Marketing At Music Festivals With Your Bespoke Exhibition Stand

If anything is constant, it’s change. That can be hard to believe when looking at music festivals. It feels like a classic format; thousands of excited music fans crammed into a muddy field for three days of live music. But, the reality is that everything has changed and quite dramatically over the past few years. Brands are now visible across the grounds, competing against one another for festival-goers’ time, attention and money. Don’t be put off from attending though, a bespoke music festival exhibition stand paired with a well-researched strategy can help you do just that. 

Marketing at music festivals with a bespoke exhibition stand: Who’s going to be there?

For any kind of marketing to be effective there needs to be an excellent understanding of who exactly your customers are, so you’ll need to do some market research. It sounds ironic but start by performing some secondary market research. The general consensus is that music festivals are a millennial ground, but check this and look for other insights too. Resources like YouGov have already collected data you can use. Their ‘lite’ service is a brilliant way to get some quick and free data on all kinds of audiences. We looked up ‘People who enjoy going to music festivals’ but you can search for anything relevant to your event.

YouGov confirms that Millennials and Gen-Z are your music festival customers – and plenty of studies have proved that these lot are advertising sceptics. The best way to reach them is through engagement marketing. We have found that the 2 most impactful ‘engagement marketing’ techniques are to either; give your customer something for free, or give them an experience that they will remember. Let’s look at both methods and how you can take advantage of them to create a memorable music festival stand.

1.  Give something away for free

A study found that a whopping 49% of the general population would view a brand more favourably if they offered free giveaways at a music festival. Not only that, but 24% would be likely to find out more information about the brand and 15% would be likely to buy products or services from the brand after receiving a freebie.

These are really positive statistics, as research shows that if you can offer something for free your brand’s engagement will increase, which will result in more brand awareness and ultimately more sales.

What could you give away for free at a music festival?

There are obvious ‘freebies’ that many other exhibition stands are also likely to be giving away, these will include sunglasses, t-shirts, and tote bags. If you are wanting to stand out from the crowd consider sharing something more relevant to a music festival such as:

• Customised flags. Festival goers love waving flags in crowds and attaching them to their tent. They serve as great landmarks to help find friends in large crowds or remember where you pitched up your camp. Wouldn’t it be amazing if your logo was being used as a landmark throughout the whole festival?
• Snacks. It is no secret that food at festivals is expensive, offering high energy food such as protein bars, sweets and chocolate could be a great way to attract crowds of hungry people your way. Remember to add your branding to the packaging for extra brand awareness.
• Pillows. Camping at a music festival is never particularly comfortable, why not offer a handy solution to your audience.

 

Tip: You are sure to get a flock of people visiting your stand if you can offer a solution to a problem they are currently experiencing. Think about other ‘problems’ people experience during a music festival and see if the freebie you offer could solve this. Think, earplugs, sun cream, waterproof raincoats, umbrellas, charging ports for their phones… the possibilities are endless.

When you give away your ‘freebie’ make sure you gain something of value to your company in return, such as an email address, ask them to follow you on your preferred social media platform or post a picture using your hashtag. Asking people to interact with your brand online will mean that your company’s message will reach far more people than those at the festival, you can also reach all of their social media following too.

2. Give people an experience they will remember

Another fantastic way of creating a buzz around your exhibition stall at a music festival is to make it interactive. If you can invent a fun activity that people would be excited to take part in you are likely to draw in the crowds. Another advantage is that if this is a memorable part of their festival, they are much more likely to remember your brand and view it in a positive light.

Here are some ideas of activities you could run on your exhibition stand:

• Take polaroid photos and decorate them. People love a keepsake from their weekend, make sure you digitally print your logo onto the photo.
• Design your own headband. Festivals are packed with crazy headgear, why not turn your stall into an arts and crafts station and let people make statement hair accessories.
• Create a fun obstacle course. People love to let their hair down at a festival, give them a hilarious opportunity to do so.

It is also important to take into account aesthetics. You want your activity to look awesome as festival goers are much more likely to take photos and videos of your stall and upload them to social media if they look amazing.

Here is a great example, H&M built a bespoke exhibition stand at the music festival Sziget in Hungary. As you can see in this video, they let the festival guests customise their own t-shirts and tote bags using spray paint. H&M also set up an interactive game where you could shoot aliens with a space gun. They gave out branded stickers and lastly, they installed striking props and encouraged people to take photographs with them. H&M have ticked all the boxes of a great music festival exhibition, they have given away freebies, created an interactive experience and have made it look outstanding.

H&M LOVES SZIGET 2017 from Natasa Fekete on Vimeo.

 

Creating the perfect music festival exhibition stand may sound like a huge project but don’t worry; at DD Exhibitions, our designers are full of ideas to make this happen. Get in touch today to find out how we can help you generate the best value out of your exhibition experience.