The Brisbane Festival is Brisbane's premier annual cultural event. It aims to connect Brisbane's artists with diverse communities and is one of Australia's leading international arts events. The Brisbane Festival 2011 provided an integrated experience across online platforms and events. The Brisbane Festival embraced digital media, bringing it to the forefront of the marketing and PR activity and creating digital media as a central theme of the events. This developed into a pivotal social media strategy that extended the festival experience through user generated content.

The Theme

Each year, the festival program offers both free and ticketed events showcasing acclaimed international and Australian artists' talents in exciting cutting-edge productions shown in various locations around the heart of Brisbane city. From QR codes and laser light shows to projection and motion sensor digital installations, this year the festival was designed around the theme of 'light'.

The Campaign

The Brisbane Festival was supported by a robust marketing campaign in both offline and online media, using traditional mediums including:

This year, after the devastation of the Queensland floods, the aim was to transform Brisbane into a festival city so that residents and visitors knew we were hosting a celebration.

In addition to the events and performances offered to festival goers, digital, mobile and social media platforms also enhanced the festival vibe, giving people numerous and varied opportunities to create their own Brisbane Festival content. Each campaign touch point delivered consistent call to action, leading visitors to the brand website which was used as the central point for event information, rich media content, social conversation and ticket purchase.

http://www.brisbanefestivalarchive.com.au/

Design Innovation and Digital integration

To further engage visitors, a mobile application was developed for users to save their details and have an on-the-go interactive brochure of all chosen festival events, thus creating a brand-managed mobile platform that generates interest and supports engagement as well as supplying audiences with up-to-date information. The iPhone application proved to be successful with festival goers who were able to view the festival's program of dance, music, theatre, comedy, visual arts, contemporary music and free events on offer as well as search events by title or browse by category, book through the application via the online booking links or call box office directly, view event venues via a dynamic map, watch online video clips on Brisbane Festival YouTube channel, and browse through photo galleries of the festival events.

http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/brisbane-festival/id382552688?mt=8

Social Media

To create a 'buzz' for the festival events and to encourage online 'conversation', the Brisbane Festival engaged audiences by posting rich media content to social platforms branded with the festival look and feel. This started a trend of festival visitors uploading videos and photo content of their festival experiences to share with the world. This content populated social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr generating public interest, which resulted in best ever Brisbane Festival attendance.

http://www.facebook.com/BrisbaneFestival

http://twitter.com/brisfestival

http://www.youtube.com/user/BrisbaneFestivaltv

http://www.flickr.com/photos/brisbanefestival/

http://memolane.com/brisfestival

https://foursquare.com/brisfestival

The 'Wow' factor

A key nightly event offered to festival goers was the Santos City of Lights show, a laser light spectacular, shown in Australia for the first time. This extraordinary spectrum of lights and lasers set against dramatic musical scores radiated from roof tops, the river and bridges, creating unforgettable imagery for its viewers, giving participants wonderful visual content to share in social media. User generated videos uploaded to YouTube were used extensively amongst festival goers to create intense public interest, with visitors queuing nightly outside the Liquid Interactive Light Scope tunnel, and with large crowds gathering on the river boardwalk to experience the Santos City of Light show and the spectacular fireworks. These very special free events, hosted at Southbank Parklands, were the backbone of the festival that captivated people with its innovative, culturally diverse program for the entire 22-day duration of the celebration.

The festival time in Brisbane is always a time to shine for the city; and this year, the city of Brisbane came to life with light.

Campaign Results between July 5 & October 19 2011

Website traffic:

Mobile Audience:

IPhone app downloads: 7,027

Website visitors via mobile devices: 78,364 visits

Social Media Engagement Snapshot:

9,775 Facebook Page Likes

1,236,794 Facebook post views

6,503 Twitter followers

Peek volume of tweets per hour (TPH) at 3072

72, 471 YouTube brand video views (excluding user generated content)