By: Will Bolles
Reaching An Entertainment Audience
If you look back on the February newsletter (travelers edition), you’ll see that we started to fantasize about summer and all the fun outdoor activities that come with it. Well, fast forward to mid-July and it’s finally here! Even on days when it’s too hot or too rainy to hang outside, summer is the season for events. From concerts to street festivals to baseball games, the summer has fun for everyone to enjoy. This article will discuss how we can help our entertainment advertisers spread the word for their summer events.
One of the most popular summer activities are concerts. According to the Nielsen 2018 Music 360 Report, 52% of the US population attends some sort of live music event each year. Nielsen also provided a general breakdown on this 52%, outlined below:
- Millennials (26% more likely)
- HHI: $80,000+ (35% more likely)
These live music events include concerts, outdoor community events involving music, small live sessions at a bar or café, music festivals, or night clubs. Knowing that our target audience for this vertical tends to skew lower in age, keep in mind the common digital trends we often see.
This generation loves convenience, and it’s not different when it comes to entertainment. Tickets to these events are often bought as digital tickets that can be downloaded straight to one’s phone, eliminating the paranoia that may arise from carrying around a paper ticket leading up to the show or festival. On top of that, you can count on this crowd to take pictures on their phone to share later on Instagram with a nice filter and witty caption. The presence of mobile devices at events nowadays is impossible to ignore, so be sure to include mobile targeting on any media plan within this vertical.
There are quite a few best practices when planning for or pitching this type of vertical:
- Be sure to identify the client’s goal straight away. This will be helpful to identify platforms and targeting capabilities from the start. Ask probing questions as well. If they are looking to increase ticket sales, do they have a way to purchase or track that online? Do they list their upcoming events on their site, so it would be more beneficial to send people to that page?
- Be mindful of time frames. Often an advertiser wants to promote a single event, but as a best practice, you should be thinking about an evergreen strategy as well. This will help with general awareness and you can add in an event-based strategy to a broader campaign.
- Don’t over-target. Another pitfall we see with this vertical is making the geo or targeting too narrow. An advertiser may suggest a small radius around their location or request a very specific audience. That will not only affect the scale of their campaign—it could also affect the performance by missing out on potential clients. Remember, we can always start broad and narrow down as the campaign progresses.
Below you’ll find some suggested targeting for the Entertainment vertical. Keep in mind that this target will vary depending on the type of event, the target audience, and the client’s goal. Don’t hesitate to reach out to your Centro team if you have any questions!
- Audience Targeting (Demo: Ages 18-40; Millennials; BT: Entertainment Seekers; Entertainment Enthusiasts; Sports Enthusiasts; Interest: Music (genres available); In Market: Concert Tickets; In Market: Family Activities): Target different audiences based on a variety of demonstrated behaviors or demographics.
- Contextual Targeting (Entertainment; Music; Sports; Parenting): Target different audiences within contextually relevant content.
- Mobile Location Retargeting (Place Category Visitors: Family Fun Lifestyle; Live Music Fans and Concert Goers; Music and Show Venues; Night Clubs; Stadiums and Arenas): Target users who have recently been to a place in the listed categories.
- Predictive Targeting (RON): This is a good tactic to reach a large audience and drive traffic to the client’s site at a relatively low eCPM. Great for promoting large events!
- Mobile Hyperlocal: Geo-fence bars, music venues, stadiums, zoos, parks, street festivals, and other relevant points of interest within your geo to reach entertainment seekers on their mobile devices in real time.
- Site Retargeting: Reach users who have already shown interest in the client’s site.