NON-PROFIT MARKETS 200 EVENTS GLOBALLY each year.

How Sundance Institute's small & agile team better managed, tracked, and promoted its global event series to reach thousands of independent film and theater artists around the world.

THE SITUATION

The Sundance Film Festival is one of the world's largest and most influential film festivals.

But what some might not realize is that Sundance Institute—the non-profit organization behind the annual event—supports artists across a variety of programs throughout the year, around the globe.

Operating since 1981, Sundance Institute’s staff of 173 employees helps run 52 public events that support more than 700 artists each year. The organization is a nerve center of storytelling innovations, and their teams work tirelessly to discover, support, and inspire independent film and theatre artists.

In early 2013, the Sundance Institute team was in need of a new way to manage, track, and promote their global event series.

The challenge

The Sundance Institute team needed to find a way to ramp up production efficiency with their rapidly expanding educational and entertainment events calendar.

The challenge: How could Sundance Institute scale its event program and maintain efficiency, quality, and consistency in all of its event marketing materials?

Splash: Enter stage left.

The Splash solution

01 | A series of scalable page designs and one-on-one training

Splash worked with Sundance Institute's marketing and design teams to deliver a set of nine custom event theme pages that would work across their entire events ecosystem. After a Splash-led design training session, the Sundance Institute design team was well equipped to create new pages on their own.

02 | Robust email delivery

Splash also outfitted the Sundance Institute team with custom email templates for their entire event sequence—from the save the date to the day-after email. A CRM training gave the team a new way to think about targeting each event guest, both repeat and new.

03 | A smart check-in

From small filmmaker workshops and lunch-and-learns to 1000-person screenings and happy hours, Splash's intuitive check-in system allowed any Sundance Institute employee to smartly manage event entry from multiple devices in real-time.

A Salesforce integration

VFA has long used Salesforce to track new leads and maintain contact with their growing alumni and

donor list.

The problem? After every single event, they had to spend hours inputting valuable data into Salesforce. As the organization grew, the process became a logistical nightmare.

In July 2015, Splash integrated Salesforce into its platform, which changed the game for VFA.

Now, when guests attend or RSVP to a VFA event, Splash automatically takes one of two actions within Salesforce: (1) Updates the individual’s existing record and associate him or her with that particular event; or (2) creates an entirely new Lead or Contact.

The complete automation allows VFA to focus on what really matters: Building and maintaining relationships with donors, recruits and hiring partners.

“The truth is that we have a lot to offer, but as a non-profit, we don't always have a lot to work with. Splash gave us the tools to better reach and engage our audience, making a huge difference in how effectively we market our events.”

– Kirby Yardley, Web and Email Designer // Sundance Institute

the results

As it turned out, the Splash platform received rave reviews.

Sundance Institute leveraged their custom Splash offerings and turned nine pre-designed launch templates into more than 200 stellar events.

From theater performances and master classes to alumni parties and Hong Kong’s very own film festival, Sundance Institute's influence is stronger than ever.

Bring on the flashbulbs.

before using splash

Average event attendee rate:

3,500 Attendees

after using splash

Average event attendee rate:

5,500

Attendees

4,231 Attendees

With the new Splash + GIPHY integration, you now have direct, instant access to the GIPHY search engine within the Splash Dash. Now it’s easier than ever to find the perfect GIF and add it to your Splash page and emails without disrupting your #flow.

Want to learn more about how Splash can help you take your events to the next level?

Request a Demo