Online Marketing and Electronic Commerce Integration: A Case Study Examining an International Wine Festival

Festival and event attendees are continually seeking unique, authentic, experientially-oriented festivals and events with a greater focus on attendees actively participating in the experience. Festival attendees are seeking more significant personal, meaningful opportunities to participate in wine related activities at wine festivals, but festivals have not capitalized on the sales potential of electronic commerce (e-commerce) post-festival. Examination of a wine festival in South Korea and how through better targeted online marketing - utilizing e-commerce platforms, such as social media, websites and electronic communications (e-communications) – they could significantly increase festival revenue for organizers/vendors while also giving higher attendee satisfaction. An interpretive design approach assisted in obtaining an in-depth understanding of resident, tourist, supplier, non-profit, and local government perspectives. It was then interpreted through an event management and social media marketing perspective. Examining the textual data generated through 24 interviews of festival attendees and suppliers/organizers revealed multiple emergent themes that greatly influenced the attendee’s holistic festival experiences as well as essential insights on how to improve future CIWFs with regards to the event’s online social media marketing, tourism planning, and e-commerce sales post-festival. Findings included festival attendee satisfaction was most realized from entertainment and wine-related activities, desired more wine product information, product education, and product purchasing opportunities. Recommendations will help to improve future CIWF attendance levels, greatly improve revenue generation, and festival management aspects through a multitude of specific, actionable festival management and online marketing activities and initiatives for improved festival attendee satisfaction.