Idea
Capitalise on the boom in festival culture, and the way in which festival goers upload photos, to create an online space for the sharing of festival stories and pictures, with the best contributions published in a book at the end of each festival season.
Experience
Throughout the summer of 2009, festival goers submitted photos to the Festival Annual digital hub on MySpace, with many more sending us festival stories via Twitter. Regular blogs, photo galleries and contests kept momentum going all summer, and then all contributors whose content made it to the book were supplied with page proofs and special offers to circulate through their own social networks.
Content
Over 5,000 user submitted photos, 111 photo galleries, thousands of tweets, weekly blog posts and emails, and a full colour 300 page book published in November and sold in the Christmas run-up by HMV, Waterstones, Amazon, Paul Smith, Liberty and Foyles.
Results
The project's first year was a huge success, with the Festival Annual community growing to a database of over 40,000 people, with over a third actively contributing to the book through uploading photos, posting comments, sending tweets or posing for the Festival Annual photographers. The project received extensive press coverage and was Highly Commended by eConsultancy for Innovation in Social Media.
The project was created and wholly owned by IU, and we were responsible for all on-site activation, partnerships, social network and digital content, and for publishing the book and placing it with key retailers as well as selling direct to the Festival Annual community.
You can buy Festival Annual here.