Christmas Campaign Evaluation

2014

Background Information• The Christmas Marketing Plan kicked off on 11th October and ran until 25th

December across a number of channels.

• We stayed within a marketing budget of £50,000

• We used a mixture of online and offline channels to reach maximum audience and create maximum awareness of the campaign amongst our target markets

• We reached an audience of over 6 million people through our offline marketing (not including online marketing/website traffic)

• We ran an online Advent Calendar Competition from 1st – 24th December engaging with local businesses and building our email database

• Our Festivetime.com website received 110% increase in traffic v 2013

Objectives Set• Generate awareness and interest amongst stakeholders, participants and the

media in the City’s Christmas Campaign

• Attract approximately 50,000 people to the city to experience the Christmas Campaign

• Target of 45% local, 30% NI, 15% ROI and 10% other

• Achieve 50% average occupancy for the duration of the campaign

• Achieve an AVE of £200,000 over duration of the campaign

• Undertake a city promotional roadshow across 7 destinations promoting both Halloween and Christmas

Objectives Set• Showcase the City as a premier shopping and fashion destination

• Showcase the Excellence of local crafters and makers

• Showcasing key landmarks

• Promote the City as a short break destination ideal for families

• Promote the City of Culture Legacy

• Capture Participant Data

• Give due recognition to sponsors, funders and partners

• Promote using social media and web

• Capture Event images and video for use as future marketing assets

Key Events during the Christmas Campaign

Craft Fair 14th – 16th November

Fashion Fest 20th – 23rd November

Christmas Lights Switch On 20th November

Christmas Village Opening 28th November

Target Markets and Segmentation

Local Northern Ireland

Republic of Ireland

Other

Target Breakdown

45% 30% 15% 10%

Target Areas

Derry Belfast, Newry,

Fermanagh, Omagh, Armagh

Donegal, Galway, Border Counties

CODA Destinations, Key Web Traffic

Locations (Aberdeen, Belfast, Dublin, Edinburgh, Glasgow,

Inverness, Letterkenny, Liverpool, London, Londonderry,

Manchester, Omagh, Portadown, Preston, Sheffield, Sligo)

Key Market Segments: Time Together, Family Fun, Young and Lively

Marketing Activity – OverviewCHANNEL DATES FORMAT

TV 3rd – 16th November / w/c 10th November

UTV 30 sec Ad / TV3 Event Guide 10 sec

PRINT/PRESS 3rd Nov – 11th December Local, Regional and ROI titles, magazines and supplements

RADIO 10th Nov - 30th Nov Local, Regional and ROI Radio Stations, 20sec/30 sec adverts

OUTDOOR 3rd Nov – 16th Nov T Side Buses (30)48 Sheet Billboards (9)

DIGITAL November/December Donegal Daily, What’s on NI, Mirror HPTO, E-Zines,

ASSETS Event Specific Christmas Animation, Christmas Lights Video, Christmas Village Video, Christmas Village Trader Specific Video, Fashion Fest and Craft Village Videos

RESEARCH Event Specific Fashion Fest/Craft Fair/Christmas Lights/Christmas Village

ROADSHOWS October Participated in Local Shopping Centre Roadshows

PRINTED MATERIAL November 12 page booklet distributed regionally across NI

SOCIAL MEDIA October - December www.facebook.com/festivetimePromoted Posts to boost reach and engagement

WEBSITE November – December www.festivetime.com

48 Sheet Billboard x 6 (Belfast, Strabane, Armagh)T Sides – 10 Belfast, 5 Derry, 5 Armagh, 5 Dungannon, 5 Omagh

Press Advertising

Digital

Mirror NI HPTO

What’s On NI Ezine

Donegal Daily

Results of Campaign

1.Generate awareness and Interest

Our above and below the line marketing campaign reached an audience of over 6 million in Northern and Southern Ireland.

Figure does not include website traffic/social media impressions.

2. Visitor Numbers – TARGET 50,000Confirmed numbers to date: 83,883Waiting on confirmation from other events we profiled in our Christmas Brochure.

Target ActualVISITOR NUMBERS 50,000 Christmas Lights 10,000 10,000Christmas Village 12,000Mayors Concert 350 236Children's Festive Frolics 100Craft Fair 4000 4452Fashion Fest 1000Winter Wonderland (Waterside Community Engagement Project) 2500Legenderry On Ice 23,000 Millennium Forum Panto 26809 Waterside Theatre Panto 3350 Silent Night, the Playhouse 77 Oiche Gheimhridh, An Culturlann 129Pool Disco 230Nerve Centre Cinema 83,883

Target: Actual:

45% Local 72% Local

30% NI 12% NI15% ROI 9% ROI10% Other 7% Other

3. Geographical Spread of Visitors

4. Achieve average 50% occupancy for duration of the campaign

OCCUPANCY RATE Target Actual 50% October 66.43%November 48%December 42.36% Average 52%

5. Achieve an AVE of £200,000 for the duration of the campaign

Kantar Report Due at the end of the Month

6. Undertake a city promotional roadshow across 7 destinations promoting both Halloween and Christmas

• Letterkenny - Saturday 11th October• Strabane / Omagh - Saturday 11th October• Derry - Saturday 11th October

**Promotional Material was not ready for the 4 earlier Roadshow Dates

Digital Marketing Campaign Results

Date created Shot subjectEmails

sent/succeeded Viewed % viewedClick

Throughs

28/11/2014 16:49Legenderry Christmas 2014 - Christmas

Village Opens5690 / 4939

(86.80%) 936 16.45% 391

18/11/2014 12:19Legenderry Christmas 2014 - The Big

Christmas Switch-On! 5693 / 4936

(86.70%) 932 16.37% 396

What's on NI Content Delivered Viewed % viewedClick

Throughs

16th DecemberExperience the Wonder of the Christmas

Village 99.6% (6109) 1118 13.70% 27

E Zine ResultsWe distributed two E-zines from DCC to our database of almost 5000 people. The results of these are below.**NB we need to clean up our database – 86% succeeded emails suggests data is out of date and inactive emails are not being removed from the database.**

We distributed one further e-zine via What’s On NI to their database which had poorer results in terms of views and click through rate.

Social Media ActivityOur Festive time Facebook page performed well over the Christmas Campaign with‘Likes’ increasing by 117% from the start of the campaign in early October (2414 likes) to 5252 likes by Christmas Day.

• Total Reach: 350.2k

ENGAGMENT RATE 10%

• 73% Audience – Female• 27% Audience - Male

Additional Activation via Social MediaAdvent Calendar Competition We engaged with local businesses in Derry offering them an opportunity to take part in an Advent Calendar Competition on facebook.

This activity had three objectives:• Create a platform for local businesses to give them added exposure during the Christmas Season to heighten awareness of their business• Grow our email database• Drive traffic to our festive time.com website

The competition attracted 9477 entries, 2470 of which were unique, and entries came from all across the UK.

Key Web Statistics

2013 2014 % DiffSessions 11,415 23,993 110%

Users 8,908 13,784 54.74%Page views 19,758 51,872 162.17%

Pages/Sessions 1.73 2.16 24.73%Ave Duration 1.1 1.25 20%

Website ActivityWebsite activity reports show a strong increase Year on Year with 110% increase on number of sessions, (11,415 in 2013 v 23,993 in 2014). Full summary of statistics outlined below. Overall a very strong performance on the festivetime.com website despite unfortunate server attacks to the system which left the website down for a total of 6 days.

Video Performance on Social Media• 35, 679 video views

Christmas Lights, UTV TV Ad, Christmas Animation, Christmas Village Video Children’s Festive Frolics, Craft Fair Video Christmas Village Trader Video Fashion Fest Video

• 61, 648 video reach• 2183 engagements

– (likes, comments, shares)

Face to Face Surveys were undertaken at each of the Key Events in the ChristmasCalendar. Top line results to note are below (full reports available if required)

• Guildhall Craft Fair– 96% of respondents were in the City specifically for the Guildhall Craft Fair– 69% had been before– 84% rated the programme as ‘Very Good’ or ‘Good’– 100% rated the quality of the event as ‘Very Good’ or ‘Good’– 90% rated the marketing as ‘Very Good’ or ‘Good’– 100% stated that they would definitely attend in future

• Fashion Fest– 100% of attendees rated the events as ‘Very Good’ or ‘Good’– 98% of attendees stated they would ‘Definitely’ ‘Very Likely’ or ‘Likely’ attend Fashion Fest 2015

Research Analysis

• Christmas Lights Switch On– 65% of respondents were in the City specifically for the Christmas Lights Switch On– 67% had attended the event in previous years– 94% rated the quality of the event as ‘Very Good’ or ‘Good’– 83% rated the marketing as ‘Very Good’ or ‘Good’– 88% rated the atmosphere as ‘Very Good’ or ‘Good’– 76% stated that they would definitely attend in future

• Christmas Village– 18/23 respondents rated all of the below factors as ‘Very Good’ or ‘Good’

• Quality of Markets; Music on Weekends, Signage, Atmosphere, Marketing, Ease of Access, Venue and Value for money

– 91% would ‘definitely’ or ‘most likely’ return in future years– 76% of attendees visited the city centre before or after their visit to the Christmas

Village (88% of those who visited the city centre did so for shopping)

Conclusion• Overall a far reaching Marketing campaign generating high

awareness delivered within budget and within timelines.• Digital channels proved to be very strong and cost effective

medium to reach our audience with over 100% increase in traffic to www.festivetime.com v 2013 plus a 117% ‘like’ increase at www.facebook.com/festivetime

• Added engagement online from the Advent Calendar Competition which helped to drive traffic to www.festivetime.com and increased our email database by 50%

• Video posts online were very popular and received higher engagement on social media than any other posts.