Due the long-lasting COVID-19 situation, neither cultural events nor concerts — or festivals of any kind — could take place for more than half a year. Because all big festivals have been cancelled in 2021, we created the Kleine Zeitung online festival as an alternative. This took place during the last days of the lockdown in Austria.

In general, we set the following goals for the festival:

• Support the culture and Austrian music scene.
• Reach a music- and digital-oriented target group that had little or no contact points with Kleine Zeitung.
• Generate registrations and subscribers on our Web site.
• Encourage access to the videos.
• Generate reach on social media to offer the artists a large platform.

It offered a unique setting for viewers. Six artists performed at different locations (like the sky room, newsroom, and backyard) at the Styria Media Center in Graz. Their performances were filmed at the beginning of May and then cut and edited. Each final video is 30-45 minutes. In addition to each band’s performance, there were also some backstage sequences that added even more value to the videos.

We also invited young, upcoming artists to apply with a video and tell us why they wanted to be part of the Kleine Zeitung festival. One band was selected to become a part of the line-up as well.

All concerts were played on May 15 on Kleine Zeitung’s channels. A video was published every hour to create the festival’s character through the artist line-up. Every user was able to see the festival with a free and non-binding registration with a name and E-mail address on the Kleine Zeitung Web site.

The focus of advertising across our digital channels and social media was to reach target groups with little or no contact with Kleine Zeitung. A large number of “out-of-home” advertising spots in Graz (Styria’s capital) and announcements via various platforms of sponsoring partners complemented the advertising measures.

In general, the focus of advertising was on interactions like competitions and backstage insights to get in direct contact with the target group.

We prepared various different competitions for readers and users in order to reach the target groups and actively integrate them. In a competition held in advance, exclusive festival packages with snacks, drinks, band merchandise, and festival accessories were raffled off, which have been sent to the winners.

During the festival, there was a competition intended to have a direct impact on the total views and the watch rate. We hid letters in each video, which, when combined, resulted in a solution word. Solving these puzzles, participants could win tickets for the next live concerts.

The online festival surpassed all of the targets we set.

The concert article is the most successful article on the site to date on the Kleine Zeitung’s Web site. At 31%, the watch rate is in the top third of all live streams and videos for our company.

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