Greencastle Music Fest
Event Marketing Case Study
Greencastle Music Fest Wins Indiana Tourism Award for Best Event or Festival for Marketing Budgets Under $300,000
Background
14 years ago, the first Greencastle Music Fest was held in the small community of Greencastle, IN. The festival was (and continues to be) organized by Gail Smith, a Greencastle native who also owns local favorite eatery, Almost Home Restaurant.
In 2017, our team at RED66 began working with Gail on both Greencastle Music Fest and Almost Home. During this time, the festival was just a one-day music event with about 1,500 attendees. Through perseverance over the years, and of course, COVID, Greencastle Music Fest is now a two-day event drawing over 3,000+ visitors to the area—more than doubling in just a few years.
The perseverance paid off—in March of 2023, Gail was awarded the Indiana Tourism Award for Best Event or Festival for Marketing Budgets Under $300,000. The road to get there, however, required lots of marketing creativity and the willingness to try new things; even if they’re scary.
The Goal
The goal of the festival was, and continues to be, to bring an event to the community that enhances the quality of life, promotes tourism, and generates commerce for hotel stays, restaurants, shopping, and overall spending in the community of Greencastle, Indiana.
Simply put; it’s meant to bring in visitors from across the state of Indiana, and beyond.
The Approach
When we first started working with Gail back in 2017, Greencastle Music Fest didn’t even have its own website. Rather, it was a simple landing page on the Almost Home website.
Since we believe that a website is the 24/7 sales person for any business, our first goal was to create a standalone website for the festival. We outlined a site map and developed a new website that included more information about potential performers, promoted sponsors, and vendors for both returning and new attendees.
The website also features a photo gallery from past years’ festivals, FAQs, and information about the SHAM ROCK 5K; a race held around St. Patrick’s Day that raises funds for the festival. We assisted with the development and launch of the SHAM ROCK 5K landing page, as well.
In addition to the standalone website, we also designed, created and helped distribute the following items:
- Annual promotional flyer
- Regular social media posts with graphics
- Media pitching to local and state wide outlets
- Added online advance ticket sales
- Signage design for barricade, stage, and street banners
The Results
Through years of continued improvement and new ideas, Greencastle Music Festival reached its peak attendance levels in 2019 of 4,000 ticket sales.
In 2020 and into 2021, COVID-19 stalled its progress, where the number of attendees decreased to 2,500. However, the number of attendees seems to be returning with 3,000 attendees and 30 sponsors in 2022, with more in-kind supporters than ever.
In 2022, robust food and beverage purchases supported local restaurants. Plus, all area hotel rooms and other lodging rooms were full; generating valuable income to fellow local businesses that were impacted and still recovering from the pandemic.
Below, you can view the key website metrics that we tracked to measure brand awareness success:
Increase in Page Views from 2021
Increase in Number of Website Sessions from 2021
Growth in Number of Website Visitors from 2021
As for our social media efforts, the Greencastle Music Fest Facebook Page reached 2,578 likes and 2,660 followers in December 2022. The organic paid reach, aka the amount of people reached without paid ads or posts, was over 24,000 between July 1 and August 30th of 2022.
Moving Forward
Greencastle Music Festival is truly a labor of love; for both Gail and for us. We wholeheartedly believe in Gail, the brand, and the mission of the festival, and are so honored to have been a part of the road to the Indiana Tourism Award!