Event marketers have always used a marketing strategy that’s been different from other experiential campaigns. But today, these strategies are becoming ineffective in cementing the relationship between brands and their younger customers.
Research shows that influencer marketing:
- Generates ROI 11X higher than traditional marketing
- Improves targeted reach by 67%
- Increases like rate by 2.5% (macro-influencers) and 8% (micro-influencers)
But apart from these quantitative reasons, there are some qualitative reasons why events and summer festivals, in particular, are using influencer marketing as part of their event promotion campaign:
- Influencers help promote upcoming festivals to non-target market customers
Brands often send communication about upcoming summer festivals to their target market. But in-the-process, all other markets get lost in the shadows. Influencers, who may cater to more markets than just your own, will bring your festival into focus in multiple markets, thereby increasing your brand’s reach.
- Influencers make summer festivals more accessible to customers
Influencers are people who post for other people, and their posts always contain helpful information which audiences can actually use. They can make summer events more accessible by addressing questions that audiences have and which brands don’t usually answer, such as information about the best performances, the best food stalls to hit-up, the perfect parking places, the dress code and so on.
- Influencers draw more press and customer attention to low-key festivals
Some summer festivals get lower media coverage than others. This can be a huge challenge for brands whose only major marketing campaign in the year is the event. Influencers, through their immense reach and amazingly persuasive posts, entice their followers and the media to track the summer event in-progress.
- Influencers help festival organizers customize the event for their target attendees
Event managers often don’t have detailed insight into the likes and dislikes of their prospective attendees. Influencers, on the other hand, communicate with their followers every day and have a thorough understanding of their psyche. Summer festival organizers can tap into this exhaustive knowledge and design a festival that will definitely be a hit with their guest list.
- Influencers keep the brand and the summer festival trending long-after the event
Not only do influencers inform audiences about the summer festival, but they also help audiences relive memories of the event by posting regular pieces of content in the form of photos and blogposts about the festival. Through this, they remind their followers about the existence of the brand.
- Influencers create quality marketing content for brands at low prices
Finally, brands organizing summer festivals choose influencers for the immense financial benefits they provide. As opposed to PR and advertising, publicity by micro-influencers is extremely inexpensive. It also has a better impact because of the highly-targeted reach it has.
Top 3 ways to find the right influencers for your summer festivals
Now that you know why summer festival organizers enlist influencers, it’s time to implement your own influencer campaign to get people to your event. But for that, you need to find your influencers first. Here are our top 3 tips on finding the ideal influencer:
- Follow your competition
If you’re unsure where to start your influencer search, why not follow your competitors? Your direct competitors are very likely to host summer festivals similar to your own, and they are bound to invite influencers who will definitely have a positive impact on your business.
- Contact renowned bloggers/vloggers in your industry
One way to get started on your influencer marketing campaign for your events is to find bloggers/vloggers in your industry who’ve attended similar events before or who may be interested in doing so. A run-through of their social media profiles will help.
- Partner with an influencer marketing company
These days, you have companies who are actively engaged in helping brands find influencers who match their culture, profile, and requirements. Take ifluenz for example. ifluenz is a renowned influencer marketing company that starts by analyzing the festival’s guest list, promotional goal and influencer criteria and then suggests the best influencers for brands to work with.