“When selling sponsorships, you’re not selling the event, you’re selling the audience to your event. Without Placer, there is no way I could have data his granular and accurate, or that helps me prove sponsor alignment. With Placer we now know exactly what our numbers are and can credibly talk through what we do.”

-- Ray Massie, Director of Marketing

‍The Challenge

A popular state fair seeks true attendance data to help with sponsorship conversations

The Nebraska State Fair is a popular, annual event held since 1868 that celebrates the achievements of Nebraskans, has youth and fair activities, and showcases agriculture. The educational and entertaining experience spans 250 acres of land over 11 days. A key to the fair’s success is its ability to recruit sponsors.

Ray Massie, Director of Marketing for the Nebraska State Fair, understood the importance of attendance and visitation data when it came to pitching and negotiating with potential fair sponsors. The question was simple: how could the fair get objective and granular data to secure new sponsors and negotiate higher commitments with current sponsors?

Underestimating visitor attendance by nearly 20% and leaving >$100k on the table

Tracking guests at events like fairs is a difficult task: there are up to 10 or more entrances, many vendors and staff who don’t buy tickets, and some of the most popular events (like the free tractor rides) are unticketed.

‍The Solution‍

Ray knew that he could pull Placer data to get the total attendance at the fair in less time and money than traditional methods, like people counting, would take. Using Placer, Ray discovered that the fair had been underestimating attendance by almost 20%. Instead of the 287,000 visits they estimated occurred over the 11-day period of the fair, Placer data revealed that 355,000 visits occurred, with each visit averaging 2.5 hours.

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A difference of 68k visitors is substantial when considering a key sponsorship vehicle for the fair: banners. With banners priced between half a cent and one cent per view, a difference of 68k guests means $680 of increased sponsorship fees per banner (355K-287K*1 cent). Multiplied across 50 banners (or more), that difference equates to at least $34k dollars in previously missed revenue. Indeed, Placer data showed the fair could be charging and earning more.

The fair also used Placer to geofence a single building that had its naming rights up for renewal and discovered that visitation visit traffic to that specific building was underestimated by close to 40%. The difference between what the fair could charge for naming rights using previous visit estimates, and what it could charge using Placer data, was $120k. In other words, the Nebraska State Fair could be charging $120k over past naming agreements, a significant difference.

Proving alignment and retaining sponsors using visitor attributes

The fair team went beyond simple visitation counts with Placer data, however, and dove into the demographics reports to understand visitor’s audience profile. In particular, looking at the Experian Mosaic dataset allowed them to hone in on the various psychographic segments in attendance, including groups like “Singles and Starters” and “Thriving Boomers,” then find sponsors that align with those groups. As an example, the fair over-indexes by 36% for visitors categorized as “Autumn Years,” or established and mature couples living gratified lifestyles in older homes. As a result, when a sponsorship opportunity came up with a premium mattress company specializing in mattresses for older customers in the 70+ age range, the fair knew that they could use this data to show alignment with and successfully pitch the mattress company to be as a sponsor.

Similarly, when there was discussion about guest alignment and realized value with one sponsor, the fair used Placer’s audience profile data to show alignment between their respective audiences - e.g. over 30% of the leading segments were the same for the fair and the sponsor, showing strong customer/market fit.

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Prior to Placer, conversations would not have been possible - but now, the state fair’s team could get creative in how they engaged and retained the sponsor, collaboratively working together to explore how that sponsor could achieve greater activation through direct sales opportunities like couponing.

The Outcome

SUCCESS: Nebraska State Fair raises New sponsor rates 20%, driving six figures in additional revenue

Using Placer, the state fair’s team was able to increase new sponsor rates by 20%, while creating successful partnerships with a variety of sponsors, including new sponsors for naming rights. In addition, Placer’s granular data made it possible for Ray to creatively collaborate with sponsors in audience activation. Going forward, the Nebraska State Fair can confidently acquire and retain ideal sponsors each year for its annual event.

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