Lessons on creating a winning social media strategy from Ibiza’s best clubs

Ushuaïa

Opening party announcement

Ushuaia announced its opening party towards the end of 2023. As far as Instagram posts go, it was pretty simple: a red background with the words ‘Ushuaia Opening Party 2024’ and the date of the party underneath. 

It’s the caption for the post that we’re interested in. Take a look below to see the description. 

The copy is short, snappy and eye-catching and features two calls to action (CTA). The first CTA, ‘tag your squad’, is crucial, as Ushuia’s audience is invited to tag their friends in the comments, leading to more eyes on the post. 

We’ll cover this in more detail later, but Ushuaia’s approach to event copy forms one part of a whole strategy. They invite their followers to interact with the brand, creating a feeling of familiarity and increasing the chance of turning those followers into customers. 

Martin Garrix video 

Martin Garrix took to the Ushuaia stage last Ibiza season, and the club made a post at the beginning of this year looking back at his performance. 

In the post below, we see several videos from the residency, with the club asking followers to pick their favourite from the selection. 

It’s a way of being promotional, but not in your face. They aren’t brandishing lineups in front of their followers, just gently reminding attendees of their presence. Plus, if you’re scrolling through these clips on a rainy midweek in the UK, you’ll be enticed to get involved whether or not you’ve been to Ibiza in the past. 

The Martin Garrix post is another example of Ushuia’s interactive approach to their socials. It’s clear that they prioritise interaction, engagement, and building a relationship with their fans. 

Calvin Harris announcement 

Ushuaia launched its Calvin Harris residency on the 13th February with an Instagram reel. 

The reel acted as a trailer for the residency, with crowd shots interspersed with footage of Calvin Harris playing at last year’s season, as well as the dates, location and the strapline: ‘The Biggest Party In The World’. 

Bright colours, big drops and hands in the air made up the party shots, promising an exciting series of parties. It’s an eye-catching video that would surely pique the interest of would-be attendees scrolling the feed. 

So, what can we learn from Ushuaia?

The strength of Ushuaia’s social media output is its look, interactivity and ability to speak to new and returning attendees. Their crowd shots look sleek and inviting, with smiles beaming across attendees’ faces. 

Ibiza is known as the party capital of the world and looking at Ushuaia’s posts, you’d believe that and want to buy tickets. The club regularly interacts with its followers, too. This is usually in the form of questions off the back of previous event footage, giving customers a chance to be a part of the brand. 

So, film footage from your events and use it for promotion. If you’re running a D&B event, for example, pick out footage of the biggest crowd reactions and get shots of the crowd reactions. Show people what it’s like to be at your event. 

Equally, don’t be in your face with promotion. Of course, Ushuaia has a massive following, but they lightly nudge people in the direction of buying tickets and signing up for pre-sale. The footage does the heavy lifting and draws people in. 

Pacha

New Year’s Eve Party – Behind The Scenes

Okay, we’re cheating slightly. Traditionally, New Year’s Eve isn’t part of the season in Ibiza, but we think there is a lot to learn from Pacha’s promotion of their NYE event. 

The club promoted its Music On NYE event with images, videos and reels of the DJs on the lineup playing previous events at Pacha. Pretty standard stuff. But the most interesting thing came after the event when they posted an interview with Chelina Manuhatu. 

Here, Chelina spoke about her journey as an artist, how she got involved with Pacha, her most listened to artist and her advice for the forthcoming year. 

Videos like this are a way of getting up close and personal with the inner workings of the event, giving the fans a chance to get an insight into the artists they love. Finally, it shows to the audience that Pacha has built relationships with the biggest and best in the scene, further solidifying their reputation as a top brand. We’ll touch on how you can adapt this style of content for your events further down in the article. 

Historical Content

When it comes to social media, we think 80% of your social media content should provide value to your audience. 

Pacha does this brilliantly. They have several posts that showcase the club and its history throughout the years, sharing old event flyers, magazines, classic photos and clubbers in the 80s. 

Sharing the history of the brand is genuinely interesting. After all, not every clubgoer will have been around in the 70s, 80s and 90s, so showing off this history is a way of teaching fans about the legacy the club has built up.

Strong, recognisable branding

The cherry logo is Pacha’s calling card. Simple, recognisable and vibrant, making the club stand out as a reputable in Ibiza. 

In many of the posts, reels and event flyers they distribute, the cherry is present, incorporated into the various club nights they host with external promoters. 

Take the two posts below. In the first, the cherry is front and centre and in the second, it has been edited to reflect the design of the event flyer. 

It’s an example of simple and strong branding. Event promoters of any genre can take inspiration from this. 

So, what can we learn from Pacha?

The strength of Pacha’s output is the branding. They know their audience and have a recognisable logo and colour scheme, adapting it when they need to. 

As we said earlier, any promoter can take inspiration from this. It’s about sitting down, thinking about how you want your event to be received and keeping your imagery consistent across all channels. Our article on festival promotion goes into more detail on brand identity. Check it out here. 

They also tap into their history, too. So, document the behind-the-scenes happenings from your event and use them when you hit yearly milestones. 

Finally, Pacha’s interview with Chelina Manuhatu can be adapted for your event. The club posted the interview after their event, but you can do it before to generate excitement, catch the eye of would-be attendees and give fans an insight into their favourite artists. 

Amnesia

Claptone announcement

DJ and producer Claptone runs an event called ‘The Masquerade’, which will take place at Amnesia in 2024. 

To announce this, Claptone and Amnesia did a collaboration post to announce Amnesia as the new venue for the event. The reel was essentially a mini move, featuring Claptone driving to the club, with followers going after him on foot and by car. 

It’s a lavish post, we know. But it’s an example of the club building a relationship with an artist and posting their ideas on their Instagram feed. 

Season warm-up 

Amnesia posted a series of reels to promote its season warm-up with Pyramid Special. The first, posted a month before the event, showed the lineup along with quick-fire behind the scenes footage showing the construction of the stage and dancers at the venue. 

A few weeks later, Amnesia posted another reel, which again showed quick-fire footage. However, instead of the club, the Amnesia logo was placed in various parts of the island. 

Finally, Amnesia promoted the event with a special giveaway. Entrants had to follow Amnesia and Pyramid, tag the people they’d like to attend with, share the post to their stories and tag the club. 

Opening party announcement 

Amensia opted for another exciting reel to promote their opening party. 

In the video, we see a plane flying over Ibiza, with quick-fire images of social media comments from excited club goers and plenty of shots of people having a great time in the club. 

If you’re in a UK city, you might not want to use shots of planes arriving through Heathrow, as there will probably be lots of rain. However, collecting social media posts and event footage can help promote your event. 

So, what can we learn from Amnesia?

The strength of Amenesia’s social media output is the ambition. Their posts look glossy, big and fun, showing an understanding of what partying on the island is all about. 

However, that’s easy for an institution like Amnesia. If you’re an independent promoter, it’s going to be tricky for you to pump out content that looks like it’s come from a film set every week. 

So, how can you take inspiration? Well, it’s all about choosing your moments. Take the Claptone announcement video, for example. Doing something like that for every person you book would be hard, but doing it on a special occasion like New Year’s Eve might be easier. 

Try to be ambitious where you can. Got an idea you think you can pull off? Go for it. Applied for some funding and have a bit more money to spend on marketing? Put together something special on an anniversary or special occasion to give your event brand a boost.