined forces to bring together electronic music fans from all across the US for a carefully curated event – with handpicked talent from across the globe such as KOAN Sound, Emancipator, Luke Vibert (along with his Wagon Christ alias), Chase & Status, and over 70 other acts. The ones to lead the event were co-producers Jesse Boyer & Ryan Karolyi along with their seasoned staff.
The Problem
The festival team wanted to expand for the second installment of the Submersion Festival. They needed a larger space than the 23rd Street Armory in Center City Philadelphia to level up festivities across the board. In order to do this, the Submersion team decided to change the festival location and hold it at Paradise Lakes in Hammonton, NJ.
Now that the Submersion festival became a multi-day event, they needed a way to reach more fans & drive more ticket sales to sell out.
They needed a way to amplify their marketing efforts online & offline to reach as many people as possible in a cost-effective way without exceeding their budget. This was extremely important to the team because this is their fist year as a small camping festival so every dollar counts.
They did not want to throw money at FB ads because paid ads no longer convert in the same way they did 5 years ago.
Festivals can’t rely solely on social media to sell all of their tickets. Festivals and live events are about building a communal experience. Tapping into fans and brand community is one of the best ways for festivals to relay the power of their event. As a result, word-of-mouth marketing is the most effective way to drive sales.
“I can’t tell you how many times, we have attended a show or festival because of our friend’s influence.” Jesse Boyer
As a result, the Submersion team decided to expand their field marketing team & small online group of promoters into a larger ambassador program. The program gave people a chance to earn free tickets & rewards for driving brand awareness.
However, the team knew that managing this program manually would be a nightmare without a platform to help manage it. Without a platform, the team would have to spend hours tracking down ambassadors and collecting proof of shared content or posters being put up around different cities.
The Solution
Due to the success, SocialLadder has had with similar festivals such as Imagine and Okeechobee, the Submersion team was confident they could replicate the same success for themselves. Although Submersion is a smaller festival, they knew they had a mighty community of loyalists they could activate. The Submersion team knew that if they gave their fans a chance to support the festival & earn rewards along the way, they would be able to drive sales and build community.
SocialLadder was the top pick for Submersion because it was the only platform that combined referral marketing, social media marketing, & field marketing. To effectively market a festival, it is important to track all types of marketing in one place to create a streamlined experience for their ambassadors and provide full transparency.
By using the SocialLadder platform the Submersion team was able to track everything easily, manage rewards, & report on performance .
The Results
In just 90 days & with only 56 ambassadors, the Submersion ambassador community drove the following:
- Over 32k in sales
- More than 5k in EMV via ambassadors UGC & social media actions
- Avg value per ambassador was $1,171
- 1230% ROI
For field marketing initiatives, the Submersion team was able to easily track & credit their ambassadors for handing out flyers, promoting around college campuses, & putting up posters around high-traffic areas like record shops, coffee shops, bars, venues, etc.
Due to SocialLadder’s comprehensive field marketing tools, Ticketing Co also had no issue getting this all set up to be fully automated & integrated for all sales tracking on behalf of Submersion.
“SocialLadder saved us so much time, allowed us to connect with our community, & helped us make the 2nd year of Submersion a success.” – Jesse Boyer
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