The brief was to spend less on ads and protect ticket revenue. It became a record season.
The goal
The Sawdust Art Festival in Laguna Beach runs on a short, intense season. The 2026 brief had one instruction: spend less on media than 2025, and don’t let ticket revenue fall.
What we found
The year before had bought attendance with discounts. Mid-season, gate counts ran behind 2025, and it would have been easy to panic and spend. The data said otherwise: opening weekend was up 9.4%, the dip was a July 4 that landed on a Saturday, and revenue per visitor was climbing. Meta’s pixel also wasn’t passing purchases back, so the platform showed zero sales while the store recorded thousands.
What we changed
Kept media light early, then put 45% of the season’s spend into August, the highest-revenue weeks. A dedicated annual-pass campaign. Search built to catch people already looking for tickets.
What happened
The highest-revenue season in the festival’s records, up 3.7% on 2025, on roughly 20% less media. Annual passes up 31%. Fewer visitors, who spent more. Google search returned a tracked 6.0x; the annual-pass campaign 8.4x.
What happened next
Fix the Meta purchase tracking before next season, so both channels can be judged on the same numbers.
Tracked returns are platform-attributed. Revenue figures are the festival’s own.