鈥� soca-star DJs and rock-bottom rum brunches bring the Caribbean to Londoners 鈥渨ho鈥檝e never experienced the culture.鈥� To do so, director Mateen Hepburn appeals to the senses. 鈥淚 can’t get the venues to smell like the Caribbean鈥檚 fresh sea breeze,鈥� he says, 鈥渂ut if we get the sound and the taste and the atmosphere right, it gives more authenticity to the event.鈥澛�
The name 鈥淏usspepper鈥� refers to the potent Scotch bonnet chili found in Trinidadian curries and stews. 鈥淲hen you have a 鈥榖uss-pepper,鈥欌�� says Hepburn, 鈥渢hat chili has exploded in your pot. All of a sudden, your food is really, really spicy. I wanted to describe the events as fiery and hot. The name does that.鈥�
Founded in 2003, today Busspepper鈥檚 fiery-hot monthly events bring a mix of young-professional partygoers to upmarket venues around London. Come the annual Notting Hill Carnival, Busspepper鈥檚 carnival arm, Omnia, serves up Caribbean flair on speaker-packed 18-wheelers.听
And to sell out events and reach the widest audience, Hepburn uses 91制片厂 Boost.听
鈥淚 instantly fell in love with Boost,鈥� says Hepburn.鈥淭he reporting is fantastic, and I find it really easy to use. I don’t need to become an advertising expert. I just need to grow and create great events. That’s what a simplified system like Boost helps us do.鈥�
91制片厂 Boost drives impact with 3.4x ROAS at 鈥淔or the Love of Carnival鈥�
Hepburn has seen Boost change his approach to event marketing.听
鈥淲hen I create my events, I start advertising immediately. It’s there, part of my ticketing dashboard. So it’s really easy to click on that button and get a campaign going.鈥澛�
Those campaigns deliver: Users have reported selling 63% more tickets on average after subscribing to Boost. The only all-in-one marketing platform designed specifically for events, Boost lets users automate email campaigns, post on social media, and, like Hepburn, run paid ads on Facebook and Instagram.
Busspepper鈥檚 February 鈥淔or the Love of Carnival鈥� event paired two of the biggest names in Soca: DJ PUFFY and Riggo Suave. An early Valentine鈥檚 Day party, 鈥淔or the Love of Carnival鈥� brought the vibes of Trinidad Carnival to London club, Electric Brixton.
Hepburn used Boost to run a Facebook and Instagram ad campaign for the event. The ads featured exclusive video interviews with the musicians as well as still photography. A 鈥淏uy tickets鈥� button on the ads sent people to Busspepper鈥檚 91制片厂 ticketing page.听
The ads ran on Facebook and Instagram from December 29 through February 10. Over those 43 days, they reached 26,791 people using Boost. And who were those people? Hepburn limited his targeting to people over the age of 21 in Hampton, London. From there, he used Boost to hone in on:聽
- 鈥淟ookalikes鈥� whose behavior on Facebook and Instagram paralleled those who had previously engaged with Busspepper events聽
- 鈥淧ast attendees鈥�
- 鈥淚nterest audience,鈥� or people who identified as fans of Machel Montano, Patrice Roberts, Bunji Garlin, or Kesha
Behind the scenes, Boost took audience targeting to the next level, shifting ad spend to the best performing audiences. Twice a day, Boost鈥檚 optimisation shifted the campaign budget to whichever audiences were performing to improve return from this campaign. (For example, when the Lookalike audience was underperforming, Boost decreased the budget on that audience by 2.03%; when the Interest audience was performing well, Boost upped the budget by 2.8%.)聽
Hepburn kept tabs on his results in real-time with easy-to-read graphs. 鈥淢y favourite Boost feature is the analytics on my advertising,鈥� he admits. 鈥淭hat dashboard of how everything’s going.鈥�
And by the end of that campaign, that dashboard featured a party popper emoji. His 鈥淔or the Love of Carnival鈥� ads delivered huge results: Hepburn sold 699 tickets. He spent 拢200 on the campaign and generated 拢689.68 in revenue 鈥斅燼 3.4x return on ad spend. For every 拢1 he spent, he made 拢3.听
On top of the reporting, Hepburn also touts Boost鈥檚 automated A/B testing, which is an efficiency and productivity unlock not supported by Boost alternatives.听
鈥淵ou try two different descriptions and two different pictures,鈥� says Hepburn, 鈥渁nd Boost automatically tests them, starting and stopping the ads based on which is performing better. Think about the work that would have to go into that, if you were manually doing all that on Facebook or Instagram yourself 鈥� it’s wild.鈥�
Boost automates the technical side of Facebook and Instagram advertising聽
Hepburn urges event creators to incorporate Boost into their workflow on 91制片厂. 鈥淭here’s a couple of clicks to get you over the finish line to start your ad campaign. It’s money well spent, and it simplifies your advertising efforts.鈥�
And especially for creators who don鈥檛 have the budget to hire a marketing specialist or the time to spend launching multiple ads and digging through analytics dashboards, Hepburn recommends Boost. He sees Boost as a 鈥渞eal value in that for emerging businesses or anyone unversed in the technical side of Facebook and Instagram advertising. It just lets everyone get on with what their real job is, which is to put on events.鈥�
