Music Festival Marketing 101: Creative Ways Brands Can Leverage Festivals
A festival scene from Huichica.
Festival season is back, baby!
The James Collective recently announced the line-up for Huichica Music Festival at California’s oldest family-owned winery, Gundlach Bundschu, this summer. And after a couple of tough years for the music industry and live events, we are so excited to see the return of IRL concerts and festivals.
Every festival has a vibe—and brands can use this to their advantage to tap into the right, like-minded audience. What’s better than capturing hundreds & thousands of your target consumers in one swoop?
For example, Huichica Music Festival partners with Bay Area concert promoter FolkYeah to attract a very niche audience of consumers to the winery. Nearly 80% of festival-goers are from San Francisco, listen to indie/folk-rock, enjoy wine, and are most likely in their 30s-40s. The festival brings a perfect target demographic to the winery every year, capturing their attention & creating memorable experiences alongside the wines.
Here are 5 things brands can do to leverage marketing opportunities at music festivals:
Sponsorships - sponsoring the right event can be key to getting in front of the right customer. Sponsorships provide brand awareness, lead generation & networking opportunities for brands.
Be a vendor and sell your products - access hundreds/thousands of potential customers & sell to them directly on-site! Concert goers are there to have a good time (and spend money), so providing the right thing at the right time can
On- and off-site activations - different festivals have different activations, for example, Outside Lands brings a highly curated group of wineries & chocolatiers to the festival every year; Revolve hosts its annual Revolve Festival during Coachella; throwing a cool party during a buzzy festival is never a bad idea ;)
VIP corporate suites - celebrate and reward your top customers, members & teams with exclusive, VIP access
Social and content - get the attention of tastemakers & influencers during a festival, providing your brand with user-generated content, influencer marketing opportunities, while tapping into celebrity/VIP attendees
Create loyal brand ambassadors - festivals are a great opportunity to create long-tail relationships with your customers (and future customers), Intimate experiences will only strengthen the emotional connection they have with a brand
Music festivals are a great way to tap into a (generally) younger generation of millennial consumers. In a study by AEG and Momentum Worldwide, 80% said that they were more likely to purchase a product after having had a music experience. The survey also found that 37% of the festival-goers had a better overall perception of the company as a result of its integration into the festival.
Marketing is all about creating memorable experiences and emotional ties with consumers—and music festivals are the perfect place to do just that. Music (and wine!) bring people together. So create something special they won’t forget!
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