+29%
Ticket sales — 610 additional attendees (2,087 → 2,697)
+95%
Facebook reach across the festival run-up
+62%
Instagram reach across the festival run-up
The storytelling format
Posts are built around a four-beat arc. Hook, Voice, Tension, Conversion. But the order flexes to suit the story rather than following one fixed template. Holly Wootten‘s carousel fro example builds chronologically toward the event, using direct quotes from her race transcript to earn attention before asking for the sale. The Skiing the Highlands carousel flips that sequence by leading with the event details up front, then lets high-quality landscape photography carry the persuasion, since strong visuals already do most of the selling without needing a slow build.
The challenge
The festival’s atmosphere and community were undeniable in person, but its social presence had grown without a clear long-term structure. The brief was to increase event participation — using storytelling rather than schedules to build emotional connection before people ever arrived.
I contacted speakers directly for stronger imagery and researched past talks so each post felt like editorial storytelling, not promotional copy.
Systems built to last
- 01 Content pillarsBuilt repeatable formats and themes aligned to festival values, not just a content calendar.
- 02 Planning workflowRan activation through Figma, Trello and Google Sheets — kept the strategy operational day-to-day, not theoretical.
- 03 Live optimisationTreated social as a live environment across the three-month run-up — content, creative and reporting evolved with audience response.
- 04 Handover Left the committee with formats and workflows they could keep using after the project ended.
Results, in the feed
The outcome
Fort William Mountain Festival now has a recognisable, consistent visual identity across social media — as strong online as it is on the ground. Festival income rose 10% year-on-year, and the content pillars and workflows I built remain in use by the committee.
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