BAROSSA ARTS FESTIVAL 2024

Project Overview

Held biennially in South Australia’s iconic wine region, the Barossa Arts Festival is a month-long celebration of visual, cultural, and performing arts. In 2024, the festival returned for its second edition with the ambitious goal of growing its audience, amplifying regional tourism, and strengthening connections between artists, venues, and communities.

Decant Digital was appointed as the marketing and communications agency, tasked with delivering an integrated marketing strategy and managing all campaign elements across digital, print, and stakeholder channels.

Our Approach

From April 2023 to May 2024, we delivered full-spectrum marketing support across 14 key areas:

• Strategic Planning: Developed a comprehensive Event Marketing Plan (updated three times) aligning audience targets, SMART goals, budgets, and content milestones.
• PR & Media Outreach: Created and distributed multiple media releases, coordinated an ABC Radio broadcast, and managed all media partner relationships including Glam Adelaide and The Barossa Leader.
• Email Marketing: Built the subscriber list from zero to 1,380+, launched segmented Mailchimp campaigns, and achieved strong open and click-through rates.
• Social Media: Strategically focused on Facebook and Instagram with 120+ posts during the festival month alone, producing engaging visual content, artist spotlights, and “What’s On” updates.
• Graphic Design & Content Creation: Designed sponsorship packages, signage, social tiles, advertisements, invitations, and SEO-optimised website content.
• Website SEO & UX Liaison: Collaborated with Oodle Creative Studio on two website iterations—one for early awareness, the other for event bookings—resulting in 83,000+ sessions and 8,200 unique visitors.
• Advertising Campaigns: Managed all paid advertising including digital and print placements across regional and state media, negotiating more than $32,000 in in-kind media value.
• Stakeholder Communications: Coordinated messaging with industry partners, sponsors, artists, venues, and three local councils.
• Survey Management & Reporting: Collected and analysed feedback via festival, workshop, and cultural event surveys to inform future planning and funding applications.
• Tourism Award Submission: Authored and submitted the 2024 South Australian Tourism Awards entry (Category 4: Festivals & Events).

We also created systems and templates for repeatable processes and coordinated a Dropbox-based shared file system to streamline communications with the committee and suppliers.

Outcomes

• Audience Growth: Facebook followers grew by 77%, Instagram by 37%, and the email subscriber base expanded from 0 to 1,380+.
• Website Engagement: 83,000 sessions by 8,200 unique users with 65% accessing on mobile, confirming high engagement from festival-goers.
• Media Reach: Achieved strong editorial and promotional coverage including an ABC Radio live broadcast, 35.5K+ digital reach through Glam Adelaide, and extensive coverage in The Leader/Barossa Mag.
• Community Impact: 78% of attendees made additional purchases at venues, markets or food outlets, supporting the local economy.
• Stakeholder Satisfaction: 73.9% of attendees said they would attend again. Multiple stakeholders praised the clarity and professionalism of marketing communications.
• Cost Efficiency: Delivered $32K+ of in-kind marketing value through media partnerships and volunteer support, maximising return on investment.

Why It Matters

Arts festivals play a vital role in enriching regional communities and driving cultural tourism. The 2024 Barossa Arts Festival not only provided a platform for 100+ South Australian artists and creatives but also demonstrated how effective marketing can amplify visibility, participation, and economic outcomes.

Decant Digital’s involvement ensured consistent branding, professional execution, and data-driven insights across every channel. Most importantly, we helped lay the foundations for long-term festival success including a strong entry into the South Australian Tourism Awards and a scalable strategy for future editions.