Art Makes Columbus | Arts Festival Influencer Campaign

The Situation

The Columbus Arts Festival is one of the most highly acclaimed arts festivals in the nation. It features 200 visual artists, three stages of performances and dozens of food vendors. Produced by staff with the help of over 80 year-round volunteers and hundreds of weekend volunteers, the Columbus Arts Festival attracts the nation’s top artists as well as art enthusiasts from all over the country.

After a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Columbus Arts Festival returned in person to its home on the Scioto Mile in Downtown Columbus in 2022. Leading up to its highly anticipated return, Irvin Public Relations was tasked with its communications strategies including influencer relations.

What We Did

Irvin PR identified and contracted six micro (10K-100K followers) to mid (100k-500k followers) local influencers with followings that catered to the Arts Fest’s desired demographic and had feeds that complimented the festival’s goals. We drafted a campaign brief and contract and supplied the influencers with key messaging and visuals, outlined deliverables, benefits and dos and don’ts, and established a posting timeline.

The influencers were employed to post in advance of the festival with supplied visuals, as well as attend the festival and post about their experience live. We worked with the influencers to ensure they posted within the desired timeframe and assisted them in curating content and messaging that aligned with the Arts Fest as well as resonated with their followings. Each influencer was in direct communication with Irvin PR for the duration of the campaign.

Using our influencer platform Klear, we monitored the influencers' feed and story posts and tracked all analytics. Upon completion, we generated a comprehensive campaign report that outlined all the posts and analytics.