Light Up Winter: Evaluating Digital Engagement for Cultural Events

Appetite commissioned The Audience Agency to evaluate the effectiveness of its Light Up Winter digital campaign, which promoted a series of free public events. The organisation wanted to better understand how its paid and organic social media activity performed, how audiences engaged with content, and how this translated into event awareness and attendance. 

While campaign activity generated strong reach and engagement, it was difficult for the team to measure real-world impact, optimise spend, or understand which channels and content were most effective. 

The project aimed to review data from Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Google Analytics, identify successes and inefficiencies, and provide practical recommendations. Ultimately, the goal was to help Appetite build a more strategic, and to support an evidence-led approach to digital engagement and improve outcomes for future campaigns. 

In under a month we delivered a structured three-stage approach: discovery, detailed analysis, and reporting. First, we discussed objectives and secured access to social media and web analytics data. We then conducted a deep-dive review of paid and organic campaign performance across platforms, alongside user behaviour on key webpages. 

We translated these insights into a clear, accessible report with practical recommendations. These included defining measurable success metrics, improving campaign setup and tracking, optimising platform roles based on areas of success (e.g. Facebook for reach, Instagram for engagement), and developing a cohesive content strategy. 

• Provided Appetite with a clear, evidence-based understanding of how their Light Up Winter campaign performed across social media and web channels, replacing previously unclear measures of success. 
• Identified gaps in campaign tracking and audience journeys, enabling the organisation to make more informed decisions about how to measure real-world impact and return on investment for their digital engagement activities. 
• Clarified the distinct roles of key platforms (e.g. Facebook for reach, Instagram for engagement), helping teams prioritise effort and budget more effectively in the future. 
• Highlighted the strength of organic content and community-led storytelling, reinforcing confidence in Appetite’s existing approach while showing how to scale it further. 
• Delivered practical recommendations that can be immediately applied, including improving ad setup, introducing link tracking, and refining content strategies. 
• Established the foundations for a more strategic, joined-up digital approach, including the need to establish clear KPIs, stronger audience insight, and more consistent planning across channels.