Increasing Event Awareness Through Social Media Platforms

Super Pet Expo, the largest gathering of pet owners in the country, wanted to harness the power of social media to raise attendance. BWF developed a social media campaign to increase awareness and increase ticket sales.

Situation: When show attendance numbers became stagnant, Super Pet Expo reached out to BWF to help develop a social media campaign to increase awareness of the event, ultimately driving ticket sales to upcoming shows.

Objectives: While the utilization of Twitter and a WordPress blog were important, the main focus of the social media campaign was to increase followers of the show’s Facebook page, and through these followers, increase ticket sales and awareness in the three markets where the show is hosted each year.

Process: BWF focused their recruitment efforts on the event’s target audience: pet lovers and pet owners living or working in the three markets that hosted the shows.  Utilizing a social media calendar, a variety of techniques were deployed to engage the current followers and recruit new ones.  Most popular were the contests hosted on the page, including photo submission contests and trivia questions, where followers could win the chance for a prize from a vendor or a set of show tickets in their region. Regular status updates also included polling questions, video uploads (some created specifically for the Facebook page), animal-related news and stories, and vendor spotlights. Most importantly, the page was updated and monitored on a regular basis, ensuring that any questions asked on the page received a quick response and ensuring that followers felt engaged and excited to be part of the fan base.

Results: Utilizing these techniques, the show’s Facebook page saw a 25% increase in followers through the yearly campaign. This ultimately resulted in increased ticket sales and higher attendance at each of the three shows.