Creating a Loyalty Membership Scheme for Music Festival Entities.

The music festival sector is an increasingly competitive environment with new events being added every year. This creates a great choice for festival-goers when deciding which event to attend. Pricing and line-ups are always factors in decision making but can a loyalty membership scheme be an alternative way to generate audiences that return year after year.

Some music festival entities do run membership schemes, but they are not common and in many cases are not well organised. A good scheme can help to differentiate a festival from the competition by offering exclusive benefits to members that encourage early ticket purchase and incremental sales revenues for organisers. Organisers can also utilise schemes to collect invaluable demographic data about their audiences and leverage sponsors, artists and vendors to secure lucrative deals. How can organisers create and operate an effective loyalty membership scheme from scratch.

Define Objectives.
To enable the creation of a sustainable scheme that benefits both festival-goers and the organising entity it's important to clearly define what the objectives are and how any scheme will work. It is essential that a scheme enables year-round engagement building a group of advocates who contribute to incremental revenue for organisers. The primary goal for any scheme is to encourage early ticket sales which will improve the organisers cash flow position over the financial year. In addition, the collection of customer data is essential for the creation of targeted marketing activity and the building of an ideal customer profile. A secondary objective is to improve overall customer satisfaction by creating financial rewards and exclusive experiences for festival-goers with high perceived values.

Data Collection and Management.
The collection and use of all customer data must comply with any prevailing GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) requirements. Organisers must have in place a robust CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system which enables the collection and manipulation of data for marketing activity. Many CRM systems will have built in loyalty scheme modules which can make the set-up phase simpler. Once recruited, members could get a personal account where they login to see their personalised account that shows benefits available, points earned or current purchase discount codes for example. Organisers can use the CRM systems to segment and slice and dice data for selected personalised campaigns and promotions ideally at least once or twice a month to maintain customer engagement.

Benefits for Festival-goers.
Organisers must craft offers and perks for members which are not available to the general public to increase their perceived value. This can include offering discounted early bird tickets with comprehensive upgrade options to secure VIP access for example. Providing unique access to artist's content and material through steaming links also help create new fans for curated artists. Invitations to pre-sale parties and afterparties with access to backstage zones and opportunities for artist meet and greets are always popular. Offers on merchandise with discounted prices or exclusive designs only available to scheme members will generate additional revenue. Providing priority access to sponsor and vendor zones for discounted products, services, food and beverages can also be considered key benefits of being a scheme member.

Benefits for Festival Entities.
Creating a loyalty membership scheme helps to build an audience that is more likely to purchase early in the ticketing sales cycle as well as purchasing upsell products and services. If engagement is maintained throughout the year and festival-goer benefits are valued organisers are more likely to get repeat attendees year on year. The data collected is invaluable for analysing customers and creating demographic profiles that can be used to secure sponsorship deals and increase sales of vendor pitch spaces. The membership also provides opportunities for sponsors and vendors to connect directly with them by providing exclusive offers and rewards. The data available allows organisers to analyse the value of incremental sales revenue against the cost of running a membership scheme, a useful return on investment calculation. Whilst most schemes are operated on a free to join basis some organisers do make a small charge for joining. Any fee will discourage numerous festival-goers form joining but it can create a more exclusive feeling for those willing to pay. Paying members can obtain alternative benefits like exclusive access to members only lounges and bars for example. For organisers investigating their first loyalty membership scheme they may consider a tiered approach for members that includes a basic free version and a paid one that allows access to more exclusive benefits. It is often a case of testing different scenarios to find the one that works best for that organising entity.

For festival organisers planning their next event using a software management platform like Festival Pro gives them all the functionality they need manage every aspect of their event logistics. The guys who are responsible for this software have been in the front line of event management for many years and the features are built from that experience and are performance artists themselves. The Festival Pro platform is easy to use and has comprehensive features with specific modules for managing artists, contractors, venues/stages, vendors, volunteers, sponsors, guestlists, ticketing, site planning, cashless payments and contactless ordering.

Image by TheDigitalArtist via Pixabay

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