Carnage UK is a student event that takes place in 45 cities across the UK. Attracting thousands of students every year to the fancy dress themed night out, Carnage has become a popular event across the student social scene.
Aiming to make every event a sell-out, Carnage target people who have previously purchased tickets online. SMS is the driving force behind ticket sales, complemented by posters and flyers
On the run up to an event, promotional text messages are sent to respective address books with updates about tickets available, venues, dates and times and a web address as a call-to-action.
With clever timing and data management, these text messages engage with hot leads to hit targets for every event. Ticket sales regularly increase rapidly after a text message has been broadcast, at times by 50%.
By anticipating the habits of their target audience, Carnage schedule promotional messages to be sent during the advert breaks of soaps and Saturday night television, popular with students. This, combined with the familiarity of text messaging amongst students as a communication channel, proved hugely successful in generating additional online sales.
Mobile numbers are collected with other information through online purchases and order forms. These opt-ins are then saved in contact groups in Messenger, segmented by university to enable easy targeting for later campaigns. An ‘enter mobile number here’ prompt is also used on the ticket stubs which are exchanged for t-shirts at the events, mopping up anyone who did not purchase online.
Carnage UK also use the keyword CARNAGE on 66777 with sub keywords for each individual city so students can sign up for VIP membership. A student who texts CARNAGE LIVERPOOL to 66777 is automatically added to the contact group for that city using the API gateway. Short code and keywords are advertised on banners and TV screens throughout the venues and on billboards on student bus routes.
After we send a promotional text message, we sit back and watch the online sales increase.
—Paul Bahia, Varsity Leisure Group
