Dogtown United | Festival Engagement Campaign

Dogtown United is a neighborhood organization committed to cultivating an annual cultural festival and parade with over 50,000 attendees. The communication strategy for the event was intended to engage community members, as well as to attract sponsorships and business participation.

As a result of outreach and sponsor promotion and recognition, event revenue increased by 32% from 2022 to 2023.

Website

Attendees, vendors and sponsors alike needed a one-stop spot for festival information. Throughout the year, I managed the website design and content to keep the community informed and engaged. The content strategy for the website included static, organizational information, dynamic event information, event and community blog posts and partner marketing links and merchandise sales. As a result of this campaign, website visits increased by 131% in 2023 compared to 2022.

Visit www.dogtownunited.org to see more.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Social media engagement was an essential element of the campaign, so we developed the content calendar starting six months in advance of the event. Post topics included FAQs, merchandise and media partnerships, sponsorship recognition, volunteer information, event maps, blog posts and a photo contest. We collected analytics on post performance and adapted content to better engage followers’ interests. As a result of these campaigns, followers increased by 10.3% on Facebook and 66.5% on Instagram.

Visit www.facebook.com/dogtownunited and www.instagram.com/dogtownunited to see more.

PARTNER MARKETING

Collaborating with community brands was a great way to reach our audience with trusted community voices. I worked with a variety of brands to showcase the festival and the neighborhood in the weeks leading up to and after the event.

MAILERS

The festival takes place in a historic, St. Louis neighborhood where houses are neatly tucked along narrow streets. Keeping the 3,900+ neighborhood residents informed about logistical updates helped us maintain a positive brand reputation. This mailer not only informed residents, but gave us a platform to incentivize and recognize sponsors, as well as to promote fundraising.

PRESENTATIONs

Sponsor presentations are customized for each sponsor, but the standard design and messaging is the same. We used the presentation to tell the compelling story of the Dogtown United organization and the community impact of the festival. Sponsor levels are dependent on marketing recognition, which was then managed by myself as part of the communication strategy.