Paola Freccero, co-executive director of the Tribeca Film Festival, discusses how the festival’s Web site increased traffic, and other successes.
Q: What was unique about this year’s marketing efforts for the Tribeca Film Festival? What had you been doing in the past?
A: For the first time, we made a concerted effort to drive people to our Web site. This year all of our efforts were geared towards maximum consumer friendliness. Before, we had been driving people to a number of different publications and resources. For the 2008 festival, we focused all of our energies into making sure that in any ad or press release we put out that people knew that they could come back to our site to find what they were looking for. On the flipside, we had to make sure they could actually find what they were looking for.
Q: How did your new content management system (CMS), built by Clickability, ensure a well-functioning Web site?
A: We were looking for a new CMS that could support the astronomical jump in page views that we go through. On the day that tickets go on sale and those following, there is so much more traffic on our Web site than we can possibly maintain year-round. Also, we needed the kind of customer service that was on standby in case anything went wrong. As it turned out, there were no problems.
Q: How did video work to improve the Web site?
A: When you’re in the movie business, video is critical. Video trailers give people the information they need to decide whether they want to see a film. People would be disappointed if they came to the site and it was just the written word because we are, after all, about movies. Video serves to bring the Tribeca experience to life.
Q: What were some of the results that you measured?
A: As a result of the changes, we saw a 100% increase in site traffic from 2007 to 2008.
Q: What was the key takeaway from this year’s festival?
A: If you have the right tools to get the job done, and you can spend your time truly thinking about how to create innovative content and how to present it in an innovative way, then there is nothing you can’t achieve. When the technical team does their job incredibly well, we can do our job incredibly well
