IMC Plan

Toni Shelton
JR Digs Annual Acoustic Christmas Concert
Overview JR Digs is a Canadian television personality known for his series Man with a
Van, and The JR Digs Show. Digs began the Annual Acoustic Christmas
Concert seven years ago when he realized he had an opportunity to give
back to his community. Every event has been a sold-out show, and funds
raised go to a different charity every year. This year, the funds raised will go
to the Ladybird Animal Sanctuary in Hamilton, a charity that was founded by
three musicians, and who go to hill-kill shelters to save animals lives.
Artists at the event:

Tom Wilson

The Trews

Elliot Brood

Dinner Belles

Max Kerman

Terra Lightfoot
Situation JR Digs Annual Acoustic Christmas Concert has been held at The Casbah for
the last six years, where capacity is approximately 200 people. This year, the
event is being held at Bay City Music Hall, which has a capacity of 400
people. There is now a need to attract 100% more people then it has in the
past. Once the concert is sold out, other outlets for fundraising should be
considered to maximize profits of the event.
SWOT
Strengths The Annual Acoustic Christmas Concert has a valuable reputation in Hamilton
as an event that brings Hamilton artists together to raise money for Hamilton
charities. Artists that are performing are well known in Hamilton and will
attract attention from the media, as well as fans.
The event has raised $10,000 - $12, 000 every year which attracts media as
well as encourages corporate sponsors to participate in a large, public event.
Weaknesses
As with most fundraisers, keeping costs low is crucial. Planning for all
aspects of the event hasnt been done in time, and this could affect the
outcome of the event.
Since the past concerts have been held in a venue with a capacity of 200
people and has sold out every year, we are unsure how many people we
have had to turn down in the past, making it difficult to gauge turnout and
interest this year. If this venue sells out, there will be more disappointed
customers, which could hinder success in the future.
Opportunities JR Digs is well known in Hamilton and has several personal contacts with
various media in the area. This will benefit the concert when looking for good
publicity in Hamilton, and news related stories about the event.

Each musical act has its own fan base, which broadens the audience to
target. This allows us to attract people from outside Hamilton, who will travel
a greater distance to see their favourite musician play.
The bigger venue, Bay City Music Hall allows for a bigger audience.
Threats

Over the past seven years, Digs has grown his concert each year, and if
something went wrong that gave him bad publicity, it could ruin his
reputation and the success of the concert in years to come.
During this time of year there are several other similar events taking place in
Hamilton. Whether they are concerts, or different types of events, people can
only give so much money. With our event being held so late in the season,
our audiences might have already given all they can.

Communications
Objectives
Inform Hamilton music enthusiasts about the Annual Acoustic Christmas
Concert in order to raise $16, 000 for the Ladybird Animal Sanctuary on
December, 23.
Inform Hamilton music enthusiasts through social media, print collateral and
news media about the Annual Acoustic Christmas Concert in order to raise
awareness of the event to encourage greater attendance in future years.
Audiences

Arkells fans
The Trews fans
People in Hamilton aged 19-45
Hamilton media
Print
Broadcast
Web
National Media
Print
Web
Ladybird Animal Sanctuary customers and followers
JR Digs Fans

Strategies Social media campaign

Print collateral
Use news media to communicate details about the event
Theme

Music for a cause

Key Messages
Annual Acoustic Concert is a great way to celebrate the holidays with
your favourite musicians. This is an opportunity to see them perform in a
one-time acoustic way, revealing new music and acts.

The Annual Acoustic Christmas is a way to give back to the Hamilton

community while enjoying great music in an intimate setting. Local non-profit
organizations will benefit from the profits raised, at a time of year when they
need it most.

Tactics

Social Media Campaign

Promotional Videos
Social media campaign will take place on Twitter and Facebook. It will include
promotional videos every week until the event starting December 1, and will
feature one of the artists performing in each video. Each video will include
footage from previous Acoustic Concerts as well as interviews and streeter
type footage of the musical guests.
Facebook Event
A Facebook event will be created in order to create a place for all the event
details on social media. A list of all musical acts, directions and a map of
where the venue is will be available on here, with links to jrdigs.com and
ticketfly.com, where tickets can be purchased. The event will be accessible by
all parties involved in the event, and each member will be able to invite their
contacts to the event to further promote it.
Social Media Calendar
A calendar will be made to ensure that a post is implemented in a timely
manner and planned according to our audience. A calendar made in Word
will outline each day leading up to the event and what platform the post will
take place on. For the first two weeks of December, it will include one post
for each platform (Twitter and Facebook), and then the following days leading
up to the event, as many as five posts per day. Each post will have copy and
either an image or a link leading to an external site that is relevant to the
concert.
Print Collateral
Posters
Posters outlining the date, time, location and where to buy tickets will be
printed professionally and distributed through the downtown core of
Hamilton. The posters will be creative and eye-catching with emphasis on the
famous musical talent. Posters will be hung at McMaster University and
Mohawk College, with approval from their departments.
Use News Media
Press Release
A press release will be written and emailed to contacts at CHCH News, The
Hamilton Spectator, CBC Hamilton, Cable 14 News, The View, Hamilton
Magazine, CHML 900 AM, K-Lite 102.9 and Hamilton News. It will outline the
new venue, Bay City Music Hall and emphasize the sold out concerts in the
past. The press release will outline all acts at the concert, and where the

funds will be donated. A brief history of how the event came to be will appear
in the boilerplate.

Press Interviews
Media will be invited to interview JR Digs for print or for live media. Radio
shows including k-lite FM, and morning shows such as CHCH Morning Live will
be contacted to have JR appear on the show. JR will release new details
regarding the event as the event gets closer, so these interviews will be
newsworthy for the media.
Urbanicty Live Taping for Cable 14 event at This Aint Hollywood. JR Digs will
be interviewed and appear for promoting the concert, alongside stand up
comedians.

Evaluation
Objective 1
By asking attendees how they found out about the event will help determine how
the money was raised, and what the most effective outlet for tickets sales was.
This will be done through a comment card placed in each seat at the venue. This
will narrow down the focus for next year so that we can put more emphasis on the
tactic that provided the best outcome.
The plan will be evaluated based on how much money is raised for Ladybird Animal
Sanctuary. Based on our objectives, our evaluation will be compared to our
fundraising goal of $16, 000. We will know we have reached our goal if we properly
advertised the event to sell 400 tickets at $40 each.
On our Facebook event, the number of people who click going, not sure or not
going will indicate how many people knew about the event and actively engaged
with the content on the page. We will compare this number to the number of
tickets sold, to see if this is an effective way to let people know about the event.
Number of views on our promotional videos will give insight to whether these were
engaging and effective for users on Facebook and Twitter.
Objective 2
Using Twitter analytics for Twitter, and Google analytics for Facebook, we will track
how many impressions were made throughout our social media campaign. Tracking
our target audiences and which audiences engaged with our content most, will be
noted to increase exposure to those groups next year.
Amount of shares, comments and likes will be counted, and indicate how many
users engaged with our content. This will allow us to know how many people had
exposure to the event, versus how many people engaged and clicked on the actual
event page. We will also track website conversions to jrdigs.com and ticketfly.com
to see if our social media campaign enticed users to purchase tickets.
A survey will be conducted at Mohawk College and McMaster University to indicate
how many students were aware of the event, and how many of them attended the
event. They will be asked if they saw posters and flyers that were hung around the

school and the city, and if they were effective in persuading them to attend the
event.
Media content and analysis:
Media clippings and mentions on the radio and TV will indicate how much exposure
our event received locally, and if our press releases and interviews were successful
in attracting reporters to write about the event.
A survey will be conducted through focus groups to determine if information that
was mentioned in the media was retained and if people received the information. It
will address what information was received as positive and what was received as
negative, as well as how viewers reacted with the information they received i.e. did
they follow up online, buy a ticket.
Interviews will be conducted in Hamilton with random interviewees to determine
general awareness of the event. Did they know about the event? Do they know
who JR Digs is? Did they see coverage of the event in the media? This will
determine if the Hamilton people aged 19-45 were aware of the event, and give us
a number to measure against in the future.