26% increase in sales — 0% change in budget
Travel Channel rates South Beach Seafood Festival as the best seafood festival in the U.S.
Last year, our friends at the South Beach Seafood Festival came to us in search of a strategic approach that would work harder dollar-for-dollar than their efforts in previous years.
After an extensive media audit, it became clear that traditional media partners were reaching the right audience, but for the wrong cost and at the wrong time.
Instead, we opted for more efficient digital channels that pinpointed in-market and previous customers who are in-market and ready to buy.
We rid the team of fancy, well-named publications with underwhelming performance, renegotiated media plans with others, and implemented a mobile-first approach that upended previous efforts and placed FOMO-inducing creative in customers’ hands.
In the end, we grew revenue by 26% from the previous year, without spending a dollar more.
But that’s not all.
We took the event up-market by using first party data to find attendees with a higher LTV:
We keyed in on three key groups. 1. VIP ticket buyers 2. Attendees who were willing to spend more for private experiences 3. Customers who had attended in the past, but hadn’t visited more than one event.
Implemented early-access incentives to drive more sales quickly
Miami is notorious for being a last-minute sales market, especially when it comes to events. To combat that and improve cash flow, we introduced limited early-season incentives in small ticket blocks that offered experiences no one else could get. This resulted in more predictable revenue streams that not only sold more in total, but sooner too.
Utilized a media mix that considered user behavior
Users discover events on social media channels in advance of an event. But they turn to search engines when the event is quickly approaching. So we rolled out a phased media approach that maximized display and social ads early, and doubled down on paid search late. It allowed us to maximize performance at the right time — on the right channels.
Ticket sales were up 26%. But we did more than just sell more. We set them up for a more profitable week of events, instead of just one big day
Sales for events on Wednesday were up 157% YOY; Thursday 67%, and Friday 82%. VIP ticket sales for the main event on Saturday were up 57%, a strategic move that de-prioritized general admission tickets, which grew a more modest 6%.
We’re proud of the work. But hear it from one of the event founders herself.
“Can’t say enough good things about Dynamo. Their ability to take a concept/business, learn about it, and adapt their marketing knowledge to different industries is very impressive. They spend the time to do the research and create informed plans so we as a company can continue to make informed decisions and not be wasteful with our dollars in a digital marketing world that is continually changing and improving daily. But, with all that being said, one of the most impressive things, is their organization and ability to help a business like ours streamline and create processes to maximize everyone’s time and efforts to ensure no time is wasted. Marketing of any business takes a strong team of thinkers, thinking outside of the box, and most importantly, a team that can do so and execute appropriately, being prepared every step of the way for plan a, b, and c and we are privileged to have Dynamo as part of our family.”