ACDA membership consists of choral directors who represent more than one million singers across the United States. ACDA members teach choral music in public and private schools - kindergarten through senior high school - and at the college and university levels. They conduct a variety of choral groups, including boy choirs, children's choirs, men's and women's choruses, junior and senior high school choirs, college and university choruses, ethnic choirs, vocal-jazz ensembles, and symphony choruses. They also conduct choirs in their communities and in their places of worship. Membership is established by submitting a membership application and annual dues.
The Challenge:
- Replacing ACDA’s single-use event app
- Uniting a largely widespread organization
- Delivering news and information quickly
- Driving increased member engagement
- Reaching Millennials
- Initiating a fully comprehensive, year-round mobile strategy
The Solution:
The ACDA app powered by Clowder®
The American Choral Directors Association now has one place for members to conveniently access all of their membership benefits. Whether registering for or attending an event, seeking content or resources, participating in forums, or messaging fellow members, all capabilities live inside one mobile app. Push notifications are also utilized to instantly grab organization-wide attention in order to share updates. These features allow members to continually stay current and connected with all things ACDA.
Part II: Pre-launch
Overview:
ACDA’s app roll-out began with a soft launch in June of 2018 that centered around access to exclusive content and features. Clowder attended an ACDA event shortly after the app’s release to assist in the roll-out with onsite login support as well as a live demo and Q&A session.
ACDA promoted the app by placing their promotional video on the homepage of their website, adding a dedicated ACDA app page with a download tutorial, and sharing these resources through social media.
Outcomes:
After about 9 months of the soft launch, the app produced:
- 1,200 downloads
- 12,148 newsfeed opens
- 484 forum views
- 2,516 chat opens
- 7,329 event opens
Part III: Launch
Overview:
The app’s major push came at the time of ACDA’s National Conference in February of 2019. The annual event held in Kansas City gathered nearly 6K ACDA members (and an additional 12K non-member attendees). The Clowder client success team attended to assist in onsite app support.
Through social media, members were instructed to download the app to stay up-to-date with all event announcements and information.
Attendees utilized the app for messaging and interacting with one another as well as staying connected with all event-related posts and notifications.
Outcomes:
After the conference, the app produced:
- 3,400 downloads
- 55,219 newsfeed opens
- 138 forum opens
- 7,063 chat opens
- 66,699 event opens
- 584,000 ad impressions
Part IV: Post-Launch
Overview:
Post-conference, ACDA’s goal has been to take the mobile engagement they’ve harnessed through the app and continue it year-round. This has been done through continuing to engage members through the newsfeed with relevant content, encouraging collaboration in the forums, offering mobile access to important resources, and uploading future events for users to view and register for.
What Worked:
Soft launch -
The soft launch served as an effective testing period for gathering feedback in order to make updates and improvements prior to the hard launch.
Dedicated Online Promotion -
Placing the app’s download buttons prominently on ACDA’s homepage earned them a high volume of traffic from all those who visited the site. Utilizing social media to announce its launch allowed the app to be placed in front of the organization’s online following of over 20K.
Event Roll-Out -
Because events garner an organization’s heightened attention, the annual national conference made for a great launch platform. The app was able to be promoted alongside important event communications and continually utilized and mentioned throughout the conference.
“Working with Clowder is not like working with other vendors. It became a team atmosphere with a constant two-way street for ensuring that ideas are heard, shaped, and appropriately vetted to ensure that this feature idea, in the end result, is going to bring value to our users.”
- Scott Davis, Web Developer, ACDA
