Cleveland International Film Festival

When the Cleveland International Film Festival reached out to Data Genomix for help enhancing its digital advertising strategy- there was less than a month until the festival started. Such a short timeline meant that getting any promotion for the festival up and running as quickly as possible was imperative. Not only did the festival have limited experience in digital marketing, but they also had limited resources- specifically, they were without a full-time digital marketing team. This meant the festival team needed an extension of its own team and guidance on what platforms to take advantage of and what digital channels would work best to reach its audience and sell tickets. 

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The Cleveland International Film Festival happens only once a year. It is a seasonal event and, like most seasonal events, has a limited budget. The festival had big goals of driving ticket sales and clicks to its website and needed Data Genomix’s help to get a lot done quickly.

Data Genomix kept the client’s goals in mind when creating a digital marketing strategy and knew that taking advantage of Google search engine marketing (SEM) ads was the best way to enable film aficionados and casual viewers alike to find the right information to attend the festival. Google SEM ads allow an advertiser to place its website at the top of the paid search results on Google and put its site and information in front of whoever is searching for a list of keywords or phrases the advertiser provides to the search engine. 

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To work with the festival’s small budget, the Data Genomix team applied for and gained access to the Google Ad Grant for the Cleveland International Film Festival. The grant provides nonprofits with up to $10,000 in in-kind SEM advertising per month on Google’s platform and enabled Data Genomix to upgrade the festival’s marketing funds seriously. 

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To gain access to the Google Ad Grant, the Data Genomix team needed to secure a Google for Nonprofit account for the Cleveland International Film Festival. The team needed to be able to submit all necessary documents for this as soon as possible, as it typically takes Google between 2 to 14 business days to approve the nonprofit account. Once the account was approved, the Data Genomix team secured the Google Ad Grant for the festival in 24 hours. 

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Once the ad grant was secured, Data Genomix moved quickly, linking the accounts and getting ads up and running. This included writing and developing the ads, as well as creating audiences to target. The team ran a dynamic ad campaign, brand awareness campaigns, and campaigns to show the audience where performances were occurring and where they could buy tickets. Data Genomix also met with the Cleveland International Film Festival team once a week to discuss ad performance leading up to the festival and constantly monitored ad performance to ensure no second went by where the ads weren’t performing to the best of their ability. 

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Even after the festival was over, Data Genomix knew that there was still work to be done. The team continued to take advantage of the funds from the Google Ad Grant, running a dynamic ad campaign, brand awareness campaigns, fundraising and donation campaigns, and a campaign calling for new entries for the upcoming 2024 festival.