Year after year, the world’s largest gospel concert, The Experience which is hosted by the senior pastor of the House on the Rock Church, Pastors Paul and Ifeanyi Adefarasin grows in leaps and bounds. The exponential progression of number of attendees owes thanks to proliferation of praises lauded to the unique experience by attendees and also the leveraging of a massive number of global volunteers in getting word out about the concert.
For the 2020 event which was wholly virtual, the organizers knew they had to do something different and take a unique approach. To this end, volunteers were assembled in a group on the massively popular social media platform, Telegram. Tagged The #TE15Army, the group has grown to about six thousand active members who worked and continue to work massively and tirelessly to get the public engaged for the 15th edition of The Experience concert which was held yesterday night virtually from 9pm till the morning of 12th December.
And the facts speak for themselves, a record number participated in the concert this year, streaming live on various digital media platforms including the official website of the experience. For example, on the organizers YouTube, Facebook and Website pages alone, the concert has been watched by over 1.7 Million people in the last 10 hours as at the time of this report, and the number is sure to keep growing exponentially. If we include the numbers from other streaming platforms and cable services DSTV and GOTV who are set to air the concert continuously to its millions of viewers over 50 countries across Africa, the numbers will be hugely impressive.
The success of The Experience this year is not just one for the record books but should be studied in business schools as a case study in how to leverage the power of volunteers and technology in driving engagement. Moving information from the content bank on the telegram platform, volunteers from all over the world utilized social media channels where lots of posts with the hashtag #TE15 was used to notify the public about the oncoming concert. This got the hashtag trending in different countries before the concert, during and even after the concert.
The playbook used by the conveners of the concert is one that should be studied not only by other promoters of gospel music concerts but all types of music concerts and events worldwide. The power of volunteers, their belief in the value and message of the concert itself and consequent implementation cannot be overstated in the success of The Experience concert in a challenging year such as 2020 where most global events and festivals like Coachella, Wireless Festival and more were cancelled. This is a trend that is bound to continue in the coming years.
Written by Anibogun Julian