How Downtown Brampton Turned Flower Floats into Festival Engagement with a City Tour App
Sept 22, 2025
Engaging Visitors Beyond the Main Stage
Downtown Brampton’s “Party in the Lanes” Festival is a lively three-day celebration featuring music, artists, food vendors, and acrobats. While the event already drew large crowds, the BIA wanted to encourage attendees to explore the entire footprint, not just the main stage and food vendors. They also wanted to build a stronger digital connection with festival-goers. While the BIA already had an e-news list, they wanted to strengthen it with new subscribers. Using Driftscape, they were able to gather consent-based contacts under CASL guidelines and add substantially to their growing database—helping keep the community engaged after the festival.
Bringing the Festival to Life with Points & Rewards
Driftscape partnered with Downtown Brampton to design an interactive experience around the festival’s iconic Flower Floats: giant, selfie-worthy inflatables placed throughout the downtown. Visitors were invited to “check in” at each float using Driftscape’s Points & Rewards feature. Each check-in earned them a coupon for a free ice cream and an entry into a $1,000 prize draw.
The redemption process also asked participants for email opt-in consent, giving the BIA a compliant way to grow their mailing list. The activity nudged visitors to explore multiple locations, created a stronger sense of discovery, and laid the groundwork for long-term digital engagement.
Engaging Visitors Beyond the Main Stage
Downtown Brampton’s “Party in the Lanes” Festival is a lively three-day celebration featuring music, artists, food vendors, and acrobats. While the event already drew large crowds, the BIA wanted to encourage attendees to explore the entire footprint, not just the main stage and food vendors. They also wanted to build a stronger digital connection with festival-goers. While the BIA already had an e-news list, they wanted to strengthen it with new subscribers. Using Driftscape, they were able to gather consent-based contacts under CASL guidelines and add substantially to their growing database—helping keep the community engaged after the festival.
Bringing the Festival to Life with Points & Rewards
Driftscape partnered with Downtown Brampton to design an interactive experience around the festival’s iconic Flower Floats: giant, selfie-worthy inflatables placed throughout the downtown. Visitors were invited to “check in” at each float using Driftscape’s Points & Rewards feature. Each check-in earned them a coupon for a free ice cream and an entry into a $1,000 prize draw.
The redemption process also asked participants for email opt-in consent, giving the BIA a compliant way to grow their mailing list. The activity nudged visitors to explore multiple locations, created a stronger sense of discovery, and laid the groundwork for long-term digital engagement.
Lessons for BIAs and Festivals
Points & Rewards are most effective when paired with a theme or prize that naturally complements your event. Whether it is flower floats, Halloween trick-or-treat trails, or holiday scavenger hunts, tying check-ins to a story makes them memorable.
For the best results, BIAs should:
Train participating businesses to help guide visitors on how to use the app
Integrate an email opt-in to build a lasting digital connection
Use Driftscape’s analytics to identify areas of strength and opportunity
Over 3,700 Check-Ins and 800 New Emails
The strategy worked. Visitors logged more than 3,790 check-ins across the Flower Floats during the festival weekend. Organizers gained valuable data about which stops drew the most attention, giving them insights to improve underperforming areas for future events.
Most importantly, the Points & Rewards redemption generated more than 800 new email subscribers. For a downtown that already had an e-news list, this campaign significantly expanded their database and strengthened their ability to promote future events and share local business updates.
Beyond the numbers, the Flower Floats became an iconic visual anchor for the festival. Their colorful, photo-worthy presence was amplified by the excitement of free ice cream and prize incentives, giving visitors memorable moments and businesses increased foot traffic.
Incentives, Icons, and Insights
The combination of a strong visual theme (the Flower Floats) and a simple reward system drew people deeper into the event. Incentives like coupons and contests created extra motivation, while Driftscape’s analytics gave Downtown Brampton a clear picture of engagement patterns. Adding an email opt-in provided long-term value beyond the event, transforming a weekend activation into an ongoing communication channel.
“As a BIA, we are always looking for innovative ways to make events and information more accessible to our members and residents, and that is what led us to Driftscape. Like any platform, there was a bit of a learning curve with the customizations, but overall we have found Driftscape to be user-friendly and flexible enough to meet our needs.
We launched the app in conjunction with our three-day Party in the Lanes Festival in Downtown Brampton, and it quickly became a valuable tool. Driftscape helped direct attendees to local businesses for food, highlight special events, and even host a self-guided tour across six locations where participants collected points and redemptions toward a grand prize.
While not everyone is tech-savvy, our main event audience of 25–45 found it intuitive and engaging. The app has added a whole new layer to our marketing and community engagement, and we are excited to continue using it to connect people with all that our downtown has to offer.” — Ashley Morrissey, Downtown Brampton
Takeaway
Downtown Brampton’s Party in the Lanes Festival logged more than 3,790 check-ins at Flower Floats using Driftscape’s Points & Rewards. The campaign also grew their e-news database by 800+ new subscribers and gave organizers actionable data to plan future events.
Ready to Turn Your Festival into an Interactive Experience?
With Driftscape, you can transform your attractions into destinations and give visitors a reason to explore every corner of your event. Book a demo today to see how it works.