Case Study: Chinese Fine Arts Society - Facebook Advertising

Sector: Nonprofit
Project: Social Campaign Creation, Facebook Advertising

We partner with the Chinese Fine Arts Society (CFAS) to sell tickets and increase audiences for their signature events and, as a Facebook advertising agency, crafted a campaign pitched to audiences with specific cultural interests, such as Chinese classical music and kung fu. Our first year's work played a significant role in selling out a show and resulted in an 84.8% increase in Facebook fans, 309.2k impressions, 5k+ engagements, and 16k video views—all for a total spend of $767.​

The Challenge

The Chinese Fine Arts Society (CFAS) is a Chicago nonprofit dedicated to promoting Chinese culture and arts through appreciation and the pursuit of excellence in Chinese music, dance, and visual arts.

Founded in 1984, this small-but-mighty organization has brought diverse audiences together to traditional and contemporary Chinese art through a variety of programs, such as Music Festival in Honor of Confucius (MFHC), an annual program for young musicians; a presentation of Jackie Chan’s LongYun Kung Fu Troupe at the Auditorium Theater; and a vibrant annual Chinese New Year Celebration.
In an effort to promote their events and grow their audiences, CFAS regularly partners with Sarah Best Strategy to create social media campaigns that combine paid and organic tactics. Primary goals for our work together have included:
  • Engaging their current fan base, reaching new audiences, and growing their social media following;
  • Increasing ticket sales to performances, participation in MFHC, and attendance at free Chinese New Year events; and 
  • Building awareness for their organization and generating buzz around their offerings.

The Idea

In our initial work together to promote Jackie Chan’s Long Yun Kung Fu Troupe, we partnered with CFAS to create a social media campaign to promote ticket sales for performances and Chinese New Year events using organic content and Facebook advertising.

To start, we mapped out a two-month social media campaign leading up to the events, which included bi-weekly posts designed to boost followers, increase engagement and impressions, and expand each post's reach to key audiences.
As part of our campaign work, we developed a Facebook advertising plan focused on generating ticket purchases from new audience members and lowering cost per purchase (CPP) through audience testing. Steps in the process included:
  • ​Benchmarking CPP metrics for each performance advertised
  • Researching specialized audiences (e.g., music lovers, martial arts fans, traditional Chinese arts interests)
  • Devising image/copy combinations to run across the campaign
  • Continuous testing of ads and audiences
  • Using benchmarks to measure results and determine which ads and audiences to prioritize
  • Updating the campaign plan every week based on analyzing learnings, creating new hypotheses, and identifying opportunities

The Results

  • CFAS sold over 90% of tickets for Jackie Chan’s Long Yun Kung Fu Troupe.
  • We increased the organization’s Facebook fans by 84.8%.
  • Our posts garnered 309.2k impressions (233.1k of which were from paid social media), 5,125 engagements, and 16k paid video views.
  • We accomplished this within the organization’s budget of $800.
"I think Sarah Best Strategy completely transformed our social media presence and strategy, and this has been instrumental to our success in drawing huge crowds to our events in recent years. I really can’t overstate what a blessing it has been to work with the SBS team!"

-  Julie Ma, President & Acting Executive Director, Chinese Fine Arts Society

"Sarah Best and the Sarah Best Strategy team have provided the Chinese Fine Arts Society with invaluable help in marketing our events. Their efforts created a meaningful social media presence that garnered interest in our events, and by working with SBS, our team was able to focus on our programming knowing the social media and marketing side of things was covered." 

- Elizabeth Clawson, Executive Administrator, Chinese Fine Arts Society