852,657 people in one summer: what a festival campaign taught us
Our Facebook and Instagram campaign for the Salamander festival premiere reached 852,657 people. Lessons on campaign phases, creative built from content and the website as the destination.
Salamander is a rap, cars and show festival that premiered on 30 August 2024 at Slávnica airfield. The Facebook and Instagram campaign that promoted it from 26 June to 30 August 2024 reached 852,657 people. Here is what it means for event organisers and clubs planning their own event.
The starting point: a new festival with no big sponsor
Salamander started without public money and without a big sponsor. Nobody knew the first edition, so the campaign had to introduce the brand, the programme and a reason to spend a day at an airfield.
We created the festival brand – the yellow mascot Sali and the claim “The biggest Slovak-Czech trip” – together with the Lucky Look agency. The rest of the marketing was in our hands: websites, campaigns, content and a podcast. Besides its reach, the Meta campaign delivered 3.6 million impressions and 24,867 clicks to the website and tickets. The whole project is described in the Salamander case study.
A campaign in phases: announcement, line-up, sales, final days
An event campaign is not one ad running all summer. We split it into phases, each with its own job, message and creative:
- Announcement – name, date, venue and brand. People should remember that something is coming and save the date.
- Line-up – we announce artists one by one, not all at once. Every name is a fresh reason to speak up and a new message for that artist’s fans.
- Sales – say clearly and repeatedly where to buy a ticket. For Salamander that meant MaxiTicket, Zľavomat, Predpredaj.sk and the box office.
- Final days – practical information: programme, transport and entry. The festival had the free SALAMANDER BUS with 16 connections from Dubnica nad Váhom and Ilava – exactly the kind of message that belongs in the run-up.
The Salamander campaign ran right up to the day of the premiere. We advise against switching ads off early – some people only decide in the last few days.
Creative from content, not stock photos
The best ad material comes from preparing the event itself. The salamander.fun blog gained 24 articles: artists announced one by one, Koza Bobkov as the face of the CARS section, a contest with InkFamous for prizes worth over €2,000 and details of the free bus. Nine episodes of the SALAMANDER CAST podcast went out on YouTube, from how the festival started to interviews with artists.
A campaign can be assembled from content like this: an artist announcement is a ready-made post and ad, a podcast episode can be cut into a short video and a contest gives people a reason to share. That is why we plan content and campaigns together – and design the line-up graphics ourselves.
The mascot ties it all together. Sali appears on the website and on the brand wall at the venue, so anyone who saw an ad recognises the festival on the day.
Three worlds, three messages
Salamander brings together communities that never meet in one place otherwise: rap fans, car enthusiasts and families from the region. Music, cars and show are the festival’s three gates – and, for partners, three target groups at one event.
If your event has several audiences, we recommend a separate message and visual for each: artists for music fans, the car section for petrolheads, the show and easy transport for families. The same goes for a club: the match, the kids’ programme and the get-together afterwards speak to different people.
The website as the campaign destination
Clicks from the campaign went to the website and tickets. The salamander.fun website had the artists, programme, tickets, a blog and sign-ups for vendors, photographers and videographers – everything a visitor asks before buying, in one place.
So send people from your ads to your own website, not just to a social profile. The website is yours, you can measure where people click, and if tickets are sold through several outlets, it works as a signpost. You also need to update the programme and news quickly yourself – both Salamander websites run on TYPO3 by AWIS group.
What the numbers say – and what they don’t
Reach, 852,657, is the number of people who saw an ad at least once. Impressions, 3.6 million, are the total number of times the ads were shown, so on average each person saw them several times. For an event whose date needs repeating, that is what you want. The 24,867 clicks show how often the ads got people to look at the website or tickets.
None of these figures is the number of tickets sold. When tickets go through several channels and the box office, agree a day-by-day sales overview with your outlets and compare it with the campaign phases. The premiere drew more than 3,000 paying visitors, and those numbers now work for the next edition: the 2028.salamander.fun website uses them to find partners and a new venue.
Key takeaways
- Split an event campaign into phases – announcement, line-up, sales, final days – and give each its own message.
- Build creative from content you produce anyway: artist announcements, a podcast, contests, the faces of the event and a mascot.
- Send people to your own website with the programme, transport and links to every ticket outlet.
- Reach, impressions and clicks are not tickets sold. Track sales separately and use the event’s numbers when looking for partners for the next edition.