Freq Group does things differently. At their biannual festival, Freqs Out East, thousands of drum-and-bass fans flock to an expansive suburban home (fun fact: the former estate of a washing machine tycoon) east of Auckland for nine hours of dance music. And it gets wilder. Just in time for Halloween, the next Freqs Out East is “Spooky Edition” — costumes strongly encouraged.
Ghosts, anyone? “My sound guys claim to have seen something,” Dan Hesson, Director of Freq Music says. “I’m still skeptical, but there’s definitely a lot of history there.”
Shannon E on Freq’s outdoor stage
After 10 years in the industry, Freq Music has plenty of history itself. Freq Group comprises Freq Music, which produces dozens of concerts a year, as well as two biannual festivals: Freqs Out East and Freqs Out South. All Freq events, according to Hesson, let “people enjoy club vibes in their own backyard.”
To promote Freq’s events, Hesson uses Eventbrite’s marketing tools. “They’re awesome tools for our Facebook and Instagram marketing,” he says. “The ability to target Spotify listeners by genres and artists — I don’t even know if you can do that on other ads platforms. And I love how the reporting gives me a bird’s eye view, and lets me dig down deeper to see what’s performing.”
How Freq’s pre-NYE bash social ad campaign drove 24.1x return on ad spend
To ring in 2022, Freq Music hosted a pre-NYE bash at New Zealand’s Waihi Beach. With electronic music from the likes of RAYNE and TwoFöld, the concert spanned two seaside stages.
Using Eventbrite’s social tools, Hesson ran a five-day ad campaign on Facebook. The ad showcased an image of a DJ hyping up a large crowd, and the ad copy enticed fans to go “LARGE.”
With our exclusive audience targeting, he ensured people with similar musical interests (for instance, Diplo, Wilkinson, and TREI) would see the ads, as well as existing fans and past attendees of Freq events. His budget? NZ$83.88.
The rapidfire campaign was a smashing success. It netted Freq NZ$2,022.43, a whopping 24.1x return on their ad spend. Moreover, they reached 9,096 people, 245 of whom clicked on the ad. (Bonus: Those 245 people are now part of Freq’s retargeting audiences in future campaigns.)
Higher-performing ads through Eventbrite’s budget optimization and audience targeting
So, what was the secret behind Freq’s pre-NYE campaign’s success?
Eventbrite’s budget optimization brought in an additional NZ$287.43.
First, with our budget-optimization technology, the dollars behind Hesson’s ad campaign were always reallocated to the best-performing audience. For instance, when the Existing Fans and Past Attendees audience was less active than the Interest-based audience, our algorithm shifted funds to favor the better-performing audience. Those micro-adjustments would require manual changes — not to mention constant campaign monitoring — on another ads platform. With our tools, they’re automatic.
Eventbrite’s sales curve data helped Freq maximize their timing.
Then, to determine the best timing for his ad campaigns, Hesson consulted the Sales Curve function within our tool. “You can actually see the shape of not only your own previous events, but events in that industry,” he says. “It gives us an indication of where ticket sales are, where they should be, and how we’re tracking.” After all, this helps quell the nerves, especially as ticket sales have gotten even more last-minute since the pandemic. Hesson reports 80% of ticket sales occurring in the last two weeks before an event, and that proved to be the case with the NY Waihi Beach campaign: purchases spiked in the last two days it ran.
Eventbrite’s audience targeting helped Freq reach people most likely to buy.
Finally, we helped Hesson develop a powerful targeting strategy to reach event-goers. “Custom audiences are a big thing for us,” he says. “What I like about Eventbrite is that we can target previous ticket buyers and exclude them as well.” Combine that with the ability to tap into Spotify interests, and you’ve got a music industry secret weapon.
Eventbrite drives sales and saves time
Freq’s Dan Hesson, left, with Ben Walker (Benny Boy), right
For Freq Group, the simplicity of having everything in one place and the built-in timesavers make Eventbrite’s marketing tools a must-have.
“I’m quite time poor,” Hesson laughs, “and I still manage the marketing.” Therefore, Eventbrite’s intuitive interface and clear reporting helps him set up ads and understand their performance. As Hesson says, Eventbrite has been “really beneficial to drive sales.”
Ultimately, for event creators looking to run more-effective paid social ads (with less effort), Eventbrite’s marketing tools are an unlock. (After all, events promoted using Eventbrite marketing tools get nearly 2.5x more listing views*.) Says Hesson: “I definitely recommend it to other people, especially in the music industry, any music promoter — it would work really well for them.”
*Eventbrite data 5/1/2022 – 12/1/2022 comparing events promoted with Eventbrite marketing tools with any event that was not promoted with the same tool.
