Attracting more than 250,000 attendees annually, the Deschutes Fair is one of Central Oregon’s top events every summer. For the second straight year, Deschutes has chosen the App-In-An-App approach by delivering their annual fair app inside Grandstand - Events & Guides.
Deschutes celebrated their 100th anniversary in 2019 and designed an innovative layout that featured a split screen background of old and new. In addition to the traditional fair app features of Maps, Schedules, and Food Vendors, Deschutes created a 100 Years section to highlight
Thanks to a well-executed promotional strategy by the Deschutes marketing team, Deschutes saw downloads increase by 175% in 2019 after a very successful first year in 2018. This was despite the fact that thanks to Grandstand’s unique delivery platform, many users did not even count for a download in the second year as the app auto-updated within the Grandstand app. To promote the app, Deschutes took advantage of Grandstand’s produced artwork that comes with every package.
In the end, Grandstand was able to deliver the app to thousands of users for pennies, proving that the App-In-An-App approach was still able to reach a large, mass audience.
Elyse West, Fair Marketing Coordinator, told Grandstand right after the event, "We are so pleased with the response to the app again this year. Every year is better!"
Much of Deschutes success can be attributed to West's and the Deschutes team's approach to marketing the app, including social media posts starting one month before Fair inviting folks to download app. Planned posts throughout the month period addressed different app features like fair food lists and locations, vendor and product lists, ease of access to fair maps and the ability to make your own schedule.
The 2020 app is underway with plans to add coupons and potentially a scavenger hunt.
The Deschutes Fair app is available in both the Apple App Store and Google Play store. As with all clients Grandstand produces a promotional website to help with marketing.
Casestudy