Sun God Festival
Directing visual and content strategy for UCSD’s Sun God Festival
Content Strategy
Creative Direction
Marketing
Overview
MY ROLE
Marketing Director
Content Writer
TIMELINE
6 months / Dec 2024 - May 2025
TEAM
1 Graphic Designer
3 Festivals Coordinators
2 Marketing Coordinators
3 Media Interns
TOOLS
Figma
event metrics
100% sold out
19,000 attendees
11.7% increase compared to previous year
SOCial media metrics
2M+ profile impressions
140,000 avg. content views
25% increased followers
CONTEXT
A loved student tradition, the Sun God Festival brings high anticipation each year
UC San Diego’s Sun God Festival (SGF) was named of the nation’s leading college festivals, with past lineups including household names such as Kendrick Lamar, Drake, Diplo, Snoop Dogg, Wiz Khalifa, and more. 2025 marked the 40th anniversary of the campus-wide tradition.
According to College Raptor, SGF “regularly boasts attendance numbers in the thousands each year” and “is definitely the most anticipated day of the year at the University of California San Diego.”
College Raptors
THE CHALLENGE
In 2024, the festival was unexpectedly canceled
The previous year (2024), Sun God Festival was unexpectedly canceled by administration, leaving students without their most anticipated tradition. Heading into this campaign, I faced balancing inflated expectations while bringing unprecedented excitement into the festival through a unique visual and user-centered marketing campaign.
MY APPROACH
A new approach
SGF hitting 40 years is an important milestone — one that deserves to be highlighted. For context, Coachella has only been around for 26 years. As the Marketing Director, I centered my campaign around 3 core themes to bring visual and emotional elements to the campaign:
Revisit traditions of Sun God Festival and its history
Use photo-based marketing materials
Content-focused messaging
VISUAL BRANDING
Moodboarding a creative direction
The vintage, photo-based branding of the campaign was integral to messaging. Located in La Jolla, Sun God Festival is a love letter to La Jolla and the festivals that came before us. My moodboard featured waves of La Jolla’s beaches, vintage films, polaroids, and physical media that molded the branding.
CONTENT STRATEGY
Language is branding
Copywriting and strategic marketing shape campaign messaging that actually resonates. No buzz words, no fluff — just clear, meaningful words that build trust with students and reflect the festival's value. Throughout copy, I established a brand voice and tone that defined the bold, playful, yet simple voice of writing. This consistent voice across our branding created a sense of trust and credibility with our audience.
“Before we get old, let’s do everything.” This became our main tagline — featured across merch, video teasers, captions, and our Instagram bio. It’s a nod to our campaign’s nostalgic spirit, quickly resonating with students.
REGISTRATION ROLLOUT
The registration rollout that sold 19,000 tickets
To build anticipation, I first launched a teaser video that Sun God Festival was coming back; this video introduced the nostalgic themes of the festival, by compiling old clips SGF in the 1900’s and introducing our main tagline: “Before we get old, let’s do everything.” Next, I released the official “Invitation to register,” using a vintage postcard graphic against La Jolla beach background. Once students marked their calendars, I directed a promotional video blending clips of past SGF footage including artists such as Snoop Dogg and Keshi, and posted it on registration day that drove traffic to sgf.ucsd.edu, where students claimed their ticket to the festival. We officially sold out 19,000 tickets — only the 2nd time in UCSD history — in record time.
MERCHANDISE
Designing merchandise students actually wanted
I brainstormed with our graphic designer to curate graphics and copy for our merchandise line including hats, hoodies, and tees. I approached the merch as a physical extension of the visual branding, wanting them to feel like quality pieces to add to students' wardrobes — not just another festival souvenir. Once the merch was complete, I planned a merch campaign shoot at the beach with our photographers, using the content across socials and the website. In partnership with Triton Outfitters, I led merch design and marketing — driving sales for the most successful merch campaign in SGF history in sales.
ARTIST ANNOUNCES
Transforming artist announcements into student experiences
Teasing the lineup of the festival, I decided to reveal each artist one by one. Dropping hints on our Instagram for students to guess made the experience highly interactive and engaging Additionally, my team and I coordinated Meet and Greet’s between each artist and selected winners, getting students excited about in-person opportunities to meet their favorite artists on the linup.
DAY OF SHOW CONTENT
Media planning that drove 289K+ post-show views
Ahead of the show, I coordinated marketing deliverables with my media team to capture real student experiences — from fun artist segments to interviews with students about their favorite festival moments. Our recap content earned over 289,000 views and sparked strong post-event engagement.
