FESTIVAL MARKETING
A proven strategy to maximize awareness, drive ticket sales, build anticipation and momentum.
OVERVIEW
Your festival deserves a marketing plan that actually works.
Your festival might be a great concept or lineup, but if no one sees or hears about it — it doesn't exist.
Our festival marketing strategy turns vision into visibility and visibility into ticket sale velocity.
We build a targeted, multi-channel plan to reach the right ticket buyers, at the right time, with the right message.
DELIVERABLES
A full-spectrum festival marketing strategy designed to maximize sales.
Target Audience
- Geography
- Demographics
- Psychographics
- Interests
Campaign Calendar
- Rollout phases
- Channel integration
- Festival, artist & partner content
- Organic and paid posting cadence
- Cross-channel campaign integration
Messaging & Creative
- Headlines, taglines & value propositions
- Offers and CTA triggers
- Ad mat copy and creative
- Retargeting & remarketing — pixel and analytics setup, conversion-focused paid media sequences, lookalike and high-intent audience targeting
Channel Strategy
- Digital
- Outdoor
- Media
- Influencers and ambassadors
- Media partners and affiliates
Platform Recommendations
- Advertising
- Email, CRM & SMS
- Conversion tracking & automation
- Street teams & field tools
OUTCOMES
REACH
Find and engage your target audience across multiple channels.
CONVERSION
Maximize ticket purchases through optimal funnels.
MOMENTUM
Build steady anticipation with a phased rollout and content calendar.
DATA INSIGHT
Realtime data to understand what's converting, what's not, and where to focus your marketing dollars.
JK MCKNIGHT
Your point of contact — and the experience leader behind AOI.
JK McKnight has spent 25 years in festival development. He founded Forecastle Festival, growing it from 50 people into a 75,000-person destination event and one of America's most critically acclaimed festivals. He later worked with AC Entertainment (Bonnaroo, Big Ears, High Water, Railbird and more). Today, he helps founders design, produce, and grow world-class festivals through proven strategy, specialized expertise, and decades of firsthand experience.
Read JK's full bioFrequently Asked Questions
No. This engagement is focused exclusively on developing the strategy — giving your team the roadmap, tools and direction needed to execute an effective festival marketing campaign.
Absolutely. The strategy can provide your internal team or agency with a clear, festival-specific roadmap to align messaging, channels, timing and priorities.
Both. New festivals can establish the right marketing foundation from the outset, while established festivals can refine their approach, widen their audience, sharpen their targeting, and improve ticket-sale performance.
The strategy typically takes one month to develop and should ideally be completed before your lineup announcement and general on-sale begin. The earlier the roadmap is in place, the more effectively your team can use it to guide the full marketing and advertising campaign.
Take your festival to the next stage
Schedule a free discovery call with our team. We’ll assess where you are, where you want to go, and exactly how we can help you get there.