Building Consistency and Impact: A Marketing Overhaul for the Nashville Film Festival
The Nashville Film Festival is one of the oldest and most celebrated film festivals in the U.S., featuring screenings, panels, and networking opportunities for filmmakers and enthusiasts alike. Despite its legacy, the festival operates with a small team of two full-time staff, bringing in seasonal marketing help for the festival’s duration.
Problem 😵💫
Key issues included:
Disjointed messaging each year due to frequent staff turnover.
Inconsistent branding.
Lack of insight into whether social media or emails were driving ticket sales.
Team frustration from unclear communication and collaboration, affecting productivity.
The Nashville Film Festival faced significant challenges in maintaining consistent branding and messaging, largely due to a small, seasonal marketing team. The lack of a unified approach led to disjointed social media and email campaigns, resulting in low engagement and unclear ROI.
Approach 💡
I developed a strategic marketing framework that would not only support the current festival, but also set the foundation for future seasons. My approach included:
Social Media Calendar & Strategy
I created a structured content calendar to organize social media posts ahead of time, ensuring messaging aligned with the festival's goals. This improved both communication and consistency.
Templatized Design for Graphics
Collaborating with a graphic designer, I developed reusable templates for social media, email, and the website. These templates ensured cohesive branding and minimized last-minute graphic creation.
Empowering Festival Participants to Share
With many people involved in the festival, I set up a system to encourage filmmakers, volunteers, panelists, and others to share about the festival on their personal social media. I collected social handles and worked with the PR team to ensure everyone had the resources to amplify the festival.
Leveraging Underutilized Channels
I noticed the festival had not utilized its LinkedIn account. I optimized it for narratives related to the Nashville Film Festival’s Creators Conference, which draws industry professionals and hosts panels. By targeting this specific audience, LinkedIn became an effective tool for expanding the festival’s professional reach.
Instagram SEO
I implemented Instagram SEO by adding relevant keywords into the festival’s bio and captions, ensuring content was easily discoverable through Instagram search.
Lauren Ponto, Programming Director, Nashville Film Festival
“Emmalee’s approach to social media and marketing was a game-changer for us. She stepped in, worked autonomously, and set up systems that made future festivals much smoother. She truly took the burden off my plate, and her efforts laid the groundwork for our continued success.”
