Festival of the Arts BOCA

Polin PR has been the PR agency for the Festival of the Arts BOCA for the past five years, 2011 – 2016.  Each year, the event has grown in ticket sales and media exposure. This year, festival organizers challenged the Polin team to increase the number of first time festival goers and young families and to develop and manage a more engaging social media plan among its mature audience.

RESULTS

The 2016 Festival saw a substantial increase in ticketed attendance of 32% with a comprehensive marketing/PR plan that included supportive media partners, a solid engaging digital/social media strategy and a strong community outreach program.  Highlights of the plan included:

Television

In addition to CBS12 and WXEL, television expanded this year to include Comcast/ATT U-Verse subscribers, reaching 9,237 households in Delray and 9,257 households in Boca Raton. During a two-week period, 522 :30 spots were aired on cable channels including: CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, TNT, and the Golf Channel.

CBS12 included over $10,000 in Public Service Announcements.  WXEL, the PBS affiliate in South Florida, also provided $10,000 in Public Service Announcements.

 

Digital Campaign

With more consumers using and transitioning to digital media, the Festival included a digital campaign with SunSentinel.com which enabled the Festival message to reach targeted households in South Florida.  The campaign included page takeovers, video and pushdown ads. The campaign included leaderboard ads, content ads, videos, take-over of the Sun.Sentinel home page, and pushdown ads.

Highlights of the digital campaign included:

  • 348,000 Total Impressions
  • 1,859 clicks to the Festival of the Arts BOCA website
  • Click Through Rate (CTR) of .22%, which is twice the national average
  • 70 Measurable conversions to the IMG Ticket purchase page

(Note: measurable conversions are counted when the sale is completed from the click through. Only clicks from the TribX portion of the campaign could be tracked through a pixel on the IMG ticket site).

Social Media

Social Media saw increases of 35% in Facebook followers, 10% in Instagram and 15% in Twitter followers.  Posts were engaging and encouraged sharing and re-tweeting.  This year’s artists and performers were more engaged on Social Media than in previous years.  Herb Alpert, Joey Alexander and Joshua Bell all contributed to the Social Media program with custom postings and videos.  Additionally, a Raiders of the Lost Ark sing-along-video was developed, featuring local celebrities and area VIP’s including local newscasters, the Mayor of Boca Raton and others.  It attracted substantial “buzz” on social media and was picked up by various news outlets including the Palm Beach Post and CBS12.

The Festival of the Arts BOCA received a Google Ad Grant for non-profits for in-kind services valued at $10,000 to increase SEO and alerts.   The campaign was extremely effective with a total of 30,943 impressions.

Family-Friendly Events

This year’s lineup included family friendly events that helped broaden the audience and attract new festival goers. A partnership with Spotlight Family Magazine, sponsors of the Cirque Pre-Event, attracted more families than that in previous years. The magazine contributed videos, photos and postings about the Festival to reach out to area families and kids.

A Treasure Hunt prior to Raiders of the Lost Ark opening night performance attracted ticket purchasers to come early and join the Raiders Treasure Hunt to win prizes. Super fans of the film dressed in “Raiders garb” along with families with children participated in the experience.