Funny Fridays: a case study in marketing basics

In this ever-evolving digital landscape, AI is a game-changer. SUPERCHARGE your digital assets and create 1,000% more content in 10 minutes. LEVERAGE your…yawn.

If you’re not a marketer, you’d be forgiven for thinking the industry was a shitstorm of cowboys right now. So wouldn’t it be nice if we went back to basics?

I give you Funny Fridays: a case study in basic marketing

Google ‘Katie Lingo’ and you’ll find one of two things. A content marketing service (predominantly) or, more recently, a stage name for a stand-up comedian. Both are true, and rarely comes the opportunity to combine two skill sets.

That all changed when Katie Thompson (the person) was approached to host a comedy evening at the Bonding Warehouse in York. Long story short, it was a sell-out success two months in a row and proved that in an ever-evolving world of digital bullshit, marketing basics often work best.

How one idea became a marketing masterclass

Marketers reading this will be familiar with the jargon coming next. For everybody else, here’s how we put together a successful local event without reinventing the wheel…or using AI.

The marketing mix: product, price, promotion, place

Funny Fridays was emblematic of the ‘marketing mix’, traditionally known as the ‘four Ps’, though now updated to seven. But we’re keeping this old school:

• Product: Stand-up comedy, packaged up as six semi-pro Yorkshire comics.
• Price: Penetration pricing – an introductory low cost of £6.50 to incentivise punters.
• Promotion: Every channel under the sun from digital to physical. See more below.
• Place: A cracking venue for starters, together with paid, owned and earned media.

The marketing funnel

You may have seen different versions of this – AIDA (attention, interest, desire, action) or awareness, evaluation, conversion, loyalty, advocacy. Let’s go with the latter.

Awareness

Any good marketer knows the power of three: owned, earned and paid media. So, what did we own? The venue. Footage of the comedians. Our online footprint.

Owned media

First, we made an Instagram account that would drip-feed organic posts with teaser footage of each performer, followed by a call to action and a link to the booking page.

We set up a page on Eventbrite, an authority in local events organisation that would help us rank on search engines without a website. All imagery (created in Canva – not quite Photoshop but not AI either) was distributed at the venue and digitally on the events page as well as social.

Paid media

Any new campaign can get a leg-up with paid media, so we invested in Facebook ads, Eventbrite ads and even printed flyers. The latter caused a bit of a stir when local PCSOs forcibly removed 40 posters from around York city centre. New definition unlocked: ‘flyposting’.

Article in York Press by Nadia Jefferson-Brown.

Earned media

Other than evading police, the most fun part. We wrote a press release and targeted it specifically at local journalists who wrote about arts and entertainment in York. We also took advantage of every free directory listing available – parenting forums, online events boards and Facebook groups. BBC Radio interviews? Why not.

We threw everything at them. Comedian headshots. Video clips. Quotes and testimonials from other nights. Interviews with the host. Before long, Funny Fridays at Patch was the most popular York comedy listing on Eventbrite.

Evaluation/consideration

We’re simplifying the funnel a little here because £6.50 for two hours of comedy doesn’t necessitate hours of soul-searching. So how did we get people over the line?

See above – social proof with quotes from other promoters, hilarious quip clips and the best value comedy in York. For a Friday, at least.

Conversion

Here’s another basic marketing term: conversion rate optimisation. On Eventbrite, buying a ticket is pretty simple. But we followed their optimisation guidance, including:

• Using clear imagery
• Adding comprehensive FAQs
• Linking a map and NAP details
• Putting the value proposition front and centre
• Letting people know how they could get in touch.

Loyalty

With a guestlist forming a natural database, we emailed everybody a thank you video before the event. Human, unedited and completely honest, it encouraged them to bring their friends.

After the first night, we used this email marketing list to reward loyalty, offering ‘early adopters’ a discount code that would qualify them again for the introductory price.

Advocacy

Facebook still has a purpose after all. It was a pleasure to see such lovely feedback from our guests, with some comedians even receiving personalised messages. One couple said they’d forgone their traditional Friday night pizza and not regretted it. Another attendee said it was “worth coming up from Leicester for” – and they’re telling their friends.

Lucy Buckley’s promo video. Art by Laura Sanderson.

But how many people were involved? And how much did it cost?

Let’s get to the brass tacks: how much effort, time and money was involved?

Human effort: high. Cost: relatively low.

Flyers, photography and paid advertising came to £500ish. You’ll also have to consider Eventbrite’s transactional fee of around 20%, as well as fees for acts, including drinks. (There are no limits to keeping your acts happy, or optimising your products, let’s say.)

Time spent postering around town and dodging police? Priceless.

In terms of people involved, Funny Fridays would not have been possible without:

• The team at Patch (the Bonding Warehouse), for providing the venue, tech and drinks
• Local journalists, photographers and directories for helping us spread the word
• Filming from the wonderful comic and documentary extraordinaire Antony Vila
• Yorkshire’s finest comedians, including their social following as well as Insta-fluencers
• Craig Taylor, who put up with incessant stressing, rehearsals, sweat and tears.

The result

See for yourself. Patch at the Bonding Warehouse, a former comedy venue now laughing once again, has a capacity of 100 seats. It was packed to 130 on both nights and bar sales broke records.

With some hesitation (and the venue’s size), Funny Fridays is shaping up to be the biggest comedy night in York. It was all thanks to basic marketing techniques – no smoke and mirrors, just hard work and a whole lot of funny people.

In an ever-evolving world of digital BS, let’s hope this case study has given you some optimism for tried-and-tested marketing techniques. And if nothing else, that you might turn up to the next one in September.