One Festival. One Feed. Impossible to Scroll By.
Background
The Rochester Lilac Festival is a beloved 10-day spring tradition in Highland Park, drawing visitors from across Western New York and beyond for music, food, artists, and, of course, the blooms. Linden Digital Marketing partnered with the festival for a full 5-month organic social campaign, running February through May 2026, to build pre-festival excitement, drive attendance and ticket sales, and give the festival a bold, consistent brand presence online.
Beyond content creation, the partnership extended into an ambassador program and UGC strategy, putting the festival experience directly into the hands of real attendees and creators to generate authentic, shareable content that grew the audience organically.
Objectives
The Lilac Festival needed a social presence that matched the scale of the event itself, one that could carry a community from winter anticipation through a packed 10-day festival window and into a lasting online following. The goal was to build a content engine across Facebook, Instagram, and a newly launched LinkedIn presence that could sustain daily posting at festival scale, convert feed engagement into real ticket and website traffic, and turn attendees into advocates through an ambassador program.
Challenges
- Sustaining a 5-month content calendar that had to scale from 2 posts a week in January to multiple daily posts, reels, and stories once the festival approached
- Standing up a brand-new ambassador program from scratch: recruiting, vetting, and managing a cohort of content creators in time for launch
- Moderating a surge of comments and DMs during the festival window while keeping every interaction on-brand
- Proving that organic content could drive measurable, not just anecdotal, ticket and website traffic
From Feed to Festival Grounds
The Solution
Linden built a 5-month content roadmap that carried the Lilac Festival audience through the full arc of the season: pre-festival buzz, behind-the-scenes anticipation, live festival coverage, and post-festival celebration, all under a bold, consistent brand voice. On-site, the team captured artist spotlights, the new Lilac Table experience, sponsor highlights, and the community moments that make the festival feel real, while a full-scale ambassador program and always-on comment moderation kept the feed active, authentic, and welcoming around the clock.
Benefit #1: One site, one brand
A content engine that scaled with the season From two posts a week in the off-season to roughly 30 unique reels, stories, and posts a day during the festival, the calendar flexed to match real audience demand without losing consistency or brand voice.
Benefit #2: A real product catalog
A vetted ambassador program, built from the ground up 91 applicants, 20 interviews, and 17 selected creators gave the festival a network of authentic voices generating high-performing content throughout the event.
Benefit #3: Built for how their audience already behaves
A community that talked back Nearly four inbound messages for every one sent, and 95.8% positive sentiment across 1,505 comments, turned the feed into a genuine two-way conversation with people actively planning to attend.
Benefit #4: Consistent navigation and structure
Social awareness that translated into real traffic Website sessions grew 60.2% year over year, with organic search (the channel people turn to after seeing the festival on their feed) leading the way at over 216,000 sessions.
A Season That Delivered
Across a 5-month campaign, the Lilac Festival’s social presence became a genuine driver of awareness, community, and traffic, culminating in a festival week that alone accounted for over half of all campaign impressions.
🌸
2,839,403 impressions and 5,215 net new followers across Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn over 5 months
🎟️
2,075 clicks to the Lilac Table ticket link at just $0.10 per click, with the top creative hitting a 9.91% CTR
📈
Website sessions up 60.2% YoY to 254,888, with new users up 48.9% to 133,191
💬
95.8% positive sentiment across 1,505 comments, with nearly 4 inbound messages for every 1 sent
🙌
91 ambassador applicants, 20 interviews, and 17 creators selected to represent the festival in real time, driving 55,769 views and ~38,000 accounts reached from 9 selected pieces of content, with every ambassador pulling 70–90% non-follower reach
We use Linden for the Rochester Lilac Festival. We had big asks and they delivered. Lindsay and her team are passionate and dedicated. They listened to us when we asked to pivot on several occasions, and never took our needs as offensive. A vendor who has that kind of ethic is one you want to partner with.
Let's talk about you.
Chat with one of our strategists so we can get to know each other.
We can’t wait to meet you!
"*" indicates required fields