SUMMER | OPINION
The fan of the future and how to reach them
Mustard Media senior strategist Rory Palmer-Rowe provides guidelines on how to market live events to young audiences .
The famous Scottish poet Andrew Lang once said , ‘ Most people use statistics like a drunk man uses a lamppost ; more for support than illumination ’.
As someone who has witnessed kicking out time at Glasgow ’ s infamous Sub Club , I might have been inclined to agree with Mr . Lang .
However , as event marketers we need to stay agile to reach and connect with our audiences and the following four statistics should not be ignored :
40 % of Gen Z is using TikTok over Google ( Source : Google ). What does this mean for your event ? In a nutshell , you need to be on TikTok .
We get a lot of push back from event clients : “ We ’ re a premium brand , we don ’ t do silly dances ” or “ we ’ re a small team , we don ’ t have time to create content for yet another platform ”.
Try this :
• Search for your event within the search function on the platform , it ’ s likely that there are people posting about you . Repurpose this UGC as content by using in-app features or audio trends .
• Curate the best online video content of your acts and repost it . Just make sure to credit the source .
84 % of consumers ‘ like it when content from brands is not perfect ( Meta ).
A hangover from the heights of Instagram filters and Photoshop , perfection fatigue is driving a culture that celebrates the unpolished and real . People are bored of airbrushed images and highly edited aftermovies .
Try this :
• Capture content on your mobile in 9:16 ( that ’ s portrait for us non-techy folk )
• Ditch the costly postproduction and motion graphics . Instead , use the in-app captions and stickers .
• Repurpose UGC , for example the Top 5 Moments At ..
People spend on average 1.7 seconds with a piece of content on mobile compared to 2.5 seconds on desktop ( Meta ). Your content needs to stop your viewers ’ thumbs in their tracks . This is not the time for
Rory Palmer long intros or slow atmospheric drone shots .
Try this :
• Use visual cues without the need for audio ( subtitles , captions ).
• Start with a written hook , for example 5 Reasons To … or Did You Know …?
• Open with customer , artist or press testimonials .
• Save the calls to action for the end , and instead open with a benefit .
• Ask a question .
When consumers are exposed to a product page with 1 or more reviews , conversion lifts by 52.2 % ( Power reviews ). Reviews , social proof and UGC , are all powerful marketing tactics which help drive conversions . They tap into a psychological phenomenon called mimetic theory . Put simply , past the innate human needs of food , shelter , safety , security , love and belonging , we don ’ t know what we want . Instead , we look to what other people / society deems desirable and mimic this behaviour .
Industries such as ecommerce , theatre and film take advantage of this well . Press quotes , star ratings , and customer testimonials are all common features in their marketing but it ’ s something we need to get better at when it comes to selling tickets for events . Your ultimate goal is to make your event seem like the hottest ticket in town .
Try this :
Think about adding some of the below to your artwork , website , content strategy :
• Press / artist quotes
• Social proof
• UGC
• Reviews on your website / socials .
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