4 Ways You Can Use Brand Activations in Music Festivals

Music Festivals

Music festival attendees are more socially connected, informed, and have higher expectations than they did even a few years ago, which has affected how brand activations in music festivals need to be approach.

Music Festivals

For brands, just being present at music festivals is no longer enough – if you don’t know how to generate interest, all the time and resources spent on the activation can not only be worthless but can actually cause harm to your brand.

So, in order to help you out, here are a few ways how you can use brand activations in music festivals.

  1. Use Incentives to Drive Traffic

A great way to make your brand activation relevant during music festivals is by incentivising your offer.

When you have to compete with other brands for attention, a good offer of demos, free samples or even discounts can be very effective in driving up the number of attendees.

It works even better if you can make the incentive relevant immediately – State Farm ran a very successful brand activation at the Bonnaroo festival. Since the festival was outside of urban areas and lacked some amenities, State Farm stepped in and offered “roadside assistance” of toothbrushes, shampoos and other essentials that came in handy during the festival.

  1. Utilise Technology

Innovative technology makes for a great entertainment, and that means that it’s the perfect opportunity for tech giants like HP to grab the attention of music festival goers.

Whether it’s utilising the always-popular Virtual Reality, high definition videos, or even demo products, having a presence of technology at a music festival will almost guarantee that the brand activation is a success.

And tech companies aren’t the only ones that can reap the benefits – if you can tie in new and intriguing technology into your brand activation, it can help form positive associations with your brand as well.

  1. Make It Relevant

Getting in front of the right audience is one thing, but the message has to be relevant as well – a good example is H&M that has been able to successfully partner with the Coachella festival in recent years, forming a clear link between “festival fashion” culture and their brand.

These kinds of success stories can be difficult to achieve, but when done right, they can not only help your brand stay on the minds of your target audience but even expand your reach to new market segments that you weren’t able to reach before.

  1. Make It an Experience

Finally, a good brand activation is all about the experience.

If you want to make your audience engage with your brand, you must turn your activation into an active, participatory experience instead of a passive, observable one. That way, you turn passive onlookers into active partakers that set the tone and attract everyone else.

People at festivals are naturally engaged in their environment, so if you can present them with intriguing activities, you will have a much higher chance of drawing the attention of larger crowds or even going viral on social media.

by: Antony Hampel

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