The Napa Valley Film Festival took place in multiple venues from Napa to Calistoga November 13 to 17. New this year, organizers used Socialpulp, a service of North Street, to create real-time collections of tweets and images shared with the festival hashtag #NVFF13. By creating the displays in several venues throughout the valley, organizers created a digital link between the locations, allowing guests to see what was going on elsewhere at the festival.
“People love to see their posts on screens. It was a real-time reward for them, and I definitely think it increased engagement. It creates a physical presence for what is happening digitally,” said Kerry Hardy, the festival’s senior marketing manager. “And our sponsors loved to see their logos up there.”
Hardy said she is still analyzing the data, but Twitter and Instagram posts were “up significantly over last year.” Sony sponsored the Socialpulp projections throughout the event. At the festival’s opening gala November 13 in Napa, organizers combined nine large screens to create a display of tweets, photos, and sponsor information. Over the next four days, single screens displayed the feeds at the festival’s “Front Porches”—tasting rooms in Napa, Yountville, St. Helena, and Calistoga where filmmakers gathered to mingle with festivalgoers.
Throughout the event, Hardy and her team moderated the feed to weed out any inappropriate posts before they could appear on the displays. The approval process can be controlled via an iPad.
