Best engagement campaign in music

The “Good Things Like a Rockstar” initiative is a masterclass of how to place a well-thought out campaign at the right moment to pull on multiple marketing levers, including: Data for retargeting and reduction in ad spend; Sustained engagement that pulls in eyes and attention, and; Building authentic connections with fans through money-can’t-buy rewards.

the campaign

The “Good Things Like a Rockstar (GTLAR)” launch was built from two connected Tradable Bits campaigns - one slot machine, and one additional entry form to give fans “bonus entries.” The genesis of the campaign carried back to 2022 where their festival partners at Good Things Festival expressed the importance of being able to identify additional ticket holders, i.e. those ‘hidden buyers’ that e-transfer a friend to purchase tickets for everyone at once. Their main goals were to uncover these additional ticket buyers for future remarking purposes, but also to exclude them from ad dollars for their 2023 festival knowing that these fans were not being picked up in their ticketing data.

The execution

This campaign’s target was more sophisticated fan data and as such, they structured the campaign into two separate pieces feeding towards one massive grand prize. The initial slot machine was a place for fans to get their names entered into two prize pools - one for the massive grand prize, and one for a weekly prize pool of 7 to 10 prizes. The second connected campaign was one for fans who wanted additional entries for a bigger chance to win. This second campaign was targeted only at those hidden ticket buyers and primary purchasers - encouraging them to spill the beans on who they purchased for in exchange for bonus entries into the final prize draw. Fans could come back daily and play to increase their odds, and this worked massively in DAL’s favour for repeat engagement. The contest ran for 6 weeks during their “middle” period (which was about a month after their on-sale), driving engagement and buzz around the festival to promote higher daily ticket rates during this time.

As for promotion, DAL went all in. They not only teased the campaign launch on their weekly news segment, but built it into an already existing PR piece they planned to launch around the same time. They also went the traditional distribution route, launching the campaign across their socials, their email list and their website. Most importantly, they built re-promotion into their campaign execution plan in and of itself. With weekly prizing being announced across their socials, they effectively reiterated the existence of (and benefit of entering the campaign) weekly.

Benefits

The Good Things Like a Rockstar campaign was their top campaign of the year. Using this campaign as a tool, the DAL team was able to: Acquire hidden ticketing data to add to their ’Good Times Festival 2023 purchaser’ audience - excluding them from ads and building them into their 2024 target audience; Generate massive buzz during their middle period, placing them ahead of other festivals who were focusing their promotions later in the season.

The power of planning, of clear goals when it comes to data collection, and executing whole-heartedly across their entire marketing stack makes this campaign one for the books.