Wolf Trap is a gorgeous venue set in a national park outside of Washington D.C. It has year-round programming – hosting intimate evenings in the historic Barns during the colder months – but the company’s heavy lift comes from May to September when they present over 100 performances across all genres. These performances are in high-demand and tend to sell out quickly – which is why receiving advance presales to sellout shows is one of the many guaranteed benefits of becoming a Wolf Trap Member.
Capacity Interactive worked with Wolf Trap to increase membership sales by raising awareness around member benefits.
We capitalized on summer nostalgia during the cold weather months by running promotions from mid-November to mid-December. The 4-week campaign focused on bottom-of-funnel-segments (Lapsed Members and Past Ticket Buyers).
Lapsed Members were already familiar with the benefits of a membership. They just needed a little reminding to take the leap to renew in advance of the summer.
The buying behavior of the Lapsed Members reflected this reminder/response dynamic. There were two spikes in Membership Conversion Rate during the campaign: one at the beginning when they first saw messaging about Memberships, and one at the end of the campaign when the end of the calendar year added a layer of urgency for charitable giving.
Past Ticket Buyers were not necessarily aware of the benefits of purchasing a Membership to Wolf Trap, so we relied on the storytelling capabilities of Facebook to evoke the experience of attending a performance and to showcase the ways in which Membership improves that experience.
Unlike the two spikes in membership purchases of the Lapsed Members, Past Ticket Buyers had a more consistent rate of growth for membership purchases. After reliving glorious summer concert memories via Facebook posts and daydreaming of an even better upcoming summer, these prospects were moved to invest in those future summer evenings by purchasing a Membership.
The combination of segmented audience lists, urgency in messaging, and well-crafted content helped the campaign move 143 memberships, which generated more than $38,000 in revenue and an ROI of 1,120%.
Of the 143 total Membership Purchase Conversions attributed to the campaign, 87 were from Past Ticket Buyers and 56 were from Lapsed Members. Looking at the bigger picture of a concurrent direct mail and email campaign, the digital efforts drove 50% of the renewals for Lapsed Members who renewed online!
There were also purchases attributed to programming that was on sale in November and December, indicating that this campaign increased brand awareness for the winter events at The Barns. All in all, the timing, strategy, creative content, and targets combined to result in an exceptionally successful campaign!
Photos courtesy of Wolf Trap