INFLUENCER MARKETING & PAID ADS CASE STUDY FOR MAKERS CENTRAL
We turned £25K into £200K+ in ticket sales for Europe's largest DIY event.
8x ROI on a 6-week campaign with 50+ creators and paid social across Facebook and Instagram. Attendance has grown every year since ICHF took over.
THE BRIEF
Europe's largest DIY event. £25K agency budget. Grow attendance and ticket revenue.
THE CHALLENGE
Who they are
Makers Central is the largest DIY and handcraft event in Europe, held annually at the NEC Birmingham. Thousands of makers, creators, families and craft enthusiasts come together in a single venue each year.
What they wanted
Drive ticket sales and attendance across the full audience: families, kids, young crafters and seasoned makers.
The constraint
£25,000 agency budget for the campaign. Paid social ran on Facebook and Instagram only, with the bulk of the work happening in the 6 weeks before the event.
The before state
The team was already running creators, organic and paid social, plus email and direct mail to a mailing list. Our job was to scale the parts that were working and add the volume the campaign needed.
WHAT WE DID
50+ creators in their natural style.
We recruited 50+ creators across the maker and craft space to film organic content in their own voice. No scripts. No brand speak. The aggregate reach across the network did the heavy lifting.
Best organic became paid creative.
Top-performing creator videos were licensed and run as paid ads. Archive footage from previous Makers Central shows was pulled into ad rotation too. Existing assets earning more reach.
SGM produced supporting content.
Alongside the creator network, our in-house team produced campaign content. The deck was a mix of creator-led and SGM-led, depending on what each ad set needed.
Paid across all Meta platforms.
Ads ran across Facebook and Instagram (feed, Reels, Stories). Not Threads.
THE RESULTS
Every number on this page is one we can show you in a dashboard.
8x
ROI on the campaign
£200K+
In ticket sales generated
6 weeks
Paid social run-up to the event
£25K
Total campaign spend
HOW WE MEASURED IT
Ticket revenue measured against the £25K agency budget across the 6-week paid social window. 8x ROI based on attributable revenue over agency spend.
IN THEIR WORDS
Don't take our word for it.
“We have been working with Cam from Sweet Gen Media for the past few months and it has been a fantastic experience. Cam is a pleasure to deal with, professional, proactive and always brings great ideas to the table. We have really enjoyed working together and would highly recommend Sweet Gen Media to anyone looking for support with their marketing.”
Makers Central
GALLERY
A range of images from the show
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