Marketing
Share, Connect, and Sell
Since commissions are based on ticket sales, selling out each show should be the goal. Marketing will be your most powerful tool in achieving this. While you’ll have centralized marketing support, most strategies and tactics will be developed and executed locally.
We primarily focus our strategy for Instagram, however you can easily apply our resources to other platforms like TikTok or Linkedin.
The Brand
When speaking about our brand, please refer to it as “Sofar” not “Sofar Sounds”. Since we’ve expanded on the type of experiences we provide, “Sounds” has been dropped
Marketing Tools
For any profiles, please ensure your local page aligns with our wider branding.
Ensure your profile photo is the new logo.
If applicable, ensure your highlights, pinned posts, and link in bio are updated and relevant.
Ensure your Instagram bio is following this format. See right for example:
Join us for:
<emoji> [music-related] e.g., best up-and-coming talent, new music, unmissable talent
<emoji> [space-related] e.g., unexpected spaces
<emoji> [community-related] e.g., “your new best friend in the city”, community vibes
For Producers:
Weekly (Wednesday) Email Newsletters
Email subscribers receive a show announcement email every week in the US, UK, and CAN. The copy and photo is chosen by our marketing team. Publishing your events (with confirmed venues) in the beginning of the month will ensure all of your events are included in multiple sends.
If you'd like to know how many people are active subscribers in your city and receiving these emails, reach out to the Global Communities team.
Email and SMS
To better support local cities, we provide marketing emails and SMS* automatically. Guests can sign up on our website sofarsounds.com and opt in for marketing emails and SMS* specific for their city. These are handled and sent by our marketing team automatically.
*SMS is only available for US,UK, and CAN at this moment.
Monthly SMS Show Announcements
SMS subscribers receive a show announcement SMS once a month in the US, UK, and CAN. The copy is created by our marketing team. Publishing your events (with confirmed venues) at the beginning of the month. If you'd like to know how many people are active subscribers in your city and receiving these texts, reach out to the Global Communities team.
For Curators:
Monthly Email Newsletters
Email subscribers receive a show announcement email every week with news in their city. The copy and photo is chosen by our marketing team. Publishing your events (with confirmed venues) before the 20th of preceding month will ensure it shows up on the upcoming email.
If you'd like to know how many people are active subscribers in your city and receiving these emails, reach out to the Global Communities team.
Please note, there is no SMS support for Curator cities at this time.
Marketing requests
Email: You can request bespoke newsletters to highlight a specific show or series/Collection.
We want to use this sparingly and strategically, as we don't want to overwhelm our users with tons of emails, causing them to unsubscribe. These are best for special events that we want to draw extra attention to. Thoroughly read the guide here. Requests can be sent to gc@sofarsounds.com. Please be sure to give at least a week's notice.
SMS(ONLY FOR US): In addition to our monthly SMS show announcements, any city in the US can request a (1) customized text message per month to send to our SMS subscribers. These are best for all events that might be struggling with ticket sales. For cities that only are doing 1 show/month, please note that this show was already included in the monthly show announcement. This is best suited for cities doing 2+ shows/month. Requests can be sent to gc@sofarsounds.com. Please be sure to give at least a week's notice.
Global IG feature (sofarsounds): Feel free to reach out with a request to gc@sofarsounds.com with the details of your request. Make sure to include:
Photos
Videos
Copy
Tags
Please note that not every request will be honored. We’re primarily interested in featuring cool venues, exceptional artist performances, special milestones, or community highlights.
Boosted Instagram Posts ( ONLY FOR US,UK, and CAN)
The Global Communities team can boost an already-published Instagram post using our Meta Ads Manager account. This is not standard, but it may expand visibility and reach for any posts promoting upcoming shows.
The post must contain no audio or original audio, as Meta won't allow us to boost posts with copyrighted music. Sofar will front the cost of the boosted post, but the expense will be added to your event's "additional show expenses". This will be deducted from the event's profit.
Requests can be sent to gc@sofarsounds.com. Please be sure to give at least a week's notice.
Please include:
date/time of campaign
spend (daily or lifetime)
location (default is 25mi within city)
URL to IG post, URL to CTA link (e.g., event landing page, collections page, city page).
Liner Notes (Sofar Blog)
Our Marketing team will ask us for spectacular venues or community members to spotlight on our blog. At times, we may approach you for information on venues, artists, and events that we’d like to feature. These marketing opportunities come at random and require swift action, so please be sure to respond in a timely manner.
Merchandising
Within the Concert Planner, you have tools to help you present your show more effectively. Sharing key details strategically can better motivate guests to purchase tickets. Take the time to showcase your event in the best possible way.
Event Page
Each concert will have a public event page where guests can purchase tickets. On your event card under the Overview section, you can edit fields under “Event Merchandising”. This is where you can add custom information to better merchandise your event.
We highly recommend adding in details that’ll get guests excited to buy a ticket.
Urgency Messaging
To help drive more ticket sales and earlier purchases, you can highlight when tickets are selling fast or nearly gone. Please note, this frees up one of the three theme slots previously used for “Selling Fast.” Also, any “Urgency Messaging” will be overridden by statuses like Sold Out, Tickets Paused, Canceled, or ticket-holder states.
Admins can now enable Urgency Messaging in the event planner (just below themes).
When enabled:
Event cards will display a “Selling Fast” tag.
If 10 or fewer tickets remain, the tag will switch to “Almost Sold Out” automatically.
Be mindful of how often you use this feature. Overuse may dilute its impact. Less is more.
Collections
If you have multiple events unified by a theme, you can organize them into a collection. A collection is a great way to categorize event series. For example, “Rooftop szn” to group events happening on rooftops or “Dance all night” to group events with linesup that are high energy or dance-friendly.
To add your concert to a collection:
Pick which collection under the Collections Directory and click Collections details on the bottom right of the collections card
Edit the “Events” section and add your Event ID under “Select Events” field.
Press Save
If you wish to create a new collection, go to the the Collections Directory and click “+Add Collection”. Be sure to fill out all relevant fields to better merchandise your collection.
To further support demand, there is a “Collections Waitlist” This “Notify Me” button, available on city and collection pages, allows site visitors to sign up for email notifications about upcoming events in specific cities or collections.
Themes
Themes are special keywords that highlight the event’s unique selling points. Some examples of themes are “ pre-sale special” or “boat part”. Themes show up on the header image of your public event page and throughout your city page.
On your event card under the Overview section, you can edit fields under “Themes”. You can add up to three themes per show. Feel free to pick an existing theme or create a new one by clicking “ Edit Themes”.
City page Banners
This is a customizable banner that allows city leaders to promote a specific upcoming event that warrants extra attention beyond the scope of collections and our existing event grid. This promotion section is intended for one very special event i.e. partnership show, new series launch, tentpole event etc.). Collections will remain unchanged. This banner gives users control over the image, header, body, and CTA copy. Users can control when to show or hide this banner. All customization is accessible in the new Merchandising section of the City Directory record in the City Directory.
Toolkits for Hosts and Artists
Confirmed artists and hosts will automatically receive a Concert Promotion email (14) days before the event.
For artists: This email will prompt the artists to update their artist profile with their preferred photo, bio, and social links. It also provides the event link to share with fans and the Artist Toolkit.
For hosts: This email will prompt the host contact to promote the show and share any important info and/or product discounts with their local team. It also provides the event link to share with their network and the Host Toolkit.