22 Sep National Winner, Event Marketing at MEA Awards
Last night, Milestone Creative was announced the National Winner for Event Marketing at the Meetings & Events Australia national awards ceremony.
This award was for our work on Sydney SailGP 2020, which was held in Sydney on 28/29 February 2020.
Milestone was responsible for the implementation of a significant integrated global event marketing campaign including strategy, stakeholder and government relationships, media planning, buying and production, paid digital marketing, alliance marketing, campaign creative and content clips, event ticketing management and front of house event operations.
Six core objectives were developed with the event marketing strategy and campaigns outlined in this section being designed around these deliverables:
1. Build stronger global and national brand awareness and raise the profile of SailGP as an emerging global sport and significant event for Australia and APAC
2. Develop a new narrative and creative to find and attract “next gen” audiences targeting non-traditional sports and sailing communities including 25-25yo male and females – converting for now and seeding for the future.
3. Drive visitation, overnight stay and increased economic impact to the state through global, interstate and regional campaigns
4. Drive direct revenue to the Australian team and the league by promoting ticketed experiences as the way to see all of the action
5. Build a loyal fan base through localised content and engagement strategies
6. Promote broadcast, app and media coverage to gain interest and investment from future host cities and sponsors
Our marketing approach employed strategic and tactical plans including a broad paid campaign consisting of a mix of print, radio, outdoor, digital and owned. Digital and outdoor was utilised most, including:
• An OOH (out of home) advertising series on major arterial road billboards, billboards at Sydney Airport and baggage carousel advertising
• Ferry takeover advertising on routes to Eastern Suburbs, North and Inner West, including staircases, decks, poster boards and helm
• A “wow” bold tram buyout on the Inner West, the new City Centre and new Kensington lines. We were the first to advertise on these new lines featuring the “Get ready for lift off” campaign
• Milestone negotiated a significant partnership with NOVA and Smooth, activating radio spots and live reads on both channels plus an experiential activation with their “Nova Crew”, competitions plus on-Island activation on race days.
• Direct buy in highly targeted publications for sporting, adrenaline, lifestyle lovers
● Ticket giveaways and social channel building using specific campaigns and channels including Broadsheet, Urban List and Concrete Playground that achieved phenomenal reach and response, building our profile amongst non-traditional 25yo female audience, resulting in 35% of spectators in 2020 being female, up 6% from 29% in 2019
• Blog outreach and contra with niche sailing publications
• Milestone managed a significant paid digital campaign, for all 10 campaigns across Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, programmatic and search.
• Owned media including social media, of course, using long format video to capture attention, engagement and video views plus a series of eDMs to Aussie fans and global audiences