After a long time of being locked up and having suspended our common activities, now, after several sessions of vaccines and boosters for which we have been fortunate to receive them, and despite several waves of COVID-19 and its variants, some events massive reappear in the entertainment market and the sponsoring brands once again take advantage of these windows to show themselves to their public users and consumers.
People are eager to go out and enjoy their favorite artists beyond streaming and are responding positively to the events that have been going on for a few months now.
A clear example is the one I just experienced last weekend at Mad Cool Fest 2022. A high-quality music festival, but also one with great commercial exposure, which, after being suspended due to COVID the previous two years, in This five-day edition of concerts brought together more than 310,000 people, of which almost 36% were visitors from outside Spain, leaving an interesting economic benefit for tourism in Madrid (hence the support given by both the City Council and the Community of Madrid that is around 1 million 600 thousand euros of public aid).
70,000 people on average per day (except the last day, which was 32,000), which set an attendance record to see and listen to 149 groups and soloists, including Metallica, Florence + the Machine, Muse, The Killers, Imagine Dragons, Jack White, Placebo, Chvrches, Deftones, Incubus, Kings of Leon, The Pixies and Royal Blood, among many others, and that brought together a captive audience that, apart from enjoying the music, was exposed to brands sponsors present in creatively designed spaces with very simple and effective activations, such as water sprinklers, free Wi-Fi, promotional gifts, contests and photo spaces, among many others.
Sponsors such as the Community of Madrid itself, Mahou beer, Banco Santander, the telephone and technology company Orange, Prime Video, Iberdrola, Amazon Music, Iberia, Levi’s, Seat, Coca Cola, Johnnie Walker, Tous, José Cuervo (with some Margaritas that knocked down the bravest), Uber, Camper, Polaroid and Red Bull, among others, found themselves with a consumer public that accessed the brands in a very natural and participatory way. They were brands that the target was using, consuming, living with them and had paid for it.
All today’s international music festivals, no matter what music genre they specialize in, are also tailor-made stages for brands. They are the perfect showcase for companies to coexist in a non-invasive way with their target audience, since they are in the same space where the brands absorb the same qualities and characteristics that the festival that touches them has.
And if we go further, we have successful cases of brands that are the same organizers of the events, as is the case of “Tecate P’al norte”, “Corona Capital”, “GNP Ceremony” or “Coca Cola Flow Fest”, which not only have income from the sale of tickets, but their exposure as a brand is constant both in the attendees and in the media that cover the events, generating a flattering publicity.
According to a study by the Reason Why portal, festival goers don’t mind brands, they also like them. It also mentions that attendees associate brands that sponsor festivals with positive values. 17.2% believe that they are modern brands, 16.3% perceive them as young and 14.2% consider them fun.
Other data from the same investigation:
52% of the public find brand sponsorships attractive at music festivals.
89% like brands that sponsor live music events.
83% trust brands that support live music more.
89% perceive brands at festivals as more authentic.
36% tend to buy products from sponsoring brands.
74% remember the brand that has been present at the musical event.
Put whatever name you want: Mad Cool, Coachella, EDC, Tomorrowland, Lollapallooza, Rock In Rio, it doesn’t matter. It is a big business that, for example, here in Spain before the pandemic, just from ticket sales, it generated an income of 334 million euros. To that figure must be added merchandising, sponsorships and public aid, among other items, reaching 660 million euros in total (13 thousand 860 million pesos, just there).
A great business that is buoyed up more and more by the need for people to go out, shout, jump and sing; and that also means a break for the promoters of shows and for the brands.
Let’s rock advertisers and marketers.