Challenge

Introduce a new social media platform, engage followers, and provide value to current and future sponsors.

The New Hampshire Film Festival came to Vital Design with three inbound marketing goals.

1. Engage new social networks without detracting from the value of their established Facebook and Twitter communities.
2. Provide followers with a simple way to build anticipation and join the conversation about the Festival.
3. Extend their social media reach by providing value to current and future sponsors.

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Solutions

Reach new and existing social media followers

Leverage Instagram

• Vital and NHFF selected Instagram because it is popular on both Android and iOS mobile devices.
• Instagram is also easily integrated with other popular social networks including Facebook and Twitter.
• Instagram’s focus on visual storytelling was a perfect fit for the NHFF’s event-based social media.

Connect to attendees using the simple hashtag #NHFF

• Vital chose to use the simple #NHFF with no date to reduce user confusion.

Tracking and reporting tools

• Starting months in advance, Vital installed reporting and analysis tools on the NHFF site and social channels. These included Sprout Social, Google Analytics, and HashTracking.
• Applying this rigorous analysis regimen to NHFF was key to the overall social media strategy. The ultimate goal of all the social efforts is to drive ticket sales and film submissions, so engaging in social media was only half the battle — we also needed visibility into how well it was working.
• Sprout Social was used to monitor and track NHFF profiles on Facebook and Twitter.
• HashTracking was used to monitor and track the hashtag #NHFF.
• Simply Measured was used to monitor and track their profile on Instagram.

Public Relations

• The publicity portion of NHFF outreach included media sponsorships from Patch.com, WSCA Portsmouth Community Radio, and WMUR TV.
• Vital provided all photos, graphics, and all other media or information publications needed to complete their pieces, and fielded all interview requests, reporter queries, and needs.

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Results

NHFF enjoyed its biggest year ever.

New records were set in ticket sales, submissions and films screened.

Social Media

Because of our focus on key social networks, the NH Film Festival had its biggest year on social media. Data represents one month prior to and one week after the festival.

• Twitter interactions – 1,047
• Twitter impressions – 1,221,523
• Twitter follower growth – 356
• Facebook interactions – 3,371
• Facebook impressions – 297,226
• Facebook fan growth – 230
• YouTube views – 1,944 video views

Public Relations

•  Vital’s PR efforts resulted in 30 articles in print and online publications over the course of the Festival and the preceding and following weeks.
• During the Festival, the publicity team facilitated the distribution of press passes and organized interviews and a press conference for local media with actor and screenwriter Mike O’Malley, a special guest of the Festival.
• Mike O’Malley’s interview at the Festival was featured on WMUR’s New Hampshire Chronicle.
• Press stories published online resulted in over 1,750 pageviews on the NHFF site over the course of two months.

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Project Details

Instagram

It was important for the NH Film Festival to expand their reach into new social networks without sacrificing the value of their already established Twitter and Facebook community. Vital reviewed four social networks for the NH Film Festival to expand into this year; Google+, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. Instagram was a natural choice because of its:

• Popularity on both Android and iOS mobile devices.
• Integration with other popular social networks including Facebook and Twitter.
• Focus on visual storytelling.

Hashtag

One key question many organizations have is how can they harness and take advantage of all the conversations that are happening around their online brand? We accomplished this by using a simple hashtag (#NHFF) allowing users across multiple social networks, including Instagram and Twitter, to share content and connect with the New Hampshire Film Festival.

Vital used the #NHFF hashtag to share key content leading up to and throughout the festival. Especially leading up to the festival this was designed to train our followers to join us in using the hashtag without having to correct followers during the festival. Vital Design chose to use the simple #NHFF with no date this year to cause less confusion in having to switch to a new hashtag year after year.

Vital also monitored multiple variations of the NH Film Festival’s name including #NHFF. This allowed us to engage with their followers and provide support to any questions that arose.

 

Public Relations

The PR push began in early September with press releases about sponsors and special guests of the Festival and gradually ramped up to 1-2 press releases a week as the Festival drew closer.  During the Festival, the publicity team facilitated the distribution of press passes and organized interviews and a press conference for local media with actor and screenwriter Mike O’Malley, a special guest of the Festival. Mike O’Malley’s interview at the Festival was featured on WMUR’s New Hampshire Chronicle.

The PR team also created short NHFF videos leading up to the Festival and during the Festival weekend.  These included the “Director’s Minute” series which featured Festival Executive Director Nicole Gregg announcing various news about Festival guests, parties, and other updates. These were shot in a variety of locations around Portsmouth, from the NHFF office to the top of the One Hundred Club, site of the VIP brunch. The videos were published to YouTube and shared via NHFF social media channels.

Data

Because of our focus on key social networks, the NH Film Festival had its biggest year on social media. Data represent one month prior to and one week after the festival.

Twitter interactions – 1,047
Twitter impressions – 1,221,523
Twitter follower growth – 356

Facebook interactions – 3,371
Facebook impressions – 297,226
Facebook fan growth – 230

YouTube views – 1,944 video views

#NHFF reach – 358,000
#NHFF impressions – 1,400,000
#NHFF tweets – 860

Instagram photos – 147

Referral traffic from social media networks – 2,347 visits to the NHFF site, an increase of 15% from previous year.