Magnetic North was a national theatre festival that travelled and presented in a different city across Canada every other year. In spring/summer 2016, the company presented in Whitehorse. It needed to build a local audience in a short period of time for the ten day-long festival.

Using a multi-faceted marketing campaign that extended beyond traditional tactics, we were able to target Whitehorse audiences through earned media, social media marketing, influencers, and pop-up events.
 
Using Facebook and Twitter, we were able to target local audiences and national audiences with regular posting, trailer videos, and website ads. We leveraged interview, panel, and photo opportunities to get coverage across all local media outlets.
 
Pop-up events took place across town during the campaign period to promote the festival and engage local audiences. We planned a downtown Scavenger Hunt as a free and fun way to learn about the festival and its shows. Participant teams solved clues that took them to various downtown locations where they completed activities related to shows.

The festival was a grand success with visitors from all over the world coming to take in both local and visiting theatre acts. In the 3-month promotional period, we drove almost 2,000 visits to the website, generated 1,345 likes and 232 shares on Facebook and 393 likes and 412 mentions on Twitter. We grew both channels by 487 followers. Almost 100 people took part in the scavenger hunt and our story pitches garnered 35 articles, interviews, and photos in a combination of print, radio, and video news media.

1,813 website visits
487 new followers
35 media items
9,180 video views
3,009 likes
421 shares/retweets