INFLUENCER MARKETING CASE STUDY FOR MAKERS CENTRAL
We turned £25K into £200K+ in ticket sales for the UK's biggest DIY event.
Sold out in 48 hours. 8x ROI on a creator-led campaign that put the event in front of the audience it had been missing.
THE BRIEF
A £25K budget, a packed exhibitor lineup, and an audience that wasn't seeing the event.
THE CHALLENGE
Who they are
Makers Central is the UK's largest DIY and handcraft event, held annually at the NEC Birmingham. Hundreds of makers, creators and craft enthusiasts trade, demo and meet in one room each year.
What they wanted
Fill the room. Sell tickets. Pull in a younger, creator-led audience the show had historically struggled to reach through traditional channels.
The constraint
A £25,000 marketing budget. Short campaign window before the event. No existing TikTok presence at scale.
The before state
Previous campaigns leaned on event marketing classics: email, paid search, exhibitor cross-promo. Reach was getting more expensive every year. The audience the event most wanted to attract was almost entirely on TikTok and Reels, and the event was almost entirely not.
WHAT WE DID
STRATEGY:
Creator-first, paid second.
Pair the event with the UK's most relevant DIY, craft and maker creators. Pay each on a fixed fee plus a performance bonus tied to attributable ticket sales. Boost the highest-performing organic content with paid amplification on Meta and TikTok.
CHANNEL MIX:
TikTok led, Reels followed, Meta amplified.
TikTok carried the discovery work. Instagram Reels picked up the older end of the maker audience. Meta paid handled retargeting and conversion on the best-performing organic clips. Every channel pointed at one tracked ticket URL.
CREATIVE:
Real makers, real studios, no event-hype reel.
We deliberately skipped the glossy event sizzle. Every creator filmed in their own style, in their own studio, talking about why they were excited to be at Makers Central. The algorithm rewards that. Glossy ads scroll past. Real makers don't.
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
48hr
From launch to sold out
£25K
Total campaign spend
HOW WE MEASURED IT
Every ticket purchase was tracked through a per-creator UTM, a campaign-tagged Meta pixel and a unique discount code per creator. Revenue attribution was reconciled against the event ticketing platform at the end of the campaign window. No estimates, no assisted-touch maths.
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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