*The 2015 Essence Festival emerged as a confirmed success with nearly 500,000 people who were on hand to attend the four-day event, which took place July 2-5 in New Orleans.
Attendees were treated to nighttime performances from more than 80 artists, including Kevin Hart, Usher, Mary J. Blige, Missy Elliott, Common and Kendrick Lamar, according to a press release. In addition, the festival’s daytime experience featured more than 120 speakers, authors, leaders and celebrities such as Deepak Chopra, Iyanla Vanzant, Steve Harvey, Keke Palmer, Kelly Rowland, Jussie Smollett and the Rev. Al Sharpton.
Online, the Essence Festival proved a winner with 100 hours of programming available to users that included 24 hours daily of streaming video. In all, the video attracted more than 200,000 live stream views that covered select performances and the daily talk show ESSENCE Live.
Social media for the festival was noticeable as well, with over 100,000 posts driving over 1.5 billion impressions. According to the release, the Essence Festival reached trending status on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. First-time Twitter Periscope celebrity guest segments also contributed to the event’s social media takeover.
On the mobile front, the Essence Festival fan-mobile page exploded with an 80% increase in page views as well as unique visitors growing 132% year over year. The release notes that the growth largely stemmed from an 80% increase in video consumption year over year.
Another highlight came in the form of the inaugural Essence Festival ‘Day of Service’ that commemorated the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina by refurbishing schools citywide and staging a first-time community Health & Wellness Fair.
For the full recap of the 2015 Essence Festival and footage highlights from the event’s microsite, click here.
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