Music festivals and summer parties have been a staple of English culture since the late 1960s and have undergone a raft of changes to their make-up and style. In recent years, however, we’ve seen a proliferation of brands entering this space in an attempt to connect with consumers during moments of heightened positivity.
Brand partnerships with festivals aren’t strictly new – many Millennials and Gen X still associate Carling with Reading & Leeds, for example – but two things have changed: the type of brand partnerships and their visibility.
Those who attended All Points East this year may have felt that brand sponsorships and activations are becoming increasingly ubiquitous within the festival experience, with the return of Aperol’s longstanding Aperidisco stage and the reappearance of Casa Bacardi. But festivalgoers would also have found House of Magnum offering personalised ice creams, American Express’s VIP area and even Levi’s manning a clothing stall. It was reported that core music stages were exceeded by the number of brand activations this year at the famous London multi-day event.
Although traditional festival sponsorship has supported these kinds of events for decades, what is proliferating now is a relatively new immersive advertising medium. So there is no consensus yet on whether these types of activations are effective. However, in an era beset by digital content and so-called ‘AI slop’, many brands view experiential marketing as a way to connect with consumers in the real world.
Equally, festivals have long been lauded as an escape from everyday reality, with patchy phone signal necessitating face-to-face conversations, but the emergence of brand partnerships could jar with that expectation. Some in adland agree, arguing that increasing presence could have a negative impact on brands if it clashes with the desired getaway mindset of a festival.
Brands can be effective though, as long as they take the time to carefully understand the diversity of festival-going audiences. Depending on where an activation is, brands might be talking to young London professionals or a mishmash of post-GCSE revellers from across the country. The activations that stick in the memory most positively will be those which actively make the experience better for these audiences.
Brands that add to or aid the experience may live longer in the memory; helping others, after all, activates the neural pathways linked directly to recall. By that criterion, while Levi’s stall may fail the test – perhaps few would be expecting to purchase jeans on a hot and dusty summer’s day – skincare brand CeraVe’s activation at Cross the Tracks passes, giving out free sunscreen to festivalgoers on a day of soaring temperatures in the capital.
Immersive marketing can be a powerful asset, so long as brands take the time to understand the consumers they will reach and assess whether they will really add to the experience. Brands that create these meaningful experiences will be those that are played on repeat, rather than just fading into the background noise.
