Attributing DTC Sign-Ups & Post-Event Orders: Connecting Festival Leads to Later Shipments via Unique Codes

The Challenge of Proving Post-Festival ROI

Wine festivals offer an unparalleled opportunity for wineries to connect face-to-face with wine enthusiasts. However, many festival producers struggle to prove the long-term revenue impact of these events to participating wineries. Simply put, pouring samples and generating buzz on the day is not enough – wineries want to see sustained direct-to-consumer (DTC) sales and new customer relationships born from the festival. In-market DTC events can kick off a domino effect of sales, loyalty and engagement beyond the event itself (wineindustryadvisor.com), but it’s crucial to capture and attribute those outcomes.

Why does post-festival attribution matter? It comes down to ROI. Wineries invest time, product, and often fees to be at a festival. They’re hoping not just for on-site sales, but also for follow-up orders, wine club sign-ups, and lasting brand loyalty from attendees. As a festival organizer, demonstrating that your event directly led to new customers and sales helps you retain and attract winery partners. It can justify booth fees, sponsorships, and convince producers that participation is a profitable marketing channel. In short, clear attribution of DTC sign-ups and post-event orders turns a great festival experience into tangible business results for producers.

Capturing DTC Sign-Ups During the Festival

One of the first steps to drive post-event sales is capturing attendee interest during the festival. The goal is to turn an interested taster into a contactable lead that wineries can market to later. Seasoned festival producers facilitate this by encouraging and enabling wineries to gather DTC sign-ups on the spot.

Make it easy for attendees to sign up for winery newsletters or wine club memberships at the event. Many successful wine festivals set up digital kiosks or tablets at each winery’s booth for quick email sign-ups. Others use QR codes prominently on tasting tables, allowing guests to scan and subscribe to a mailing list or promotional offer with their phones. (QR codes have become a familiar tool in the wine industry, with many wineries now using them to engage visitors and even boost sales.) The key is to reduce friction: a 10-second sign-up with a simple name and email form is ideal.

Incentivise the sign-up by offering something of value. For example, a winery might offer a small instant reward (“Sign up for our mailing list and get a free logo corkscrew”) or a future benefit (“Join our wine club today for 10% off your first order”). Festival producers can coordinate with wineries beforehand to craft attractive sign-up bonuses tailored to the festival crowd. These incentives not only boost sign-up numbers but also make attendees feel appreciated. Email sign-ups remain a critical metric – especially if a winery is aiming to grow its customer list – and should be treated as such (sponsorshipcollective.com). Every email captured is a potential long-term customer.

Community engagement can amplify sign-ups as well. If your festival has a theme or local community angle, leverage that. For instance, at a regional wine festival in Italy, organizers highlighted that subscribing to a winery’s newsletter would keep attendees informed about upcoming local tasting events and community wine dinners. By linking the sign-up to ongoing engagement in the community, attendees were more eager to stay connected. Festival producers in New Zealand have similarly invited attendees to vote for a “People’s Choice” winery via an online form that doubles as a contact capture – a clever way to get leads while giving the audience a voice.

Unique Codes: Your Bridge from Festival to Future Sales

Perhaps the most powerful tool for attribution is the use of unique codes. These are typically promo or referral codes that link a customer’s later online purchase back to the festival experience. By giving festival attendees a unique code to use when they order wine post-event, you create a clear data trail from festival lead to DTC sale.

How do unique codes work in practice? Before the festival, coordinate with each participating winery to set up a special promotional code in their online store or DTC sales system. This code could be something memorable that ties back to the event – for example, a code like “WINEFEST20” or “FestivalName2024” that offers a certain discount (such as 10–20% off, or free shipping) on a post-festival purchase. Each winery can have their own unique code (e.g., WINEXPO23-ABC Winery) or you can use a general festival-wide code that is linked to each winery differently on the back end. The preference depends on how granular you and the wineries want to track results.

During the festival, promote these codes heavily. Announce them at workshops or stages, include them in the festival programme or app, and ensure every winery booth is reminding tasters about their code. Many festivals print small cards or flyers for each booth that list the winery’s featured wines and a special code for ordering those wines online later. Attendees can take these cards home – a tangible reminder of their favourite discoveries and the extra incentive to buy. For tech-savvy crowds, a simple QR code on the card can directly open the winery’s online shop with the promo code automatically applied.

Real-world wine festivals have seen success with this approach. For example, some larger festivals have partnered with their wineries to offer exclusive online deals to attendees via special promo codes. A printed card or emailed code not only rewards attendees with a discount, but also allows the winery to identify which online orders stemmed from their festival booth exposure. Even smaller events can benefit: an Australian boutique wine fair assigned each winery a custom code incorporating the festival name. Attendees who loved a particular Shiraz or Chardonnay could later order it by entering that festival code at checkout, instantly telling the winery that the sale was a direct result of the festival exposure.

From large international events to local wine fairs, unique codes have proven to be a win-win strategy. Attendees enjoy a special deal (which encourages them to buy sooner and in greater volume), wineries gain new DTC customers with a known origin, and as the festival organizer you collect concrete data on post-event sales attributable to your event.

Logistics of Code Distribution and Tracking

Setting up codes is only half the battle – you also need a system to distribute them and track their usage. Here are some logistics and best practices to consider:

• Coordinate with Wineries on Setup: Not every small winery has an advanced e-commerce system, so provide help where needed. Some may use common platforms (Shopify, WineDirect, etc.) where adding a coupon code is straightforward. Ensure each code has a clear expiration date (for example, valid for 30 or 60 days post-festival) to encourage timely purchases and simplify analysis.

• Centralise the Code List for Attendees: As the festival concludes, consider sending a follow-up email to all attendees with a list of all participating wineries and their post-event offers or codes. Many festivals do this in a “Thank You for attending” email. If you use a robust ticketing platform like Ticket Fairy, you can easily email your ticket buyers after the event with personalised content. This follow-up message can say, “Loved a wine at the festival? Here are exclusive post-festival discounts from our wineries – just for attendees.” List each winery, a quick reminder of what they offered, and the unique code or link. This not only drives sales but also shows your festival’s commitment to supporting your vendors. (Importantly, avoid sharing the codes on fully public channels if they are meant to track attendee purchases; keep them within attendee communications to maintain attribution accuracy.)

• On-Site Visibility: Remind wineries to display their code at the booth. A small sign reading “Order later with code WINEXPO for 15% off” can prompt attendees to snap a photo of it or pocket a flyer. Train booth staff to mention the code in their farewell: e.g., “If you enjoyed our wine, remember you can order online with the code on this card for a nice discount!”. Such personal reminders can significantly improve redemption rates.

• Tracking and Data Sharing: Decide how you will gather the results. In some cases, wineries will need to report back to you how many times their code was used and the sales generated. An easy way is to ask for a simple report a month or two after the festival – perhaps in exchange, you can compile aggregate stats and share exciting figures with all participants. Alternatively, if the ticketing or festival management platform has a feature to track referrals (for instance, some systems allow integrating tracking pixels or links), make use of it. The aim is to tally up the total post-event orders and DTC sign-ups that originated from the festival.

By nailing the logistics, you ensure that those unique codes actually do their job. There’s nothing worse than going through the trouble of setting up a tracking system and then not following through on measuring it. Show producers that you have a professional handle on this process – it builds trust that your festival is organized and oriented toward delivering results.

Post-Event Engagement and Converting Leads to Sales

Once the festival is over, the real work of converting leads begins. This is where festival producers transition into a facilitator of ongoing engagement between attendees and wineries. Your role is part cheerleader – keeping the post-event energy alive – and part analyst – monitoring which leads turn into customers.

Timely follow-up is essential. In the week immediately after the event, encourage wineries to reach out to the contacts they collected. A friendly “Thank you for visiting us at the XYZ Wine Festival” email from the winery can include a reminder of the unique code or a link to recommended wines. (Often, it’s best if this email comes from the winery itself, since the customer has a direct relationship from tasting their wines. However, you as the festival organiser can provide a template or gentle nudge to make sure it happens.) For example, a Spanish winery that met hundreds of new people at a festival in Barcelona sent out a follow-up email offering those attendees an introductory mixed case deal – and many recipients appreciated the personal touch, resulting in immediate orders.

As the festival organiser, you can also engage attendees on social media after the event. Post highlights albums, tag the wineries, and mention any ongoing deals. Attendees scrolling through photos of the fun they had might be prompted to order that bottle they loved. Some festivals even run a post-event contest – e.g., “Share a photo of your festival wine purchase at home for a chance to win tickets to next year’s event” – which incentivizes people to redeem those offers and show proof (giving you user-generated marketing content in the process).

Monitoring the results of all this activity is crucial. Keep a spreadsheet or use a simple CRM to log the number of sign-ups each winery got (they can provide this, or if you used a central digital sign-up method you’ll have it), as well as the number of code-redemptions and online orders made. Over the weeks following the festival, collect the data and analyze it. Did certain wineries see especially strong post-event sales? What factor might have contributed – a particularly good offer, a very engaging booth staff, or maybe a popular wine that wowed the crowd? Identifying trends can help you and your partners refine strategies for next time.

After a month or two, consider creating a brief post-event impact report for your winery participants. This doesn’t have to be elaborate, but it could highlight aggregate outcomes like, “Across all wineries, we saw 500+ unique post-festival orders totaling $30,000 in sales within 4 weeks of the event, directly tracked via our festival codes.” You can also include anonymized or voluntary testimonials, such as a quote from a happy producer: “We gained over 100 new mailing list subscribers and saw a significant uptick in online orders after the festival – it was our best event ROI this year,” says a participating winery from New Zealand. Sharing these successes shows all partners the value of the festival and encourages them to return next year. It also gives you great marketing material when recruiting new wineries or sponsors, as you can demonstrate real financial impact.

Crucially, this data closes the feedback loop. It proves that the memorable sips and conversations at your festival converted into something more – tangible revenue and customers for the wineries. It’s the ultimate validation of your festival’s influence in the wine marketplace.

Examples from Around the World

Top festival producers worldwide are embracing data-driven attribution to showcase their event’s impact. Let’s look at a few illustrative examples and lessons:

• Large-Scale Festival – Vancouver International Wine Festival (Canada): This renowned festival attracts wineries from across the globe and thousands of attendees. In recent years, Vancouver’s festival introduced a mobile app to enhance the attendee experience. Among its features, the app let people rate wines and save their favourites for later, effectively creating a digital wish list (vanwinefest.ca). Attendees could later reference this list when purchasing wines they enjoyed. Even on-site, the festival partnered with local liquor stores so guests could buy bottles of the wines they loved before leaving. The result was a higher conversion of tastings to sales – people didn’t forget the wines that impressed them. The takeaway: use technology to capture attendee preferences in the moment, making it easier for them to act on those preferences afterward.

• Boutique Festival – Hawke’s Bay F.A.W.C! (New Zealand): The Food and Wine Classic in Hawke’s Bay is a smaller, regionally focused festival, yet it punches above its weight in driving DTC sales. Festival organisers equip each winery with a distinct promo code (e.g., FAWC2024 plus a winery initial) good for, say, 15% off a case purchase. They also run a centralized email campaign to all attendees highlighting these offers. In one recent edition, a boutique winery reported over 50 post-event orders attributed to the festival code within a month – a substantial boost for a small producer. This case underlines that even at small scales, thoughtful post-event engagement can yield significant revenue.

• Community-Driven Festival – Rioja Wine Harvest Fair (Spain): At this traditional celebration in Spain’s Rioja region, community and storytelling are front and center. Organizers here focus on engaging festival visitors with the heritage of each winery. They encourage producers to invite attendees to their vineyards and tasting rooms, using the festival as the hook. Each winery handed out a postcard with a unique invite code for a free tasting at the winery or a discount on a wine tour. The personal invitation approach paid off – wineries saw many festival-goers redeem the codes during weekend trips to wine country, which in turn led to wine purchases on-site and through club sign-ups after the visits. This example shows that attribution codes don’t have to be just for online orders – they can drive foot traffic and deeper engagement, which translates into sales over a longer horizon.

• Pandemic Pivot – California Wine Festival (USA): During 2020, in-person festivals were halted, but the California Wine Festival found a way to support their winery partners and still engage wine lovers virtually. They compiled special online offers from wineries and blasted them out to the festival’s audience via email and social media. Festival fans were encouraged to order wines online using festival-specific promo codes. For instance, one deal gave an extra 10% off a mixed Chardonnay trio with the code “CAWINEFEST”, exclusively for festival followers (www.californiawinefestival.com). This initiative not only generated sales at a critical time, but also proved the festival’s ability to deliver value even without a physical event. It strengthened loyalty between the festival organisation, its attendees, and the wineries – everyone remembered that the festival helped drive revenue when it mattered most.

Each of these examples, from high-tech solutions to grassroots community tactics, reinforces a core message: when a wine festival actively bridges the gap between the tasting event and the eventual purchase, everyone wins. The festival’s role doesn’t end when the tents come down – smart producers extend that festival magic into future sales, and smart festival organisers make it as easy as possible to do so.

Conclusion

In the end, the success of a wine festival can be measured not just by the clink of glasses and happy faces during the event, but by the sustained relationships and revenue it generates afterward. A festival producer armed with practical attribution tools – from email sign-ups to unique promo codes – can clearly demonstrate the festival’s impact on wineries’ bottom lines. This advisory approach turns a fun weekend gathering into a compelling business case for everyone involved. Festival leads that convert into shipments and subscriptions are proof that your event isn’t just a one-time thrill, but a catalyst for ongoing growth in the wine community.

By diligently tracking sign-ups and post-event orders, and sharing those wins with your partners, you elevate your festival’s credibility. Wineries will see your event as a key driver of DTC success rather than just a marketing expense. Moreover, you’ll be contributing to a larger narrative that live events create lasting connections. The bonds forged over a tasting pour can indeed become mail orders, club memberships, and loyal customers down the line.

As you retire from the festival scene and pass the torch to the next wave of producers, this data-driven, relationship-focused mindset will be one of your greatest legacies. It’s a testament to caring about your partners’ outcomes and continuously improving the festival model. With these practices in place, your wine festival can foster a sense of loyalty that extends far beyond the event itself, (www.winedirect.com) proving that a great festival is not just a moment in time, but the start of something enduring.

Key Takeaways

• Plan for ROI from the start: Before your festival, set up systems (like unique discount codes and sign-up forms) to capture attendee interest and allow you to track post-event conversions.
• Encourage on-site DTC sign-ups: Make it simple and enticing for attendees to join winery mailing lists or clubs during the event. Every email collected is a potential long-term customer (sponsorshipcollective.com).
• Use unique promo codes to track sales: Give each winery a festival-specific code for online orders. This links later purchases directly back to the festival and proves which sales originated from your event (www.californiawinefestival.com).
• Collaborate with wineries on offers: Work with your producers to create appealing post-festival deals (discounts, free shipping, etc.) exclusively for attendees. A compelling offer increases the likelihood of post-event sales.
• Communicate with attendees after the event: Don’t let the connection drop. Send a follow-up email (via your ticketing platform or CRM) listing all the wineries’ online offers, and engage on social media with reminders and related content.
• Track and share the results: Collect data on how many sign-ups and orders each winery got thanks to the festival. Compile these into a report or summary to share with stakeholders, highlighting the event’s revenue impact.
• Learn and adapt: Analyze which strategies worked best. Maybe QR codes at booths had high scan rates, or certain wording on offers led to more conversions. Use these insights to refine your approach for the next festival.
• Demonstrate festival value: By providing clear evidence of post-event revenue, you strengthen relationships with wineries and sponsors. They’ll be more likely to participate again when they see your festival delivering tangible ROI and loyal customers.