STAGE TO STAGE
IMPROVING BRAND AWARENESS AND SELLING DOT TO DOT FESTIVAL TICKETS TO 18-25 YEAR OLD STUDENTS BY INCREASING VISIBILITY AND AFFORDABILITY, WITH A FOCUS ON UNIVERSITY COMMUNITIES.
For the final year live client student project, I worked with two other FCP students, collaborating with DHP to relaunch Dot To Dot festival in Nottingham with a focus on student communities.
We found that a key issue around the lack of student attendance was the date of the event - at the end of term-time, many students will be busy with exams or may have left the city altogether. The best way to overcome this problem is to market Dot To Dot as an end-of-term celebration, framing it as an unmissable student event. So, we created the concept of ‘Stage To Stage’, a student-centered bar crawl style route which encourages students to explore the city and discover new artists, with a focus on social and interactive elements to encourage high levels of engagement.
This project helped to develop my collaborative and client-facing skills, working with a team to meet real-world objectives through a live brief. Identifying key barriers to engagement strengthened my strategic thinking and campaign planning abilities, creating targeted solutions to drive student attendance.
Surveying members of the target demographic, we found that over 50% hadn’t heard of Dot To Dot festival, and only 30% recall seeing promotional materials for the it, both around the city and online. Asking how much people would spend on a multi-venue day festival featuring potentially unknown artists, the most common answer was £25-£30, so the final release tickets (priced at £39.38) would be out of a lot of students’ budgets - a student discount might help them feel as if they’re getting a good deal out of their purchase.
We explored Dot To Dot venues across the city centre, and saw very few promotional materials for the festival compared to others, specifically Splendour (Nottingham) and Bearded Theory (Derbyshire). Looking for almost an hour, we were only able to find two A3 posters, A6 flyers, and a small ad for the festival printed in Leftlion Magazine. The budgets for the festivals differ, however the lack of physical materials needed to be addressed - especially on university campuses - if Dot To Dot was to increase brand awareness and attract the attention of students.
Stage To Stage aims to increase student attendance at the sets of lesser-known artists, avoiding big crowds of students in one place which may negatively impact the experience of existing festival attendees. Promoted as the ultimate end-of-year celebration, it strengthens the festival community by encouraging the attendance of friend groups and societies, connecting students, spotlighting emerging talent, and reinforcing Dot To Dot’s reputation for hype-driven events.
The central element of Stage To Stage is a collaboration with the Woov app to create a bar-crawl style route; allowing students to socialise, access personalised festival maps, and discover new venues and artists. Starting at their respective Student Unions, the app allows students to create custom routes to follow, reuniting at Rock City for the headliner’s set. It combines the excitement of live music with the social aspect of a bar crawl, creating a format that students would be more likely to engage with.
Based on feedback we received at a formative presentation checkpoint, highlighting potential budgeting issues and the possibility of excluding different age groups through student centred activities, we refined our ideas in order to maximise the festival’s appeal to students without excluding other attendee demographics.
“I haven’t seen anyone do anything like that before.” [AMY BAKER, 2025]
Our research identified several key issues with Dot To Dot’s current methods of promotion, specifically the volume of materials and complete lack on university campuses. Although limited by the low budget of the festival, we came up with new promotional ideas to get the word out about the festival, both to students and any other potential consumers.
Stage To Stage addresses these visibility and attendance challenges across the student body by framing Dot To Dot festivalas the ultimate end-of-year celebration, aiming to boost student attendance - particularly at the sets of smaller artists - while avoiding overcrowding at main venues. Rooted in community and connection, the bar crawl inspired concept encourages friend groups and societies to explore the festival together, strengthening brand loyalty and reinforcing Dot to Dot’s reputation for delivering high-energy, discovery-led experiences.
The collaboration with the Woov app transforms the festival into a journey for students, with personalised routes, map features, and social elements built in to increase digital and physical engagement in a way that resonates with student lifestyles. This insight-driven approach showcased our ability to creatively problem-solve in real time and build inclusive, engaging campaigns rooted in user behaviours.
(Outcomes created in collaboration with NTU students Darcey Fellows and Jamie Harris-Cardwell)
