Case Study: SPARK ANIMATION Conference & Festival

Social Media

This fall, Social T. had the exciting opportunity to collaborate with SPARK CG to develop a social media campaign for the annual SPARK ANIMATION Conference & Festival. With the rise of streaming services, animation and television production studios in BC are rapidly growing. The goal of the campaign was to increase attendance numbers at all of the speaker sessions and film screenings.

The four-day SPARK ANIMATION 2019 involved over 20 panels, 50 speakers and 12 feature films.

Event promotion and social media managed by Social T. included:

Content creation, scheduling and management of Instagram and Facebook
Accompanying Instagram and Facebook Stories to drive traffic to SPARK CG’s social channels and website
Targeted social media ads to direct viewers to the festival’s schedule and ticket sales landing pages
On-site Instagram and Facebook LIVE to highlight key festival and conference events

To develop a goal-oriented strategy, the Social T. team first narrowed the festival's target audience and segmented it into three distinct markets: attendees (past and prospect), students and animation fans. Social T then set out to uncover what’s important to each segment by answering the following questions: What visuals and captions attract them? What are they looking for on SPARK CG’ social media channels? A social media strategy that aligned with the client’s overall event marketing goals was devised to not only target the festival’s existing audience, but also peak the interest of new audiences.

To capture attention, raise awareness and increase ticket sales, each targeted ad led to a landing page on SPARK CG’s website with more information about ticket prices, film schedules, conference packages and career fair details. PR Manager Helen Yagi landed media coverage in outlets such as Animation Magazine, Darpan Magazine, Global TV, The Vancouver Sun, Daily Hive...and more.

The national social media campaign expanded to include American cities such as Seattle and Portland. Photo and story ads were coupled with persuasive creative pieces and custom audiences to expand reach in order to promote ticket purchases. During the festival weekend, the Social T. team were on-site showcasing event highlights through Instagram Live, Facebook Live and Stories to further engage with followers. The two-month long campaign’s collective efforts resulted in: