It’s been ten years since Big Fish Little Fish launched its first family rave at the Effra Social in Brixton, London, and the brand is now coming of age.
The unique event, which cleverly appeals to former clubbers with young families, has played cultural institutions such as the National Gallery, iconic club venues like Fabric, and has even popped up at Glastonbury.
We last spoke to founder Hannah Saunders in January 2020, when she had exciting plans for the year ahead. But when the pandemic hit—ahead of Mother’s Day, which is traditionally one of BFLF’s biggest weekends—she had the foresight to pivot to live streaming and “spread a little joy during what was a scary time”.
Having assembled some DJ equipment and worked out how to live stream—“I almost threw my computer out of the window several times”—she posted to Facebook that BFLF would run a free-to-view kitchen rave to mark Mother’s Day. “When I woke up the next morning, 70,000 families were interested in watching the event. When we went live, we had about a million viewers.”
Hannah and the team continued to run free online events every Sunday for 15 months, posting on Eventbrite and social platforms to raise awareness.
“It allowed us to remain a thing, so when all the switches were turned back on and we could host in-person events, existing attendees came back as well as people who’d discovered us during lockdown,” explains Hannah.
Virtual and in-person parties have attracted international media coverage and viral social media posts, but Hannah maintains word-of-mouth marketing is its most effective method of promotion. “Some attendees get quite evangelical because they’ve had such a wonderful time and you see them come back with all their friends.”
BFLF’s ability to reach like-minded audiences—and convert followers into loyal fans – can be seen in its Eventbrite analytics, with 11% of sales over the past 12 months coming via the app, search and browse, and related event recommendations and share tools.
Viral social posts help with recruitment too, helping BFLF take over the globe. “We found our southern California regional manager because she saw a TikTok of one of our events. The video captured the essence of what we are about, and all of North America suddenly heard about us. She ran her first party in Long Beach, California, a few weeks ago,” says Hannah.
Meanwhile, a potential regional manager for Florida also found BFLF via TikTok, while a recent attendee of a London event is hoping to launch in their native Canada.
“Eventbrite always maintains our custom as it meets our needs and gives attendees the right kind of support.”
Hannah Saunders, founder of Big Fish Little Fish
BFLF is operated on a franchise model, although Hannah doesn’t love the connotations. “The franchise model can be a bit impersonal and we’re very much about the personal,” explains Hannah. “The only thing we look for from our regional managers is that they love dance music and have children.”
Today BFLF has 15 Eventbrite accounts, with regional and international managers running their own. Thanks to a dedicated Eventbrite Commercial Manager, Hannah says it’s been easy to set up the individual regional accounts and have them all under the BFLF umbrella.
“One of the things I really love about Eventbrite is its international reach. As we expand, we insist our regional managers sell tickets through the platform because that way we can be sure of giving attendees the best possible customer experience,” she explains.
“Once a year we do an audit of competitor ticket platforms, and Eventbrite always maintains our custom as it meets our needs and gives attendees the right kind of support.”
When joining the BFLF team, each regional manager receives The Manual, which operates like a handbook, and stays connected to colleagues via Office Gossip, a Facebook Messenger Group. “We support each other in advance of an event and share learnings afterward. We talk about what worked, what went wrong, and what we’d do differently.”
Hannah is sure to maintain a consistent look and feel to ensure the brand doesn’t get lost or diluted. For this reason, they speak to attendees with one shared voice that reflects the event’s ethos.
“We’re constantly chatting and, in doing that, we shore up our language,” she says. “We don’t have a script, but we make sure we express things in the same way so that it makes sense.”
In addition, regional managers upload photos and videos to a shared drive that can be used to promote future parties – demonstrating that you could enter a BFLF event anywhere in the world and recognise it.
It helps that the regional managers are the target audience, she says: “We’re all parents and we understand who we’re speaking to.”
BFLF marketing efforts are both national and hyper-local. “If an event is taking place in Liverpool, the regional manager will approach the Liverpool Echo and post on local groups. But it will also be on the BFLF website and the BFLF UK Facebook, Instagram and TikTok accounts.”
“I’m a huge fan of Eventbrite tracking links. Understanding what drives interest means we can work smarter the next time.”
Hannah Saunders, founder of Big Fish Little Fish
Hannah explains the importance of picking the right social media platform to promote your event and monitoring what’s making people click with Eventbrite’s tracking links.
“I’m a huge fan of Eventbrite tracking links,” she says. “We create bespoke links to give to an influencer who’s previewing an event or to use in a hyperlocal Facebook group, on a venue’s website, or by adding a QR code to a flier. Understanding what drives interest means we can work smarter the next time.”
Hannah continues to be very hands-on in the day-to-day running of events. Attend one of her family raves and you’ll probably spot her handing out transfer tattoos or blowing up balloons. But she’s also behind the scenes, trying out new tools and experimenting with new ways of presenting events, to benefit the wider group.
“We’ve recently started using Collections to group together events that are geographically close to each other and thematically similar – for example, our South London Early NYE Family Raves Collection covers five events,” she explains.
“This way we can share a single QR code and URL on social media, with influencers and when responding to media requests, and it allows people to discover a range of events that are relevant to them.”
After each BFLF event, Hannah receives a detailed account of everything that happened, which includes findings from post-event questionnaires and Eventbrite analytics – such as the number of tickets sold and total revenue. “Even if it’s not taking place in the UK, I have a close understanding of every event. It’s a very positive and supportive working style.”
“People talk about their business being their baby,” says Hannah. “But BFLF is not my baby, it’s a little bit of my soul and therefore the way it’s delivered is really important to me. That’s why the connection with the regional managers is so important.”
