• by Danielle Oster , October 3, 2024

How do you entice music-lovers to travel to a city perhaps best known for history, seafood, and sports? Well, a festival showcasing the sounds of its music scene could do the trick.

That was the approach employed by Meet Boston through its “Meet Boston Music Fest” in September, headlined by Guster,  the alternative rock band thatformed in Somerville, Massachusetts in 1991 while its members were attending Tufts University.

The city’s tourism office staged this festival at Atlanta’s Historic Fourth Ward Skatepark, featuring a wide range of popular and up-and-coming supporting acts from the Boston area, including:  artist/producer/DJ Rilla Force’s; genre-blending band STL GLD (pronounced “Still Gold”); and upright/electric bassist and composer Sofia Villarreal.

Marketing Daily caught up with Meet Boston vice president, marketing Lindsay Milne and  Jennifer Putnam, CCO for agency partner Allen & Gerritsen to discuss the strategy behind the campaign.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Marketing Daily: What informed the campaign's focus on music to promote Boston? Is this something Meet Boston has emphasized in past campaigns?

Lindsay Milne: Music and nightlife have become a key pillar in our efforts to promote our vibrant city. With events like Boston Calling and the Fenway Concert Series, along with the headliners at venues like TD Garden and MGM, we have global superstars in Boston that draw people here every year. We want people to know that there’s an eclectic, diverse music scene -- which may not come to mind when they first think of Boston.

Jennifer Putnam: We are a city of firsts, so we wanted to be the first to bring a sampling of our homegrown music scene to another market as an invitation to experience what hospitality in Boston feels and sounds like.

Why did the campaign choose to target Atlanta residents in particular?

Milne: Many cities are known for their unique styles of music associated with them -- like Chicago Blues or New Orleans second line drums. Of course Atlanta’s musical heritage includes rap, hip-hop and R&B. So we wanted to lean into our shared celebration of music and art with Atlanta by showcasing the melting pot of music styles you can find in a wide range of cool venues in Boston.

What went into creating a campaign and event that would resonate with the target audience?

Putnam:  The key for us was to create a diverse lineup that true music lovers and families would enjoy, but would also represent the unexpected mix of music you can find in our city: from rock, to rap, to dance, to jazz and soul, to punk and metal. We curated a lineup that brought local families and fans out to dance and vibe with us even in the rain and gave everyone a great taste of all the different music -- and food! -- you can enjoy any given night in Boston.

How was the event received? Are you able to share any metrics that speak to its performance?

Milne: Music Fest served as a key initiative to expand Boston's visibility in a relatively new media market for us, with efforts including earned, social and paid media. Pre-event advertising had a strong impact, resulting in a total of 17,000 event page views and 3,300 event RSVPs. In addition to the pre-event marketing, a four-week media blitz after the event was launched to sustain exposure.

Between our paid and earned media efforts, we generated 6.5 million impressions, and we saw a 12% year-over-year increase in hotel bookings since Aug. 26, when the media campaign first launched, with Atlanta moving up our ranks in the list of top visitor origin markets. Music Fest was still very recent, so we’ll continue to collect results in the coming weeks.

What were some takeaways from the campaign and event that can be applied to future campaigns?

The past year-plus of music tourism efforts have shown us that fans and travelers crave in-person experiences and opportunities to connect with each other, and with a city. Music Fest also gave us an opportunity to highlight the incredible food scene in Boston, which we dabbled in a bit in Atlanta with locally inspired food offerings, craft cocktails and beers, thanks to our partners at Sam Adams.