Summer events are built different - is your engagement strategy?

Maybe it's just because my parents were teachers, but summer has always hit different. Longer days, warmer weather, the ability to eat ice cream at any point during the day: being a kid in the summer was awesome!

Besides the fact that I shouldn't be eating that much ice cream anymore (unsponsored plug for Tillamook Cookies & Cream), the greatness of summer actually holds up as you age! Beach days, cycling weather, and of course, summer concerts! Whether it's a festival on the beach, a cover band on a restaurant patio, or a string quartet in the park, there's something about being outside, with friends, and listening to great music that just feels...better? 

As great as summer concerts are, I can personally attest that they require a whole different type of structure and management to produce. Whether it's production (breaking down a stage every day to account for weather, mixing in an open field, designing lighting plots based on moon phases), front of house ("can our scanners please connect to your wifi"), or box office (don't even get me started on setting up mobile ticket printers), executing outdoor concerts requires a special kind of team.

And to those of you who do it, I say 👏👏👏.

Producing outdoor events is hard. But promoting them should be easy, right? The product should sell itself - great music, beautiful scenery, bring a picnic and just relax.

Not so fast. Engaging audiences for your summer events is often way more complicated than that. You're often dealing with different visitors that you see the rest of the year (families, tourists, casual fans, new guests), cautious buying patterns ("what's the weather gonna be like?", "aren't we doing something that night?" "let's just wait until the day of to see"), and the endless competition of summer (3-4 events every weekend, vacations, sports, not to mention the appeal of just laying around in a hammock).

So, who should you be talking to as you get ready for summer, and what should you be saying?

Who is my summer audience? What do I tell them?

There's a very simple way to figure out exactly who your June-August customers should be:

Just kidding. There's obviously not one 'summer block' of ticket buyers, any more than you have an 'October audience.'

But, there are a few ways to figure out who you should be talking to. And like all other communications strategies, it's layered, nuanced, and deeply entwined with your messaging.

Everyone needs to know that you have summer programs.

Segment: Every single person who has opted in to a communication channel

Message: "Our amazing programs don't take a summer vacation!"

If you're a summer festival or an outdoor venue, your reputation for summer concerts is probably pretty well known. For everyone else (I'm looking at you, multi-disciplinary-PACs-with-an-outdoor-summer-series), you need to make sure that people first and foremost know that this type of programming exists. 

Don't think of these communications as sales campaigns - the point isn't generating ticket sales. What you're trying to accomplish with this phase is awareness. Plenty of people won't want to come to your summer events (they're busy, it's not their vibe, money's tight, etc), but everyone should at least know that your offer something to do during the summer.

You might be surprised at how many people didn't know about your summer offerings - people might often think of your holiday shows or school programs, and totally forget about you once the weather gets warm. 

Get to your low-hanging-fruit early.

Segment: Returning summer guests, loyal fans & audiences that buy early

Message: "Make us your plan for the summer."

Audience that already know and love you should have the fewest barriers to attending your summer events - frankly, the only reason they wouldn't be there is if they already have plans that day. So, get out in front of those plans!

Pre-sales, early access, preview announcements - make sure you're doing everything you can to get your summer programming in front of your most loyal fans as early as possible. These are the folks who will not only build the base of your ticket sales (and generate early revenue to keep your team calm), but they'll also be more likely to bring their friends to share in their experience! 

This is also a great group for multi-buy discounts. "Bring a friend for half-price" goes a long way - summer events are almost always more social than their indoor-counterparts, so take advantage of that and encourage people to share their time with others!

Remain accessible for casual audiences.

Segment: Families, out-of-towners, new audiences

Message: "Coming here is fun and easy!"

Between staying light later, warmer weather, and people using their beloved vacation time, you'll definitely have a large population nearby with more time than activities! Why not try to appeal to them?

This is the trickiest needle to thread, as it can be really easy to over-promise and under-deliver, but I implore you to do everything in your power to not only make your event-going experience easy, but to talk about how easy it is!

I used to work with an artistic director who insisted that we advertise "real bathrooms" in all of the materials for our summer roots music festival. At the time, it sounded insane, but she was absolutely right - the regular folk-festival-fans consistently commented on how nice it was to not be subjected to porta-potties!

That's not to say "always talk about your toilets", but that it's just as important to make your venue friendly and welcoming as it is to talk about it. People won't know all of the great work your facilities and FOH teams put into improving the on-site experience if you don't talk about it.

Personal note: as the parent of a soon-to-be-three-year-old, I can promise you that if somewhere advertises "on-site food", "kids activities" and "clean bathrooms", I'll pick them over the other option 11 times out of 10.

You should also keep in mind that the "casual" audience and the "spontaneous" audience have a very large overlap. If it's easy to buy tickets on mobile and you have food & bev options clearly listed on the same page, you'll be much more appealing than somewhere that requires you to download a pdf to view their menu or a dedicated app to access their tickets.

How do I do it?

Like everything in events, this isn't a one-team job.

Before you write an email or post a graphic, talk to your FOH, catering, and facilities teams about what they're actually planning to do this summer. Your messaging is only as good as the experience you're describing, and if you're promising "easy and fun" but the parking situation is a nightmare, your audience will let you know.

Get your ticketing and box office teams in the room early. They know which offers move buyers, which packages stall, and where the friction is in your purchase flow. Once you get audiences on the hook, the last thing you want is to lose them at checkout over price or a bad checkout page.

Then look at your data. Who came last summer? Did they buy early or day-of? Did they bring friends? Were they price-sensitive? Your past audiences are the clearest signal you have for who to talk to this summer and what to say.

Summer doesn't run on vibes; but if you've got the right people in the room and you're honest about what you're actually offering, you'll be in great shape

Take a deep breath, look at the data, and remember that you've got this.

And if anyone has Tillamook at their summer events, please let me know: alex.cutrone@encorepro.com