FaveQuest creates new site: Bluesfest ByWard

We’re creative types and had piled up a bunch of new ideas to run by the Ottawa Bluesfest organization. Bluesfest Radio, Bluesfest tv, embedding bluesfest viewtube in third party sites and so on. So we have a meeting and before we get into it, we’re told “we may be launching a small festival in the ByWard market”. Bill (my partner) and I look at each other. Huh?

A Nice Surprise

Totally derailed the conversation in a good direction. Finally sealed the deal late one night over the phone, settled on what we’d deliver, a time and a price and we were off to the races. Nearly 90 performers and DJs are coming from all over to play across 12 venues in the ByWard Market, including an outdoor stage!

Phase 1 of the Bluesfest ByWard site is finally up and it is pretty awesome.  We have more coming in the next few weeks too so please be sure to register for the site … even better, create an account so you can take full advantage of advanced features (access you calendar from anywhere, inviting friends, last minute alerts and more. Rather than tell you more about it, check it out for yourself.

http://bluesfestbyward.com

Cheers,

Allan Isfan

CEO, FaveQuest

More Live Music Innovation

We are Fans of the Ottawa Bluesfest

It makes a big difference when you’re a huge fan of the customer you’re doing work for. The people at FaveQuest have always loved the Ottawa Bluesfest and have countless positive memories. We’ve done our best to build tools for fans just like us and I must say, it is going very well.

We have received some very nice emails including one from a nearly blind woman,who was able to explore the bluesfest performers by using our viewtube application because of all the multimedia we included and the simple navigation.  That feels good!

Facebook app 2.0 and more!

But we’re not stopping there. Since launch we’ve added some new features like allowing people to publish their calendar so their friends can easily see what others are attending. We’re also in the process of developing version 2.0 of the Facebook application that will make it even more engaging and social.

There is more. In the next few weeks, we’ll be launching some more tools for fans to explore even more musical acts and stay up to date with daily events at the bluesfest. I can’t tell you more unfortunately but keep your ear to the ground and this blog.

It has been exciting and it is about to get even better!

Cheers,

Allan Isfan

CEO

A Great Social Media Story?

Advertising is one way but we can do better

Let me share why I think what we are trying to do at FaveQuest, and the Bluesfest ViewTube, we just launched is such a big deal.

Way back when, when you had a product to sell, you would get attention by holding press releases and buying advertising. If you had something really compelling, you could argue that you were doing people a favour by sharing your story. Beyond that though, you were interrupting them. Apparently, it still goes on:)

Serve Your Customers Instead

When we pitched the “social video calendar” to Mark Monahan (exec director of the Ottawa Bluesfest) and his team, we proposed something else. We suggested building a tool to solve problems for music fans. They could use this tool to get to know the bluesfest acts better, create a calendar and invite friends. To make it even easier, we would build an extension to their website and a facebook application so people could invite their facebook friends and see who was going to what show.

We built it and launched version 1.0 April22nd. It was not built to sell more tickets, though it likely will. It was built to provide fans with a better and deeper way to engage with the festival. There’s even a bonus if we hit certain engagement metrics. Not tickets sales, engagement!

More Ticket Sales?

I think all involved realize that more engagement is likely going to translate to more attendees. People are going to discover stuff and decide to go check it out. Friends are going to invite friends that may have not considered going to a particular show. Or they may see that a friends is going through their facebook newsfeed. In the next release coming very soon, as people check out the calendar of events, they’ll even be able to see which of their facebook friends is going to a particular show.

Help Your Customers Carry Your Torch

You don’t have to be a social media expert, or have even heard about social media, to realize that such a tool is going to lead people to go to more shows and buy tickets that they would not have bought otherwise.

The real point is that such tools have the power to transform the way some businesses reach out and connect with prospective customers. It is so much better to serve your customers and have them carry the torch for you, don’t you think?

Cheers,

Allan