Matrix Events - Event Social Media

What our client wanted

Matrix Events asked us to come up with a strategy to sell tickets to Castle Race events, particularly triathlon. The pandemic had slowed down consumer urge to invest in tickets and events brands that didn’t seem likely to follow through, considering the social-distancing restrictions in place. There was an industry-wide loss of interest, even from those previously dedicated to brands.

We had started working with the client prior to the pandemic to launch a new festival, as this was no longer an option to we had impressed and were tasked with working to help protect the core business.

Our strategy

Avviso Media developed a strategy that focused primarily on community building, initially not pushing tickets to Castle’s consumers at all. We produced an online triathlon club targeted toward Castle Series’ core audience, releasing relevant content i.e. tips for training during the lockdown, to stimulate brand interest. Knowing that many of the audience would normally train with clubs and other friends we created a home where the community felt “together”

We produced with the client virtual races which added a new revenue stream for the client, this gave the community a focus and provided lots of user-generated content for us to share, which was current (the client’s competitive set was just sharing old race pics) This made us relevant and we clearly understood the challenges of the audience via the digital brand.

When we were able to get back to real-world events, we continued the focus on athletes, setting up finish line interviews, finding the story behind why individuals were racing, this has provided some amazing content to share post-event.

Our community-first content focused on diversity and inclusion and the short-form video format. We released it across several platforms in order to reach the wide range of demographics that we knew would be interested in triathlon.

The outcome

For the 2020 races, ticket sales bounced back to pre-pandemic levels. 

Castle Race Series has experienced continued and sustained community growth, attracting new people to triathlon. The community management helped with the uncertainty around the many government rules changing how events were put on, this also helped the customer service team by eliminating repeat emails with the same question as we could see what questions were coming and share with the wider community.

Ticket sales for Castle’s 2022 race season are back up to 2019 levels, and the community continues to grow.