Bloggers for Wychwood Festival

..was something I did for Voice last summer (2010). Voice has worked with the organisers of Wychwood Festival to increase their brand visibility leading up to sales. I started the campaign with early planning, looking at existing presences and on-line discussions. Based on the feedback we have found and plans received from the organisers I put together creative ideas for blogger engagement, but also documenting the event via social media and using festival’s on-line channels to communicate with the audience. Most of the strategic planning and pre-event preparations (including searching for the right bloggers and creative activities) was done by me and Stefan, one of the organizers, with full support of Graeme – the father of Wychwood Festival. The event activities were covered by bloggers and Voice. Post-event reporting by Voice.

What I liked about this project was the vast amount of on-line content we have generated, the great team of bloggers and the shift we have managed to generate in the thinking behind the scenes of the festival (more investment in social media resources and activities in 2011), which always is the most rewarding bit. There were small miracles on the way as well. One of the engaged bloggers was originally a Twitter user who set up a new blog just to pitch us for a free pass but later on remained active on her blog – which means the whole campaign has actually contributed to her own social media footprint and experience. One of the event food stands was pitching bloggers via Twitter for promotion in exchange of food – which I think was a very innovative way of sales. Our bloggers were more active in the press tent than few of the press pass holders and ultimately created a third of overal word of mouth around the festival (based on the report I have written after the event). We came back with great personal experiences and a feeling of achievement for a good cause really. Additionally the festival lived its first year of profitable sales – which we would not contribute to our work, but felt good to witness;)

The whole case study is on Voice website, but here is a small video I have made to document the blogger engagement – I must admit it was my first video editing work for a client (prepared with a cheeky agenda to showcase the value of genuine, “home made” recordings) and I realized that I would love to have more time to work in this medium.