Festival goers attending Splendour in the Grass 2017 were able to access high-speed WiFi sponsored by VISA, whilst organisers captured demographic data about attendees thanks to Purple’s WiFi and analytics solution, installed by expert providers of networking solutions for events, NetEvent.
This year’s festival attracted over 30,000 music lovers and played host to artists like The xx, Queens of the Stone Age, Haim and Royal Blood from the 21st – 23rd July. For several years the festival has offered free connectivity to attendees, but the WiFi and analytics platforms that organisers had previously implemented didn’t supply them with the quality data and insights that they desired. They wanted to gain a true overview of their paying visitors and use the analytics to determine what acts, stalls and merchandise to offer.
In the run-up to the festival, organisers of Splendour in the Grass researched a number of captive portals online but found Purple to be the most suitable fit for their forthcoming event. Prior to the launch of the three-day festival, Purple plus Ruckus and MicroTik wireless hardware were deployed by NetEvent in 2 specific areas where people could sit in bespoke booths around the WiFi access points. The free public WiFi at Splendour in the Grass 2017 was sponsored by VISA and their official branding was added to the WiFi login pages.
Commenting on the selection process, Rick Jose, Technology Manager for Splendour in the Grass, said: “Researching captive portals online is what first lead us to Purple. After using other WiFi systems for several years that lacked good reporting and were cumbersome to set up, we could see that Purple offered a much better solution. Previous captive portal systems we’ve used have required quite a sophisticated level of coding in HTML & CSS for the creation of the splash page whereas Purple’s wizard style splash template design with the plug-in social integration streamlined the process and saved us time and money.”
Over the three days, thousands of lines of customer data were captured from WiFi users at the two dedicated zones. These zones were specifically created as meeting hubs, displaying information such as maps and playing times, where patrons could stand near the WiFi towers or sit and relax in bespoke booths whilst online. The network allowed people to access the internet, connect with friends and share memories on social media, which in turn builds awareness of the festival. The data collected about festival goers includes their email address, name, age, gender, visitor location, the number of visits and even their personal interests.
Rick adds: “The data provides a good insight into our audience and helps us to better understand who they are, which in turn informs some of our decisions in planning for our next event. We’ve been very impressed with Purple, from the straightforward setup and configuration, to the detailed analytics and accessible, responsive support, the solution has proven to be the best we’ve used for this application so far.”
By using the Purple platform, the team behind Splendour in the Grass has gained a comprehensive bird’s-eye view of who people are, whether they attend the full duration of the event and how long they use the network for. In addition, the wealth of analytics captured will be used to influence and guide planning for forthcoming events, including what marketing to distribute, which artists to host and what stands to welcome on-site.
No marketing communications were sent out to festival goers during the 2017 event but there are plans to use the visitor records in the run-up to next year’s festival to promote dates, artist announcements and early bird ticket sales, which in turn could increase profits and engagement as people create more of a buzz online.
Gavin Wheeldon, CEO of Purple, comments: “Splendour in the Grass is a huge Australian music festival that plays host to an impressive line-up, so for the organisers to brand our solution as the best that they have ever used is a great honour. The Purple portal has collated a wealth of highly valuable CRM records and insights that will prove extremely useful when planning and promoting Splendour in the Grass 2018. I hope that this partnership can evolve and that the solution is rolled out again at future festivals.”