Social Media - How Can You Get People To Attend An Event?

Over the last few weeks I have used outdoor music festivals as a focus for case studies on how to leverage the power of social media. As the camping season draws to a close, what to do this weekend?

How well are they encouraging me to attend? What else could they do?



Butserfest

My nephew's band, the Theory of Six Degrees has graduated to the main stage at Butserfest, having played Glastonbury this summer. Butserfest is unusual in being a one day festival, run by a local council. . No camping, no alcohol and of course no drugs. Aimed at youngsters 14-20, it's timed after their summer breaks and just as they go back to school and university. So how attractive are they making it to attend?

1. The website hit me between the eyes. Brilliantly designed, albeit pushing content down "below the fold" for a laptop. There's a YouTube video from last year on the front page to give me an idea. Information  clear, though not sure when it finishes (if I was driving a parent's taxi). But given the target audience, where's the link to Facebook?
2. Nonetheless there is a Facebook site. The landing page is the info with the lineup with times for the two stages. Sadly no end time again. People are posting to the wall, and the festival staff have been replying (nice and clearly as Butser Fest). So here goes "What time does it all finish? Anything after the main stage? Where to pick up?" Sadly they've stopped replies, at the most critical time, as they prepare to open the gates.
3. There's also a Twitter feed. They've kept up a steady stream of tweets, notably talking  about how to get tickets, and re-tweeting tweets from the bands performing.. But this has also stopped, so no news on gate tickets
4. MySpace is their "other" website, with all the same info, There's  videos, the publicity poster, set list, and their Twitter feed (which could usefully be added to their main website). 

So they've basically done all they can to engage with the local youth and get them along, except in the last few hours. I hope the weather's kind to them!

Bestival on the Isle of Wight

My daughter's already gone there for the weekend with a group of friends, so I'll get the lowdown next week (if I'm lucky!). She's grateful it's sold out so I can't join her. How have they managed doing that?

Well it's now in its seventh year, involving Radio 1 DJ "Rob da Bank". I assume he gave it plenty of publicity. Radio airtime is key. It's grown from 10,000 visitors in 2004 to 43.,000 last year. What about social media?

1. The website is rather flash. Automatic music is a problem in an open office, and it was some time before I found how to turn it off. In fact the site is built in Adobe Flash, so they've also built an HTML site. Pity its menu system doesn't work on the iPad and iPhone! Personally I found the ButserFest website much easier to navigate than either version. But at least they have (tiny) links to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube 
2. "Festival TV" is their channel on YouTube. It's only here I discover that there is a fancy dress theme, "FANTASY". That explains the flying unicorn on  the website! There's a promotional video for this year, plus videos from the last few years. It's party time. Dzzee Rascal will be there. Now wasn't he at Reading ?
3. The Facebook site is pretty basic. The interesting thing is a page titled "YouTube" containing some of  the videos from the Festival TV channel.  And the photos of a beautiful peacock head-dress.
4. The Twitter link is actually for @RobdaBank. There is a separate festival feed which has been tweeting consistently before and during the early stages of the event

All in all I doubt whether the social media side has helped fill the event, though it's helping to engage with folk to come next year. I strongly suspect it's the mentions on the radio which has pulled the punters.

Swanage Folk Festival

The Swanage festival doesn't take place in some remote field, but at various venues around the seafront and town, including pubs. It's therefore similar to "Bunkfest" at Wallingford, and "Sweeps" at Rochester.

It's therefore a complex event to cover on the net.  The website is pretty comprehensive, but not pretty. There's no apparent official social networking. Again I wish them every success!

Wooburn Festival

This is a very different type of festival. There are a host of classical music and other arts events held indoors in the High Wycombe area for a month or so from 21st September 2010 to 24th October 2010.

I was having a beer with the chairman recently and he said there's one fantastic act that has only one ticket sold so far. The event is still some way away, but he finds this odd and deeply concerning. So how are they trying to put bums on seats?

This is the 44th year of the festival, so they are certainly used to success using traditional forms of publicity. What about the internet and social media?

The website is fine. But no links to social media. Could it be that they need to be doing it to counter competition from other events? Probably not, but social media can only help.


The HMV Experience

"HMV's shock over High Voltage show... HMV Group has lost a tenth of its value ..failure to draw big enough crowds to London's Victoria Park in July ... to an inaugural classic rock festival." was the headline and opening gambit in the newspaper this morning.

I've previously mentioned that HMV are moving away from the sale of recorded music and books (revenue down 13%) as digital begins to dominate, and move into live venues and events. The Hammersmith Apollo is now theirs, for example.

The website has, at least now, two big boxes to link to Facebook and Twitter. The Facebook site has continued to be lively since the event, but there's only been one tweet since on Twitter. That's to announce that High Voltage has been nominated for the Classic Rock Event of the Year, at some annual awards. So the event itself must have been good.

However it is reported that there were only 15000 for a venue taking some 25,000, losing some £1 million. That's £100 per head needed from unsold tickets. As a weekend pass was £135, plus other income on site from those extra people less any additional costs, a sell-out looks as if it would have provided a small profit, but nothing exciting. Sonisphere as a heavy rock festival was packed out, as was the 80s Rewind Festival with more poppy acts. So what went wrong with High Voltage?

A quick look on the internet finds comments from music fans suggesting the line-up was a mish-mash that was trying to be all things to all people, rather than to have the focus of the other festivals. But the other key difference?

HMV does not appear to own a radio station, and there's no obvious link with one on the festival website. I don't know whether they used radio advertising. But could the lack of a "pet" radio station that would continually plug the events make a difference? Quite likely.

As HMV have announced that "plans are well advanced to operate three further music festivals for summer 201", they need to get them right to avoid further significant losses.


In Conclusion

It's clear that  a good, attractive website helps provide the information potential festival goers need before booking. Using social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter can only help,

However there's nothing to suggest that social media is the guarantee of success. Whilst radio and other traditional forms of marketing are as important as ever, if not critical, social media should form a key part of the overall marketing mix.


And for success, providing a focused offering that people want to buy.



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Escaping Excel Hell - Budgeting Solutions

Last week we too a quick look at budgeting - probably the deepest Excel Hell in the business world. Populated by Excel jockeys who really ought to be spending more time analysing the planning horizon, rather than spending so much time cranking and checking.

This next Wednesday I'm going to a seminar for one of the leading cloud-based systems. Will report back next Thursday.

Performance Management - How Can You Gain From KPIs?

You're in business to make money. You need to make profits. You also need to generate cash. No doubt you monitor and report upon some key results - revenue, gross margin %, bank balance - that sort of thing. You probably call them KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)

But can you control these numbers? Well yes indirectly. But not directly. What you can control directly are aspects which drive business performance and therefore drive the results. Depending on your business, these are aspects such as the number of sales calls made, the conversion rates from quotes to sales, staff absenteeism, footfall (for retailers) and a host of other possible financial and non-financial measures. It's these measures of what's driving the business that are the true KPIs.

For most businesses there are 5 or 6 driving aspects that will make or break the business. Get those right and the business will succeed. But if the measures of these aspects are going south, you've got early warning to stop the whole business going south. There may be many other aspects, but typically 5 or 6 stand out.

The key therefore  is to develop a set of 5 to 6 KPIs that reflect those aspects and which you can monitor and directly manage. You will then have a small set of KPI measures which you will review at appropriate intervals of two types:

1. Key Results Metrics (KRMs) - revenue, profit and the like
2. Key Performance Drivers (KPDs) - measuring key aspects that drive the business

Many businesses do not have any formal KPDs and are therefore missing out on the business benefits from monitoring and controlling key aspects of their business.

If you would like to talk about how KPDs can be developed, recorded and reported to help you drive performance in your business, do contact me at Camwells on +44(0)1628 632914, or remove spaces to email challisc @ camwells.co.uk



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Cloud Computing - Summary of Recent Articles

The articles on Cloud Computing have recently covered the following topics:

1. Hot Air or Business Reality? - BIG BENEFITS , BIG RISKS
2. Why Not For Everyone?
3. Internet Access is Everything
4. MiFi as Internet Access Contingency Option
5. On The Rocks?
   
   
   
   
6. Selection Process for SaaS - How Different from On-Premise?
   
7. Implementation Process for SaaS - How Different from On-Premise?
   

I hope you find the articles interesting and useful. By helping you cut cut costs and boost revenues, I hope you also find them above all profitable!

News Review 13/9/10 - Rebel Germans, Google, Ping, etc

Here's the pick of the last week's news stories that are likely to impact your business. The Germans are certainly having a laugh with a couple of them, but there's potentially serious implications:

1. YouTube Loses in German Court: Held Liable for Copyrighted Videos. Will this spread further, spell the end of simple video loading, and even YouTube itself? Unlikely but who knows what tomorrow brings.
   
   
2. No Crackdown (Yet) but Questions in Europe About Data Protection and the Cloud. The Germans try to spell the end of the "Safe Harbor" arrangement that could make it illegal for European businesses to use cloud SaaS systems that hold data in the USA. That's salesforce.com et al which many use. Contingency plans anyone, for the other cloud SaaS risks if not for this ?
   
   
3. Three Ways Google Will Invade Your Enterprise. For all sizes of business: Telecoms, ERP SaaS, and Software Development
   
   
4. 10 Things You Need to Know About Apple's New Social Network, Ping Apple's attempt at extending the iTunes user database into a social networking system. With the man responsible for the iPhone 4 dismissed, are Apple losing their touch?

And here's one other story and photo which almost defies belief:
Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown Joins World Wide Web Foundation’s Board of Directors He's having a laugh at us all too. God help the Africans!

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Business Models - Using Technology for Profit at RecycleBank

We've just received a blue recycling bin. Nothing much remarkable about that. But behind the bin is a company and a business model which displays a clever combination of technology and creative thinking. Such combinations can transform a sector for the benefit of customers, partners and of course the business itself. WIN-WIN for everyone involved, in this case planet earth included.

RecycleBank (RB) is a "cleantech" business from the USA that is entering the UK market with a partnership with RBWM. .As RB's founder and outgoing CEO Ron Gonen says “People were looking at the economics of recycling incorrectly. The true value of recycling is not in the value of the commodity it is in the value of diverting from the landfill.”

Clever Use of Technology

On the technology side they're doing two things to make the whole system work:

1. Waste Collection: The blue bins are fitted with a Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) tag that only records the address of the premises. The refuse collection truck weighs each bin and the relevant household is credited with reward points (an odd 5.5 points per kilogram of waste). 
2. A Web-based Customer System. Households registers their bin to a web account and then use the website to redeem their points for various benefits. RecycleBank suggests this could be worth some £135 per year for a typical family, although it's not clear how much of this is the likes of the £5 registration discount voucher, and how much is actually from recycling. If a week's recycling isn't worth £2.60 to a typical household, what is it worth?

How Everyone Gains

The key to the whole scheme is of course its commercial feasibility. As with all business propositions, everyone in the "model" needs to benefit for the business to work. This is where RecyceBank have been really clever:

1. Capital Efficiency. They don't own the collection vehicles, the bins, the recycling plants or any other assets in the collection process. Instead they partner with the local councils, and their collection provider (where sub-contracted). There doesn't appear to be any need to have any partnership with the recycling plants, which is left to the council and collection provider, though this is a key part of the business model (see later). Investment in equipment is therefore zero. That's a great start!
2. Long Life. The equipment fitted to the trucks has a long working life, longer than the trucks, so can be removed and re-fitted to replacement vehicles when needed. That reduces the annual spend.
3. The Local Authority Wins. They reduce the amount sent to landfill, saving on waste disposal costs. In RBWM's case, they reckon the savings will pay for the bins, which the council bought. In any case as they expected to have to pay for replacements anyway, the positive cash flow in their case is even stronger.
4. The Households Win. But of course none of this would work unless households recycle more of their waste. Here it's carrot rather than stick. Firstly they've made it easier by using one bin to replace two. Now the household doesn't have to bother to pre-segregate - that's all done at the recycling plant. Excellent example of KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid)
5. Secondly The more you recycle, provided it's "approved" rubbish such as paper and plastic bottles, the more points the household earns. As this is done on weight not volume, of course the temptation is to  recycle things they don't want (which presumably makes recycling more difficult and the remaining waste has to be disposed), or weight paper with water (a trick almost as old as the hills). It's not clear how they will manage these issues. It's not in their FAQs, so I suspect they'll make an example of a few people and let the news travel. The "Account holder Rules" state "If any Participating Household contaminates the recycled materials with any non-recyclable items of any kind, the Participating Household may, at RecycleBank’s sole discretion, be subject to forfeiture of RecycleBank Points or dismissal from the Program" In fact it's so important they say it twice (rules 22 and 24).

But How Does This Translate Into A Business?

So far no mention of any revenue for the business:

1. First Revenue Source. In the USA it is common for the council to pay the recycling plant for their service, rather than be paid for material provided. RecycleBank take a small cut on those fees, which are intended to be higher with the new system. This commission is intended to roughly cover operating costs (website, customer call centre etc). A similar commission applies if recycling plants pay for rubbish, and indeed if no fees are paid.
2. The Profit Generator. The company makes its real profit from selling sponsorships and advertising through its multitude of marketing channels including online and direct mail.
3. The points can be used with trusted partners for all kinds of rewards, such as discounts, money off, gift cards, products, promotional codes and other exclusive offers For example, singing up on the website provides a £5 discount voucher at M&S. Presumably this means these partners are also gaining in excess of their investment.

In Conclusion

RecycleBank have used a clever combination of technology, both in operations and with a web-based system, as the platform for a canny business model. Everyone gains - councils, recycling plants, households, retailers and other sponsors, and mother earth - and on the back of that the business should make a healthy profit. Where there's muck there's brass!

Who can better that with another technology-based business model? Do add a comment.

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