How To Effectively Activate Crowds At Festivals

The UK festival season is once more gearing up to provide music lovers and enthusiasts with another year of fantastic tunes, summer vibes, food, and drink. Rain or shine, millions of people descend on stages across the country, happy to dust off their wellies for what can often be muddy carnage!

Types Of Festivals

There are so many different types of festival that it would be very surprising if you were unable to come across something that didn’t appease your appetites. Big or small, there are festivals of speed, foodie festivals, pet festivals and street festivals to name but a few.

Whilst this is a fantastic and enjoyable time of the year it is also the perfect opportunity for businesses to target millions of revelers with dedicated marketing and site pitches, by making the most of sealed-off and open festival environments.

One of the most famous festivals in the world is the British born Glastonbury Festival. Starting out as a Pilton Pop, Blues & Folk Festival in 1970, it has since played host to global megastars such as David Bowie, Van Morrison, Coldplay and in its evolution, Jay-Z, Beyoncé and soon to be Kanye West.

Festivals like Glastonbury, V Festival, Creamfields and the Goodwood Festival of Speed attract thousands of people from all over the world every year. But, we must not ignore the localised ones, in Southampton, two new festivals are launching this year with Common People and Soundclash each attracting 10,000 music lovers, with artists such as Fat Boy Slim, Gorgon City and Grace Jones.

How To Effectively Activate Crowds At Festivals

No matter the location or what the festival has to offer, there are plenty of opportunities to be made for businesses. Having such large audiences with similar tastes all in one place, clever marketing can generate massive brand exposure:

Product Sampling

Product Sampling is one of the fastest ways for getting your product into consumer hands. With thousands of people walking around looking for food and drink, providing free taster samples quenches thirsts and grapples stomachs. This method is fast paced, you need to be in the right place, at the right time and Brand Ambassadors need a fast pair of hands.

Leafleting And Flyering

Leafleting and Flyering another way of increasing brand exposure when targeting a mass audience. This can be essential for businesses set up within the festival to untangle themselves from competition around them. It can also be used as a clever form of guerilla marketing outside of the festival, to bypass sponsorship packages and sponsors.

Experiential Marketing

Experiential Marketing is about creating brand experiences and what better way to spread that experience than with thousands of people all at the same time, people all around you in the same place for one thing. You already have a ready-made audience; so creating a special experience around their common interests couldn’t be easier!

Sponsorships

Sponsorships are a fantastic way for getting your brand plastered everywhere, depending on the sponsorship package, it is highly likely that your logo will be used on all promotional materials, in the venue, on stages and across website banners. Sponsorships also tend to give you free reign inside of the venue, which is perfect for generating even more exposure.

Marketing potential at festivals is lucrative no matter what size your business is. Having so many people with similar tastes in a single environment offers a unique set of circumstances. Circumstances where you can already dictate your audience and can adapt marketing strategies towards them, to leverage the best possible outcomes. It is no surprise that clever marketing has become an essential part of festival life.

Written by Sam Lovell, Client Service Manager, GottaBe!