“Moving from the third year to the fourth year of a festival is always tricky”, said Danny May, founder of the High Definition Festival. “You’ve done all the hard work to build a base of diehards who love your festival but, of course, if you want to survive, you have to grow. You literally have to resist the urge to want to go commercial and to just try to blow it up as quickly as possible because you don’t want to alienate the very fans that are the foundation that you’ve built your success on.”

The Challenge: How Do You Grow While Staying True to Your Hard-core Fans?

“We quickly realized that the friends and family of our diehard fans were the perfect target to reach out to”, continued Danny. “We knew that the festival could grow and maintain its intimacy if everyone just brought one good friend”.

“In the 90’s you picked up a phone to find out what was happening, in the 2000’s you sent a text message. Now, people are making a decision on what festival or event they want to go to strictly based on what their friends say on Facebook. It’s become a critical component of our marketing efforts.”

“In our first three years, we had been using Promo Horse Power with our internal staff only” said Danny. “But in our fourth year we decided to expand our use of Promo Horse Power with our newly minted ‘superfans’ by inviting them to become brand ambassadors.” “In exchange for carrying our message to Facebook and Twitter, we created a tailor made High Definition Festival experience for the handful of ‘superfans’ that we empowered”.

“Our ticket sales skyrocketed. At the same time, 68% of those ticket sales were local. That means we were able to grow while staying authentic” said Danny.

“Watching a completely sold out crowd of 15,000 plus people rock out to Carl Cox at Eridge Park in Turnbridge Wells was a pretty spectacular feeling.”

“Our ‘superfans’ had a pretty good view as well.”

A Voice You Trust

“According to Nielsen’s 2013 Global New Products Report, 77 percent of consumers are more likely to buy a company’s product when they hear about it from someone they trust,” said Alen Bubich founder of Promo Horse Power. “So they really hit on a clever marketing idea to grow from within”. “Growing while staying authentic is always a challenge,” continued Alen. “Activating your existing fan base is an excellent way to do that.”

About High Definition Festival

High Definition has played host to some of the greatest electronic artist in the world from the likes of Carl Cox, Marco Carola, Labrinth, Katy B, Hot Since 82, Maceo Plex, The Martinez Brothers, Dusky, Gorgon City, Route 94, Ms. Dynamite, Mistajam, Pendulum, Fedde Le Grande, Mark Knight and many others frequenting the line-ups over the last few years. Our 2015 festival to deliver 2 days of the hottest up and coming talent mixed with the most respected veterans in the game. You are personally invited to take part in this year’s festival with 60,000 of your closest friends.