Newfields Winterlights
A case for driving attendance through transformation.
Case Study
The Challenge
Young & Laramore, EchoPoint Media’s parent company, had recently helped lead the Indianapolis Museum of Art through a complete repositioning effort. The result was a new entity: Newfields, a Place for Nature and the Arts. As it turned out, the first opportunity for the general public to hear about this would be during the launch of its never-before-seen first annual holiday lights display—and the challenge was to communicate both the new display, and the transformed brand.
Newfields’ aggressive goal was to drive 35,000 incremental guests to the Winterlights event. The relatively unknown entity also faced significant competition from other local attractions and had an uphill battle with the weather during the holiday season.
The Approach
Awareness vehicles—such as TV, outdoor billboards, radio sponsorships, cable holiday programming, and cinema video advertising—helped introduce the completely new brand while conversion-focused digital media tactics like programmatic display, mobile geofencing, paid social, and paid search drove online tickets sales. Outdoor digital bulletins provided a platform for weather-triggered communications where messages tailored for snowy conditions and specific temperature ranges were featured when most relevant. Media also targeted active audiences with a holiday mindset, making Winterlights seem like a can’t-miss, extra-special, “new tradition” family offering from Newfields.
The Results
Huge. We doubled Newfields’ ticket goal. We drove 400% year-over-year growth in overall campus visitation. All despite especially bad weather (including a week when the event was closed because of freezing temperatures). But maybe the most notable statistic is this: nearly 50 marriage proposals were also made during this time period—a statistic that underlines the cultural relevance that Newfields began to achieve immediately, with the launch of Winterlights.
