PeakeFest — Live — September 2026
Nicola wanted PeakeFest all over social media for two days. So every guest got a picture worth posting.
Nicola Peake wanted as much coverage as she could get while PeakeFest was running. I built her a page where anyone can add a couple of selfies and get back a photo of themselves in one of twenty ridiculous scenes, with a zebra and PeakeFest’s branding in every frame. Every picture is made to be shared, and every one captures a lead: the email that unlocks it starts an automated email series. A second version, with its own scenes, now sells the 2027 tickets.
What it is
Two public pages, one per campaign. A visitor opens the link, adds two or three selfies and an email address, and about twenty seconds later gets back a square, photorealistic picture of themselves sharing a scene with a zebra. It might be a launderette, a pub table or a corporate headshot going badly. They don’t choose the scene. It is drawn at random, so no two friends at the same table get the same picture.
Every image comes out already branded. PeakeFest’s own bird-of-paradise foliage frames the picture, an ATTENDING PEAKEFEST badge sits at the top, and a credit sits at the bottom. It is ready to post the moment it appears, with nothing to edit.
The email is the price of the picture. Unlocking an image adds that person to a tagged list, which starts an automated email series, so each share also puts a new person on the list. The 2026 page ran during the festival. The 2027 page swaps in ten golden-ticket scenes and the year on the badge, and goes to people buying next year’s tickets.
Why it was built
An event lives or dies on how loud it is while it’s happening, and the loudest thing at any event is guests posting about it. Most don’t, because they have nothing worth posting: a blurry stage shot and a lanyard.
Nicola’s brief was coverage: as much of PeakeFest across as many feeds as possible, for the two days it was on. A photo booth does that for the people standing next to it. A link can do it for everyone in the room and everyone they send it to, and it keeps working after the doors close.
The second job came out of the first. If people will hand over an email for a picture of themselves, the page isn’t only a marketing stunt, it’s also lead capture. Building that in from the start meant the coverage and the list grew together.
What’s inside
The page, and what it gives back.
Drag or scroll Swipe
No app, no account, no login. A link that works on any phone in the room: add a selfie or two, add an email, get a zebra.
Made on the live page from ordinary selfies, not a staged sample. The frame, the badge and the credit are laid on after the image is made, so they are identical every time.
Twenty scenes, each written to be deadpan, specific and funny enough to post. The joke only lands if the face is really yours, so every prompt is built to keep your likeness exact.
The zebra is the running joke, and the thing people recognise in a feed before they’ve read a word. Scroll past three of these in one evening and you know something is happening at PeakeFest.
The second page: ten new scenes built around a golden ticket, the year on the badge, and a new film for the hero. Same engine underneath, so it took hours rather than a day.
Every 2027 scene says the same thing in a different room: I’ve got my ticket. That is the post you want from someone who just bought one.
Early test render. The live tickets now read PEAKEFEST 2027, and any slogans that wouldn’t suit every feed were reworded before launch.
How it was built
Strategy, product, build, launch.
Write the scenes
Thirty scenes in all, each written as a complete photographic brief: the room, the light, the lens, the wardrobe and what the zebra is up to. They’re written without he or she, because an anonymous visitor has no profile to fill a pronoun from. They also carry two fixed clauses. One keeps the face true to the selfies with no beautifying. The other insists on exactly one real zebra, because image models drift towards cartoons and extra animals when a scene is silly. Other companies’ logos were written out, since these pictures already carry a sponsor.
Put the brand on, don’t prompt it
No image model can reproduce a specific logo. Ask it for the PeakeFest wordmark and you get something that looks a bit like it, different every time. So the branding is added afterwards from PeakeFest’s real artwork. The foliage was cut from their own table plan, and the badge and credit are set in type. They land in exactly the same place, identical, on every image. The image is square because that shape survives every feed without somebody else cropping it.
Turn every picture into a lead
The email is what unlocks the image, and it goes straight into ActiveCampaign on a list and tag for that campaign, which starts the automation series. The picture comes back on the page, so nobody waits for an email to get it, and a slow email platform can never hold up the image. The page is clear about what the address is for, and every campaign has its own tag, so the 2026 attendees and the 2027 ticket-buyers can be emailed differently.
Make it safe to leave open
There’s no account behind these pages, so every image made costs real money. Three guards stand in for a login: a bot check, a loose per-connection limit, and a daily ceiling that closes the page before it runs up a bill. The per-connection limit is loose on purpose, because a whole venue often shares one internet address. Selfies are never stored. They’re held in memory for one image and thrown away. Each page can be switched on or off without touching the other.
The outcome
What it did.
Two live campaigns from one engine. The festival page ran while PeakeFest was on, and the 2027 page is now selling next year’s tickets. Every guest who used either one came away with a branded picture ready to post, and joined an email automation on the way.
Adding the second campaign cost new scenes, a new badge and a new film, and nothing else. That’s the real point for anyone thinking about their own: the first version is a build, and every one after it takes hours, not days.
The numbers (pictures made, leads captured, tickets sold) will go here once there’s enough data to be worth reporting.
Make your own PeakeFest 2027 zebra
Live now. Try it with your own selfies. It works exactly as it does for every guest, email step and all.
Same engine
One engine, four jobs.
PeakeFest was the first. The same machine, with new scenes, new branding and a new place for the email to go, now does three other jobs: welcoming members, generating leads, and rewarding subscribers.
Every new joiner gets a Gorgon Army battle card with their own face on it, and everything on it is written for them: a class, weapons, power stats, a special ability, a signature move. It welcomes them into the community and gives them something to post on day one, so each new member also announces the membership.
A free Halloween picture of yourself in exchange for an email address. Once the picture is made, the page offers the paid pack of all sixty-one scenes, and it closes itself when that offer ends.
Try it freeThe same engine as a perk for paying subscribers: a members-only version inside ECHO, so the thing that wins a lead also keeps a customer.
Your version
The zebra was PeakeFest’s. The machine works for any brand.
Everything on this page can be rebuilt around your event, launch or brand. Your scenes, your artwork on every picture, your email platform on the other end, and a daily spending limit you choose. The PeakeFest version took about a day, and the second campaign on the same engine took a few hours.
- Events and festivals: every guest leaves with a branded picture worth posting while the event is happening.
- Launches and ticket drops: a "just bought mine" picture for every buyer, so each sale becomes a post.
- Lead magnets: a picture people actually want, in exchange for the email address your automation starts from.
- Memberships and communities: a welcome picture that puts every new member inside your brand’s world.
Questions
What people ask about PeakeFest.
Can you build an AI photo generator for my event?
Yes. This one is the worked example. Guests add a selfie or two and get back a photo of themselves in a scene written for your event, with your branding on it, ready to post.
The part that takes the thought is the scenes, not the software. They have to be funny or flattering enough that people actually share them, and on-brand enough that sharing them promotes you. Once the first page existed, the second took a few hours.
Can it collect email leads at the same time?
That’s half the point. The email unlocks the picture and goes straight into your email platform, tagged by campaign, which can start whatever automation you already run. Here it was ActiveCampaign.
The picture is shown on the page rather than emailed, so nobody waits for it and it doesn’t matter if the email platform is slow.
How do you make sure the AI images are on brand?
By not asking the AI to do the branding. Image models can’t reproduce a real logo reliably, so your artwork is added to every image after it’s made: the same marks, in the same place, every time.
The scenes carry the rest of the brand: the colours, the mood, the running joke. They’re written and tested before launch, so you approve what people will see.
What happens to people’s selfies?
Nothing, after the picture is made. They’re held in memory for one image and discarded. They’re never written to storage, and the page tells people so before they upload.
Strangers’ faces aren’t ours to keep. It’s also one less thing for a guest to worry about before they tap upload.
Could a public AI page run up a huge bill?
Not this one. Every image is a cost with no account behind it, so the page has a daily ceiling that closes it for the day rather than letting a busy or hostile day run away with the budget. There’s also a bot check and a per-connection limit.
You set the ceiling. If the limit is reached, the page says so politely and reopens the next day.