Challenge

Since it began, the Festival’s music focus had always been classical and operatic performances, but with falling numbers of patrons and little interest from the local community, the management team decided on a significant change of direction for 2011 in an attempt to broaden its appeal and save the event.

A limited promotional budget, limited accommodation in the area and a three-hour drive to reach the event from Adelaide all presented significant PR challenges.

Solution

Initially, we undertook a two-day trip to Jamestown and Bundaleer Forest to meet with the entire management team, understand their varying issues and visit the forest to see firsthand what it offered, as well as the logistical issues that would need to be overcome.

From this initial meeting:

• A strategic timetable of media opportunities was crafted to target both metropolitan and regional media, identifying appropriate story ideas for print, radio and television and working in conjunction with the management teams of the headline talent to ensure their availability. Angles were identified ranging from editorial previews, pictorial opportunities, social pics, feature pieces and fun “gossip” highlights
• A launch event was organised for early February in the ‘forest-like’ atmosphere of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens. One of the key performers – Andy Firth - was on hand to perform, as was one of the key children’s performers Lindi Jane, surrounded by stilt-walkers and jugglers to create a sense of the ‘new’ Bundaleer look and feel
• Paid advertising copy was crafted and design advice offered. Various advertising rate cards were sourced and suggestions for the best placement of such advertising was offered and implemented
• Twitter and Facebook feeds were established and regularly updated with snippets of news and announcements.

Result

The South Australian Minister for the Arts John Hill officially opened the well-attended launch event on February 1, 2011, with eight media outlets present delivering overwhelmingly positive media coverage.

Additionally:

• Eight media outlets (target 6) were represented at the official opening and analysis of the coverage achieved was 100 per cent positive (target 90% positive)
• With a total of 53 media hits cross print, radio and online, the exposure for the Bundaleer Festival achieved 176% of the objective (target 30), easily exceeding the committee’s expectations with 100% reflecting a positive tone

• 58% of the coverage was achieved in “non-traditional” arts coverage, including a double page pictorial and feature spread in the Adelaide Magazine, pictorial essay in SA Life, gossip pages etc - easily exceeding the initial target of 10%.
• Attendance figures were up 8% on the 2009 event, exceeding the 5% target

  • The total reach achieved across, print, radio, television and online was a staggering 13.5 million opportunities to see.

The Bundaleer committee unanimously agreed that media coverage of the 2011 event was the best they’d ever achieved, with a much wider range of exposure beyond traditional arts and music pages. Reviews of the event all commented positively about the change of format and its wider appeal.