Rebuilding the enginebehind a festival’sreturn.

A festival does not return after two years by simply switching its advertising back on. Its audience has gone quiet, the market has moved, and the infrastructure behind the previous campaign no longer exists in the same form.

I joined Soundslinger as Fractional CMO in June 2025, reporting directly to the CEO and ownership as the decision-maker across marketing and media. The assignment was to build the function while simultaneously launching the festival.

We established a six-person core team and agency roster, implemented a new CRM, strengthened lifecycle automation, introduced ManyChat, built cross-functional workflows in Asana, and created the campaign planning, reporting, audience segmentation, and decision-making processes needed to operate at scale.

For the presale and onsale, I established the Reunion positioning: an invitation for longtime fans to return to Sunshine Grove and for a new generation to experience Okeechobee for the first time.

I also led the rebrand from the client side—selecting and briefing A Color Bright and defining the ambition to make Okeechobee look and operate like a contemporary national festival rather than a regional event. The resulting identity gave the brand a consistent foundation while allowing each year’s artist and campaign to introduce a distinct visual expression.

Pricing, ticket tiers, payment plans, price increases, promotions, offers, and campaign pacing were managed as connected commercial levers. The launch brought together paid media, CRM, email, social, conversational marketing, public relations, out-of-home, selected audio placements, and performance creative.

We were not simply relaunching a festival. We were rebuilding the organization capable of sustaining it.