Plan B Party Tours - One Hell of a Night

Plan B Party Tours began as a social club at Griffith University on the Gold Coast back in 2001 and was established to cater for students who wanted to go out in a group and meet others and experience Surfers Paradise nightlife. This quickly grew to become the biggest nightclub Tour Company and party professionals in Surfers Paradise.

The Brief

With the existing website being very outdated and many vital components not working, Plan B Party Tours’ web presence needed a complete revamp. They wanted to improve the visual attraction of the site; increase ticket sales online, present a more professional image, at the same time building a sense of (virtual) community. One of the priorities was security, and they also wanted control of the site themselves, to reduce costs and delays with updates.

Plan B were aware that they were missing out on potential sales by not having a good working website, and could foresee a site that would act as a key marketing tool. They envisaged a site which the user would perceive as fun, wild, young, hip, funky, energetic: a VIP site which is also friendly, easy to navigate and can be viewed as an industry leader.

Challenges

Sales – the majority of Plan B ticket sales come from sales booths in Surfers Paradise and telephone bookings so in order to increase their sales they wanted to encourage party goers to book online and become regulars.

Leads – Plan B wanted to access a new group of potential customers, so they needed to encourage and make it easier for their current customers to spread the word about their business to their friends and colleagues by incorporating a strong Social Media presence.

Relationship building – Plan B wanted to implement a VIP system for rewarding their valued party goers to further build the relationship, but it needed to be something simple, because none of them were marketing or computer experts.

Solution

Plan B used a Blastmedia 3G Website and a variety of tools to do the following:

Improve their branding

Plan B wanted to showcase their brand and their tours to visitors as soon as they arrived on their website in order to capture their attention. Incorporating subtle Flash within the heading of their site, our designers put together a funky-looking site that was not 'over the top'. Feedback received showed that customers loved this introduction to the website and it helped Plan B increase ticket sales.

Product: Flash Header

Establish a VIP member signup

Blastmedia incorporated database marketing to include an area on the homepage for users to sign up for a VIP newsletter, which would keep them up to date with events, and keep up communications.

Product: Ezy Communicator/Newsletter Sign up

Set up an Affiliate System

With their desire to expand and diversify, Plan B wanted to involve other enterprises. The Blastmedia Affiliate Tracking System allows Plan B to set up affiliates with their own unique link to the site. Once a purchase is made on the site from a referrer's client, the referrer is then given payment based on the sale made. The referrer can then log in and view what their balance is up to and when payment was made to them.

Product: Affiliate Tracking System

Photo Gallery

Plan B wanted to showcase their events, which really energised the Plan B site, and took it further into the world of social media. When there’s an event, a professional photographer goes along and takes great photos, some of which are then posted to Facebook and/or Twitter – watermarked with the PlanB URL. Guess what? – this has become a great way to get referrals, and the viral marketing took off. Clients are able to tag themselves, share the link, and the system automatically takes them to the secure area of the website where they can purchase photos, Cd’s or more event tickets!

Product: Photo Gallery

Social Media

Plan B wanted to communicate with party goers in an open and friendly way. Plan B already had a Facebook page, but they wanted more fans to be drawn to it. The aim of the page was to encourage party goers to share their experiences of tours and for Plan B to post last minute and free ticket offers, plus share images that could be 'tagged' .. Plan B also wanted the page to be personal and make 'fans' feel like they were part of the Plan B 'family'. Facebook and Twitter have attracted traffic to their website and strengthened their relationships with party goers.

Service: Social Media Strategy

Reference

"I pride myself on being a professional who pushes the term 'organised' to the limit. Kate from Blastmedia has equalled me in both expertise and professionalism in delivering well and beyond the scope of our project. I carefully critiqued a minimum of 6 other web development companies upon starting our companies complete website rebuild and found Blast Media to be the easiest to deal with, adapting to and understanding our market and our delicate and often haphazard needs with ease. Despite many obstacles that we faced during the project, at all times Kate maintained her professionalism and provided superior advice which has led to evident and immediate sales growth coupled with a complete rejuvenation of our corporate profile through our new website. I would go so far as to insist you consult with Kate prior to engaging with any company for your online needs, whether it be website rebuilds or upgrades, e-marketing, social media or e-commerce. If you're a business looking for a point of difference, Kate will help you to identify it and subsequently communicate it to your target market, leading to sales conversions and overall business growth!"

Kim Assim Marketing Manager Plan B Party Tours Pty Ltd