5 steps to a Sold Out Event

Every year, for the past 20 years, UWI (Development and Endowment Fund) has held its annual Carnival Fete.  The purpose of the fete is to fund bursaries to deserving students. Less than one month after the 2010 fete, 160 bursuries each of $5,000 in value were awarded and handed out to recipients.

This year, despite the downturn, the UWI fete performed particularly well. In fact, it sold out, why?  As chair of the Fete here’s what I think.

1. Build a strong brand

The UWI Fete is one of the first All Inclusives in T&T, and was started by the then Principal of UWI and our current President, His Excellency Maxwell Richards.  It has always set high standards and most importantly, positioned itself as the Fete that attracts the Who’s Who of the private and public sectors.  It’s the place to go if you want to see and meet the movers and shakers of our country.  So  the essence of the the UWI Fete brand, I believe, is about rewarding yourself with the best Fete experience because you are a high achiever and you deserve it.  The UWI fete gives people an opportunity to Fete and at the same time do good.

The 2010 Fete was the 20th Anniversary of the Fete and that gave us an opportunity to remind people what a great time they have had in the past 20 years.  It was celebrating a special occasion of a strong brand.

2. Begin planning early

The UWI Fete Committee starts planning several months prior and our first communications to Companies and influencers went out in October 2009.  Our team decided on a “China” theme because it is traditional to give a piece of china on the occasion of a 20th Anniversary.  So using this as inspiration all our communications, decor, food and special touches bore the chinese influence.

3. Make sure the product is good

The best music (and plenty of it, with UWI being the only All Inclusive in 2010 with 4 bands), plenty of good food and premium drinks; all set out in the right ambience that the UWI Principal’s Grounds offer.  This affects the reputation of the brand so it needs to be of a consistently high standard every year.

4. Use a multimedia marketing approach that includes Digital Marketing

The UWI Fete Facebook Fanpage

We drove interest for the Fete through press and radio advertising and a strong digital media plan (e-strategy) including e-mail campaigns, web advertising, mobile marketing and social media.

The UWI Fete Facebook Fanpage was launched featuring a custom tab using Facebook’s FBML app. This custom tab greeted new fans asking them to invite other friends to join the Fanpage. As a Facebook Fan, the new fan member was privy to photos, video and links of past events. To spark enthusiasm, we counted down the days to the event with teasers, involving the fans in banter and discussion with interesting links and content. A Facebook event was also created allowing fans to invite friends at the click of a button.

For those who preferred Twitter, we created a Twitter account which automatically tweeted items from the Facebook fanpage news stream.

In terms of email marketing, we sent custom HTML emails with when, where and who details. This was complimented by text messages sent to the UWI-provided database and a series of online ads.

5. Luck helps

We were the only major fete on the 17th January, so no competition on the day sure does help.  Our planning team does not rely on luck though and work very hard to keep improving the UWI Fete.

For those of you who attended, thank you for making the event a success. To everyone, see you in 2011.

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