When it was built in 1919, the Brooklyn Army Terminal in Sunset Park was one of the largest poured-concrete structures in the world. New York City may be known for its warehouses, but how many of those house train tracks that ferried Europe-bound soldiers and supplies during World War II? Touring the Terminal with New York Adventure Club, the building — and the city’s — rich history comes alive.
“It’s really the definition of a hidden gem,” says Corey William Schneider, CEO and Founder of New York Adventure Club. “That’s what people are looking for — what Adventure Club was founded around.”
New York Adventure Club has been unearthing those hidden gems since 2014. A tea ceremony in a secret Japanese tea garden, a subterranean exposé of the NY Subway System, a webinar about photographer Bernice Abbott — the events reflect the marvelous diversity of the city itself.
Currently, New York Adventure Club organizes a mix of virtual and in-person events, about 20 per week. The newsletter subscribers, or the Club’s members, as Schneider thinks of them, total 50,000 people, and they’re based all over the world.
“What’s really special about New York specifically is that it’s an endless rabbit hole,” says Schneider. To help as many people as possible access that rabbit hole, he uses Eventbrite Boost. As the world of live events continues to evolve, Schneider counts on Eventbrite Boost “to help us achieve our marketing goals.”
Breaking out of the “restaurant, bars, and brunch” rut
Schneider moved to New York 10 years ago. Quickly, he found himself in a rut. Between the monotony of his corporate job and a social life that consisted of, “what most New Yorkers do: restaurants, bars, and brunch,” he barreled into an early life crisis.
“I wasn’t doing anything fulfilling in my spare time,” Schneider admits. He was in, “supposedly the greatest city in the world, but didn’t know anything about it.”
Schneider committed to changing his habits. “Every weekend, I’d go out and do something, go somewhere, really explore the city.” He even created a Facebook group to encourage his friends to join him on private tours of the far-flung locales right in their own backyard. Eventually, he promoted one of these tours in a local blog, and more than 100 strangers joined him.
That was the Brooklyn Army Terminal walkthrough back in 2014. Since then, New York Adventure Club has used Eventbrite to manage their events and expand their brand. And with Eventbrite Boost, they can manage their event marketing from the same place.
Eventbrite Boost Multi Event Ads to the rescue
Schneider appreciates a lot of features about Eventbrite Boost: the email campaigns, the Smart Audience tool (which helps him think about his in-person and virtual segments). But what he really can’t imagine living without are the Multi Event Ads.
“My issue was that I had so many events; I had such a high frequency per week, I really didn’t have the time to create an ad per event,” Schneider explains. With Multi Event Ads, “essentially Boost would look at all of my upcoming events, and promote them automatically. And then based on which ones were performing better, it would allocate more of a budget toward those events.”
Organizing dozens of events a month means the New York Adventure Club calendar is pretty crammed, especially since Schneider is the Club’s only full-time employee. “I don’t have time to make 20 ads a week, so I might as well run it through a system that’s going to do that automatically.”
So far, Schneider’s Multi Event Ad campaign has paid off, with a 4.5 return on ad spend. As New York Adventure Club continues to evolve, Schneider is looking for lift. “I definitely rely on tools like Eventbrite Boost to get to that next level and get in front of the people.”
Revealing the city’s secrets with Eventbrite Boost
New York Adventure Club continues to grow, but Schneider’s initial curiosity about the city still remains. “Pre-COVID days, every week I was finding out something new about New York, which I think is saying something, because that was my job, and I was finding out new things.”
Schneider recommends Eventbrite Boost to event organizers who don’t like to geek out on complicated marketing tools. “Eventbrite Boost definitely makes marketing a lot simpler and breaks it down.”
Who needs a social media manager to run your paid ads? “What’s great about Eventbrite Boost,” says Schneider, “is once you take time to set it up, it’s going to run itself. And so I think that’s worth doing, and you don’t really have to be some advertising whiz to get stuff off the ground.” In fact, Creators who used Paid Social Ads sold 3.5x more tickets per event*.
For Schneider, the Multi Event Ads capability is one of Boost’s strongest selling points — not only for ease of use but functionality as well. In fact, Schneider believes any multi-event creator would benefit from the tool. “It’s really going to help either small event organizers who don’t have the budget or the time to put together marketing campaigns, or a high -frequency user.”
In the end, Schneider trusts the efficiency and efficacy of Eventbrite Boost. “My goal is always how can I automate these things. How can I streamline? Eventbrite Boost is a small price to pay for large returns.”
*Eventbrite data 5/1/2022 – 12/1/2022 comparing events promoted with Paid Social Ads with any event that was not promoted with the same tool.
