Cut&Paste is the social arena for the discovery, advocacy, and elevation of design. Channel V Media worked with Cut&Paste to drive visibility of and attendance to its signature event — a live digital design tournament that spans 16 cities worldwide. Since Cut&Paste is largely a grassroots organization, it had been relying on word-of-mouth exposure in design communities to get the word out. Recognizing that word-of-mouth can only go so far (and sell only so many event tickets), Channel V Media came in to implement a public relations strategy and handle audience generation via a social media campaign.
Channel V Media was first charged with promoting the tour’s Call for Competitors (the call for submissions) worldwide. Our focus then turned to driving traffic and attention to the North American events: Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Boston, New York City, Toronto and Chicago. Finally, we created a replicable strategy for and offered support to the European promotions team.
Because Cut&Paste sells the majority of its tickets online, we focused primarily on reaching out to online outlets — including blogs, online magazines, and online newspapers — that could provide live links back to the site and, in effect, drive direct traffic.
We determined our target audience to be 2D, 3D and motion designers. We also identified two secondary audiences: general creative types and college students "looking for something different to do on a Saturday night."
In the Call for Competitors phase, wherein our goal was to drive submissions from those looking to compete in one of the 16 events, we made initial contact with students, bloggers, design publication writers and editors, and design sites who were asked to spread the word and/or submit portfolios. Building this network was a crucial part of our subsequent tour promotions.
Heading into the tour, wherein our goal was to drive event attendance, we segmented our audiences by geography and then contacted regional visual arts gurus, art professors, bloggers, art and lifestyle writers, and design firms, either by personalized pitch or through our social media efforts (link to C&P's social media example). We identified all outlets that had previously mentioned the event as well as all of those that cover graphic, web and motion design, and all event sites within each host city.
We worked with design bloggers to get the word out on a national level, as well as spread viral content to smaller, niche publications that picked up their stories and repurposed them for their audiences. Local city outlets helped us reach our niche demographics and drive traffic to specific events.
By disseminating the information across so many outlets, we ensured that the word-of-mouth, and consequently ticket sales, for the 2009 tour would surpass previous years.
As always, the best way to get bloggers writing about your event or product is to give them freebies, especially for their audience. Channel V Media managed a series of ticket-giveaway programs that were run on hot design blogs like FAIRspot.com and GraphicCompetions.com, as well as event guest lists.
Essentially, we approached popular design blogs and high-trafficked city event blogs with the opportunity to giveaway five free tickets to each event to their readers. In doing so, we prompted bloggers to write about Cut&Paste, we engaged their audiences, and we encouraged the winners to tell their friends where to buy tickets.
Since Cut&Paste reaches all corners of the globe, it was essential that the organization had contacts on the ground in event cities. As such, Design Ambassador teams were established through Cut&Paste, and Channel V Media worked with the teams to ensure that they promoted the tour to their networks and regions. Through the Design Ambassador teams, Channel V Media was able to hit homegrown outlets that may or may not have turned up in our media searches. We seized the opportunity to promote Cut&Paste with a local feel. Channel V Media managed messaging that went out through the Design Ambassadors by providing the templates and sample copy. We also managed press requests that came in through the Cut&Paste site.
Finally, Channel V Media attended the New York City regional event and the Global Championships to manage press check-in.
Channel V Media secured over 400 pieces of coverage for Cut&Paste’s 2009 tour — this is 800% more coverage than the tour received in 2008. Our efforts, combined with Cut&Paste’s grassroots campaigns aimed at their loyal existing audience, resulted in a huge increase in site traffic, an increase in online chatter about Cut&Paste, and an uptick in ticket sales that helped the organization surpass last year’s sales.