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Communications and Marketing

  • Darius Rucker and bandmates line up on stage, as seen from behind the stage

Event Spotlight: Darius Rucker Concert

It’s no secret that South Carolina alumnus Darius Rucker is a huge Gamecocks fan. Rucker, an acclaimed solo country artist and the lead singer of the band Hootie and the Blowfish, suggested the concert in a tweet April 1 after South Carolina women’s basketball beat Louisville for a spot in the championship game. Two days later, the Gamecocks defeated UConn, 64-49, to take their second national title in five years. And on April 24, Rucker took the stage at Colonial Life Arena to help Gamecock Nation celebrate.

The Opportunity

During the first week of April, talk about the show mounted. Once the concert was confirmed, it was clear that this would be a memorable experience for the student body while putting an exclamation point on a national championship season. Office of Communications and Marketing staff members got to work handling and coordinating virtually all media around the event as well as corresponding with students about tickets and the event itself, creating the event poster, and promoting and documenting the concert.

 

The Approach

The timeliness of the event — having it just three weeks after the Gamecocks won the national title — meant everything had to happen at an accelerated pace. Thanks to careful planning and coordination, the concert was a rousing success, and a fitting thank you to the women’s basketball team and the student body that supports them.

 

The Deliverables

  • Darius Rucker concert social promo graphic

    Keeping Students Informed

    Social and email blast graphics, digital invitations and mass emails about the ticketing process informed students (and others) quickly and efficiently.

  • Darius Rucker concert poster

    Concert Poster

    A limited-edition poster was designed and printed to commemorate basketball and music coming together in Columbia in such a special way.

  • Darius Rucker waves to the crowd at Colonial Life Arena

    Promotion and Coverage

    Media around the event encompassed promoting, covering and recapping the concert for university-owned media as well as cultivating earned media through local broadcast and print news outlets.

 

The Results

  • Most importantly: Darius Rucker was able to hold a concert in honor of the national champion women’s basketball team for the university's student body.
  • About 13,000 students filled Colonial Life Arena for the concert.
  • On the day of the concert and the day after, posts about the concert on the university's official channels garnered 692,012 total impressions, a total reach of 370,393, nearly 60,000 total engagements and 225,582 video views.
  • A single Twitter post during the concert had a potential reach of 995,516, got 247,093 impressions and racked up more than 52,000 video views. This is the university's No. 2 post across all social platforms in 2022, falling only behind the announcement of President Michael Amiridis.
  • Seeing similarly outstanding success, a recap post on Facebook the day after the concert got 112,813 impressions, 10,615 engagements (for a 9.4 percent engagement rate) and 34,705 video views.

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