The new website has completely transformed the way we connect with our audience throughout the year. Arkyard have given us a platform that works hand-in-hand with our marketing campaigns, helping us get to 98% of tickets sold before the gates even open.
A website that lives and breathes with the festival seasons
Big Church Festival needed a website that better reflected the different needs of the organisation and its users throughout the year. We used our extensive knowledge of their audiences and marketing activity to produce a website that's maximising commercial opportunities, whilst providing users with a brilliant online experience.
Client:
Big Church Festival
The Brief
Big Church Festival is one of the UK’s largest Christian music events, attracting thousands of visitors each year. The event has a natural rhythm, with its own unique seasons – from early ticket launches and campaign price countdowns, to the live festival itself and post-event engagement.
Arkyard was already managing the festival’s full 360° performance marketing, driving awareness, engagement and conversions throughout the year. However, the website was struggling to keep pace with the marketing campaigns and seasonal shifts.
The brief was clear – create a new website that could evolve alongside the festival calendar, connect more deeply with the marketing strategy, and serve the very different needs of users depending on the time of year.
Our Approach
We worked hand-in-hand with the Big Church Festival marketing team to ensure every part of the new site was grounded in campaign insight, user behaviour and the festival’s seasonal flow.
1. Discovery and Research
Mapping the seasons
We collaborated with the marketing team to map out the key phases of the festival year:
- Pre-event build-up and early ticket launches
- Price countdown campaigns
- During-event information and live updates
- Post-event highlights and community engagement.
Audience understanding
We used GA4 funnel analysis, Hotjar behaviour tracking and campaign performance data to understand how users moved through the sales funnel in each season. This helped us shape journeys that supported the right actions at the right time.
Marketing alignment
Because we manage the festival’s full performance marketing, we were able to directly align the website’s structure, messaging and calls-to-action with campaign objectives for each phase.
2. Ideate and Design
Flexible design system
We created a design framework that could adapt to each season. The site could feel fresh and campaign-focused during key sales pushes, then switch seamlessly to live event mode when the festival began.
Season-specific user journeys
Ticket sales flows were streamlined for early campaign phases, while on-site navigation and real-time information were prioritised during the festival itself.
Concept #1
Concept #2
3. Development and Tracking
Modular CMS
We built a flexible CMS that allowed the marketing team to easily update content, launch campaign-specific pages and adjust calls-to-action without developer delays.
Integrated tracking
We embedded detailed tracking to measure conversions and engagement by season, giving the marketing team full visibility on what was working and where to optimise.
4. Preparing for Ongoing Optimisation
We delivered a ‘Now, Next, Later’ roadmap for experimentation, helping the festival team continuously refine user journeys, campaign landing pages and content. This approach ensures the site stays relevant year after year.
The Output
As a result of this project, we have implemented the following for Big Church Festival:
- A mobile-optimised, flexible website designed for seasonal shifts
- Modular CMS setup for quick and easy updates
- GA4 tracking and CRM integrations for complete performance visibility
- An experimentation roadmap to support future optimisation.
The Results
Following the launch of the new website in the months leading up to the Big Church Festival 2025 event, the impact has been noted in several ways, including:
- A seasonally adaptable website fully aligned with the marketing calendar
- Streamlined user journeys that match audience needs at each stage
- Agile internal workflows for fast campaign execution
- Detailed tracking to link website performance directly to marketing outcomes
- 98% of tickets sold ahead of the event – with the new site playing a major role in driving conversions.
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