StoryFest Singapore is an international storytelling festival featuring storytellers from the world over. 2017 was its first edition with 98% of all festival tickets sold. A feat to be admired for a festival in its infancy. So how did they get the word out to sell out nine of its 10 events?
Kamini Ramachandran, Creative Producer of StoryFest Singapore, shares her secret sauce to selling out. She challenges you to think about these four questions.
How do you leverage the network you have?
There’s no time to start from scratch and no need to reinvent the wheel! Think about networks you possess and how you can tap into them. For StoryFest, Kamini partnered with the Arts House who had an existing mailing list amongst arts enthusiasts. She also knew of Peatix and used it to extend her reach through platform recommendations and discovery. One more thing she did was to repurpose her current mailing list which she’s built on MailChimp over the years, she emailed them asking if they would like to join her new mailing list for StoryFest and providing a compelling reason to do so, that is, exclusive and interesting content set apart from the emails sent to the current mailing list. Her aim being to provide value and not to send spam.
How do you speak to your audience?
Mind your tone when you speak with your audience. This doesn’t necessarily have to be vocal, it can also refer to the tone of your written posts on social media or email or any other form of communication you have with your audience. Use a consistent tone to make communications immediately recognisable and relatable to your event or event’s brand.
How do you convince people to pay?
Give your audience bite-sized snippets of what they will get when attending your event. Showcase what will happen with high resolution photos, write-ups, biographies, and video clips of the speaker or performer. Showcase what did happen in a previous event, its vibe, the community, the quality of your event’s content and so on. But first of, all this comes with knowing who your audience is and what would appeal to them – then showcase that.
How do you create a buzz to differentiate yourself?
Branding of your event is crucial. Provide a key visual identity that frames your event’s brand. Decide on an umbrella theme that encompasses every aspect of your event. Kamini used a themed hashtag that sustained conversation around the festival.
Kamini was a speaker at Backstage Pass, Peatix’s community event for organisers. Join in on the upcoming 18th edition of Backstage Pass on Design Thinking in Event Planning where you’ll participate in a hands-on interactive workshop led by a user experience consultant. You will learn about design thinking’s five stage approach and how you can use it to craft innovative and engaging events that’ll hit the sweet spot with your audience.
Get limited early-bird tickets at $12 today!
