Category: Success Stories

Indie Beauty Expo: Event Management That Grows With You

by Miranda Romero, posted in Success Stories

The green and indie beauty movement is truly global. Indie brands are among the fastest growing product categories. They have become a ‘must have’ in almost every retailer’s collection and are now directly influencing key trends in their markets. The Indie Beauty Expo was founded to support the growth and success of indie brands and the entrepreneurs behind them.

Founded by celebrity esthetician, Jillian Wright, and entrepreneur, Nader Naeymi-Rad, Indie Beauty Expo (IBE) was established to help the fast-growing category of indie beauty brands connect to buyers, press, consumers and investors. Unsatisfied with the options available, Jillian and Nader formed IBE to provide a solution specific to market-ready indie brands.

IBE debuted in New York City in August of 2015 and has since expanded to four strategic markets in North America and Europe: New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, and London. Today IBE offers buyers, press, investors and shoppers an opportunity to discover and transact with the largest collection of independent beauty brands in the world.

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Originally searching for an event management system that could manage their vendors and registration, IBE reached out to SpinGo in October of 2016 to see if Event Master would be the right fit. Impressed with Event Master’s lightweight platform, IBE partnered with SpinGo.

With IBE ready to use Event Master, SpinGo built customized registration pages branded with IBE’s signature look.

IBE used the platform to screen vendors, buyers, attendees, and exhibitor applicants before each event. With all of this data being tracked in Event Master, the platform was used at events to check-in and print custom branded badges for attendees on-site.

Cassandra Darley, SpinGo Account Manager for Indie Beauty Expo, works closely with IBE to make sure Event Master is set for each event. “Indie Beauty Expo is one of the best events we work with, their events are visually stunning and well organized. They’ve really been able to utilize Event Master’s platform and we’re excited to continue working with them.”

Since choosing SpinGo in 2016, IBE has used Event Master in L.A., Dallas, and New York. With success in their U.S. locations, IBE is getting ready to take Event Master to their international expo in London and Berlin.

Innovative Bikes Meet Innovative Registration

by Miranda Romero, posted in Success Stories

The mission of the North American Handmade Bicycle Show (NAHBS) is a simple one: Showcase the talents and share ideas among the best builders of handmade bicycle frames in the world.

Since its debut in 2005, NAHBS has become established as the world’s number one handmade bicycle show. Many of these bespoke bicycles are wonderful creations, others can leave you scratching your head. Sometimes they are both weird and wonderful at the same time.

Case in point: this year at NAHBS there was a swoopy titanium city bike with 36 inch wheels, a fat bike inspired by a watermelon, and a carbon gravel bike painted to look like a circuit board.

In addition to many US frame builders, exhibitors from countries including Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, and the Netherlands have helped the show become an international display of bicycle craftsmanship.

This niche event needed a platform that could work with their exhibitors and attendees. That’s when they decided to reach out to SpinGo and inquire about Event Master’s innovative all-in-one platform.

With Event Master, NAHBS created custom exhibitor applications and screened applicants. Once an applicant was approved, NAHBS collected payment for customized booth options, map them on the exhibit floor, and collect compliance details.

In addition to getting help with their exhibitors, NAHBS also used the volunteer feature in Event Master to communicate with volunteers and schedule shifts without any confusion.

With exhibitors and volunteers ready to go to their event, NAHBS only had one thing left to handle, their attendees. Using Event Master, NAHBS checked-in and credentialed attendees onsite within seconds.

With SpinGo’s Event Master, the NAHBS team was able to move a record-breaking number of attendees through the event quickly. The platform was able to simplify how NAHBS onboarded exhibitors and provided customized credentials for each exhibitor’s booth staff.

With Event Master, NAHBS achieved the following:

  • 4,000+ attendees checked-in
  • 152 exhibitors credentialed
  • 90 volunteers onboarded

 

To view the full case study, click here.

Famous Monsters of Filmland: PPC Doesn’t Have to Be Scary

by Miranda Romero, posted in Success Stories

What’s it like working with the world’s first monster magazine?

Today we’re sharing the results from one of our most successful PPC campaigns. Back in August we were asked to create and manage digital ad campaigns for Famous Monsters of Filmland. With only 3 months until the Famous Monsters Halloween Convention, we were able to convert ads into ticket sales.

Famous Monsters of Filmland is a magazine highlighting the art of horror films. This year they were going to hold their first Famous Monsters Halloween Convention, a 3-day horror themed convention. The convention would feature famous actors and actresses from horror and sci-fi films and special events for attendees including film screenings, cosplay contests, haunted houses, ghost tours, and more.

The convention coordinators wanted their first year event to be well attended. The team also wanted a positive return on investment from pre-sale tickets. While organizing the Famous Monsters Halloween Convention, Phil Kim was referred to SpinGo to help him with his digital advertising.

Phil saw an opportunity to free up time for his staff and improve ticket sales through digital marketing. With only 3 months until the Famous Monsters Halloween Convention, Phil handed off digital marketing services to SpinGo.

SpinGo focused on 6 different marketing channels:

Facebook Event Ads: A simple way to raise awareness of the convention.

Facebook Prospecting Ads: Ads that redirect to a specific landing page outside of Facebook.

Facebook Retargeting Ads: Ads that display on Facebook and Instagram to visitors of Famous Monsters Halloween Con website.

Google Contextual Ads: Banner ads that display on horror genre websites to raise awareness to the targeted audience outside of Facebook.

Google Search Ads: Pop up on the top of the search results pages when somebody searches for specific keywords relating to the convention.

Google Retargeting Ads: Display to users who visited the Famous Monsters Halloween Con website on sites around the web.

SpinGo’s marketing team built a 2.5 month marketing strategy to sell pre-sale tickets and followed other marketing best practices: creating awareness, building urgency, and driving ticket sales. Using these techniques SpinGo was able to convert ads into ticket sales for the convention.

“One area of the campaign that did particularly well were the search ads” said Colin Matthes, Content Marketing Manager of SpinGo. “We spent a lot of time testing, tweaking, and optimizing the ads and keywords to make sure we were targeting the best keywords for the campaign. We ended up having incredible click-through and conversion rates from Google Search.”

SpinGo’s marketing campaigns for Famous Monsters of Filmland proved that pre-sale tickets can provide a positive ROI, even for a first year event, when there is little or no event name recognition.

Between August 14 – October 1, SpinGo achieved:

  • 4.77 Return on Ad Spend. For every $1 Famous Monsters of Filmland spent on Google or Facebook, they earned $4.77 back from ticket sales.
  • 2.4 million ads displayed.
  • 21,812 ads clicked.

“Our experience with SpinGo was great” said Dominie Lee, Director of Operations for Famous Monsters of Filmland. “The attention they gave our campaign and availability to assist when needed was top notch. I would definitely work with SpinGo again.””

 

To view the full case study, click here.

Smooth Sailing For Attendees at Silicon Slopes

by Miranda Romero, posted in Success Stories

SpinGo provided seamless registration for over 9,000 attendees.

After months of planning and organizing, Silicon Slopes Tech Summit 2018 had finally arrived. The event drew in speakers from top companies including Facebook, Beats, Adobe, and Vivint. The tech summit provided two days of thought leadership on topics like marketing, finance, and product innovation. This year the event makers for the tech summit knew they needed a seamless solution for registration. That’s when they decided to partner with SpinGo.

“Last year we had pre-printed badges, which ended up being more of a hassle than a help,” said Stuart Gold, Executive Producer for Silicon Slopes Tech Summit. “This year we decided to partner with SpinGo to lead our registration process and we couldn’t have been happier with the decision.”

SpinGo had been asked to completely own the registration process for the annual summit, this would mean we were providing onsite check-in, registration, badge printing. Luckily for us we had Event Master, which proved itself to be a huge win at this year’s conference. People came from far and wide to attend this highly-anticipated tech gathering and the lines were proof.

Within the first two hours of the event, over 3,000 attendees were checked in and credentialed. Using Event Master on-site, we were able to check in and provide a personalized name badge for up to 34 attendees per minute.

“I was impressed with how quickly I was able to get through what looked to be a long line,” said Alex Park, an attendee from Cross Creek Advisors. “I was in line for less than 10 minutes and was able to check in and get my badge within seconds of approaching the front of the line.”

In addition to optimizing registration at the event, Event Master was also able to capture valuable attendee data to help Silicon Slopes plan for next year’s event. This data was also available to sponsors, who were able to scan the QR code on attendee name badges to collect demographic information.

“SpinGo’s platform was the registration solution we needed,” said Clint Betts, CEO of Silicon Slopes. “We had many positive comments from attendees on their slick experience checking into the event. People were happy that they were able to get checked in quickly and move on to the sessions they wanted to attend.”

Silicon Slopes is a great example of Event Master can truly innovate your attendee experience. Your event’s first impression is important, so put your best foot forward with our onsite solutions designed to speed up your event check-in process. Check in your guests seamlessly and digitally.

 

To view the full case study, click here.

How the Lewiston Civic Theatre Pulled Off a Successful Fundraising Event Using SpinGo

by Jeff Lew, posted in Success Stories

There’s a tired-looking, castle-like edifice that looms over a street corner in Lewiston, Idaho. Though worn and weary on the outside, it’s bursting with massive energy on the inside. This is the home of the Lewiston Civic Theatre, which has been a fixture in the community for the last 52 years, delighting patrons with productions like “Rent,” “Of Mice and Men,” “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,” and other award-winning theatrical entertainment.

“I see the value of live performance as an enriching facet of our blue-collar community that changes the lives of those who attend the theater, and those who perform on stage.”

Jennifer Menegas, who sits on the Lewiston Civic Theatre Board of Directors, previously appeared in a number of Lewiston productions as a performer, and now she works on the event promotion side of things. “I see the value of live performance as an enriching facet of our blue-collar community that changes the lives of those who attend the theater, and those who perform on stage,” she says.

     

The Lewiston Civic Theatre is a nonprofit organization, run mostly by community volunteers, and it produces five main-stage productions a season, youth company productions, dinner theatres, art exhibits, and workshops. Jennifer feels fortunate that they do enough ticket sales to barely keep the doors open. But additional funds are required to support the structure’s  physical needs, which was built in 1907.

How to put on a successful fundraising event.

Each year the Lewiston Civic Theatre hosts its Fine Arts Ball to raise the funds needed to make improvements to the builiding and to keep it up to code. Since 2013, the event theme has been “Legends of Music,” where bands and performers from all across the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley impersonate a variety of famous artists like Tina Turner, Pavarotti, Bruno Mars, Billie Holiday, and Garth Brooks.

Jennifer regards this year’s event, which was held in March, as a huge success. And there were a few key factors to make it so successful, she says.

First, she had the right talent. She hired a brilliant set of emcees, who are a couple of well known TV and radio personalities. And the performers provided excellent entertainment. Over 20 musicians participated at this year’s event.

Another important ingredient was the event “hook.” The “Legends of Music” was a music competition, and that kept things lively and exciting. Other ideas like live auctions may be overdone and uninteresting, says Jennifer.

“It was the best thing we did in terms of getting the word out.”

Jennifer laments the fact that her event promotion budget is very limited.

“Nonprofits don’t have a huge budget. When The Eagles come to town, they can afford billboards and 5″ x 15″ads in the Tribune. We can’t.”

To drive awareness around the event, Jennifer worked with SpinGo to highlight “Legends of Music” on Inland360.com, a local entertainment publication and SpinGo partner. She was able to promote her event during the most effective days leading up to the event.

“It was the best thing we did in terms of getting the word out,” says Jennifer.

The show must go on.

The old building that rises over the corner of 6th Ave. and 8th St in Lewiston has stood proudly for over a century. It’s a cherished venue that has told countless stories and provided a stage for a community of performers. And thanks to a successful fundraising event, its curtains will remain open.