Overview
The Delaware State Fair (DSF) is a 10-day event held at the end of July that draws in over 290,000 attendees from Delaware and nearby states. The nearly century-old event encompasses 300 acres and offers agricultural exhibits, a midway, and more. One of its biggest attractions is the highly popular M&T Bank Grandstand, which features a summer concert series, races, rodeos, and other entertainment.
Challenge
Danny Aguilar, assistant general manager of the fair and its director of marketing, wanted to increase ticket sales for grandstand events and gather information on fair attendees. Aguilar and his team had already established their goal numbers, announced the fair and put tickets on sale, but didn’t have the manpower to execute a full marketing plan for the concert series. In mid-spring of 2018, Aguilar approached Rockhouse Partners, our client marketing team, to help. He provided the budget and timeline, and the Rockhouse team went to work.
Solution
The Rockhouse team developed a digital advertising strategy using Facebook and Instagram advertising, contests, and Google Ads (paid search and display). They carefully curated target audiences and paired them with specific creative to enhance ad viewership, drive ticket purchases, and encourage audience engagement. This digital-focused strategy would also increase data collection and create a fan group to market to in the future.
The fair kicked off its concert series with a Kane Brown show in June, six weeks prior to the opening of the fair. During the show, fans could participate in a text-to-win contest that offered a chance for free tickets for the fair’s concert series in July. This initial contest generated awareness, but more importantly collected important fan data (in the form of phone numbers) that were used to remarket on Facebook and Instagram.
Facebook and Instagram ads were supported by artist tour video and were targeted to those interested in similar artists. Users whose web behavior proved they were interested in attending the fair were also targeted.
Rockhouse created an additional contest using the Gleam platform and promoted it on Facebook. This contest encouraged entrants to engage with the Delaware State Fair social channels for a chance to win tickets to specific performances in the series. The Facebook ad also included a second call to action: “Not feeling lucky? Buy your tickets now.” This phrase reminded fans that tickets were still available and encouraged purchases outside contest entries.
For paid search ads, Rockhouse used precise keywords (both artist and fair-related) to draw a high-intent audience in Google search results and manually combat any third party encroaching on the Delaware State Fair ticketing space. The fair also created specific display ads for each main headlining artist to custom target to interest audiences as a branding campaign.
Additionally, contest entrants collected throughout the event lifecycle were a key target. Rockhouse ran an onsite text-to-win contest promoting the 2019 concert series. Fans could visit a designated area at the fair called “the social spot” to participate, and television screens throughout the fair promoted the contest.
Results
- Total Campaign Spend: $18,200
- Total Return on Ad Spend (ROAS): 7.3x
“The Delaware State Fair had a record year, and Rockhouse Partners was a huge part of that equation. Our centennial is next year, and we are very excited to work with them for both the concert series and our fair announcement and onsale campaigns. I can’t recommend Rockhouse Partners enough.”
–Danny Aguilar, Assistant General Manager, Delaware State Fair
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