FESTIVAL ACTIVATION and Why It's Supercool
Get your brand in the mix with music, film, food, lifestyle, and culture festivals
Align your brand with what people are passionate about
Engage your desirable audience on a wide scale at festivals
Host fun and participatory brand experiences
Prove festival marketing effectiveness via engagement, social, and sales metrics
Document your creative festival activation and share it on social
What is a festival activation?
Festival activation is when your brand hosts experiential marketing activities at notable music, cultural, or celebratory events. Your festival activation showcases your brand, transforms people in customers, and enhances everyone's event experience.
Festival activations typically include a mixture of event assets; tents, vehicles, activities, and installations.
Event producers often offer spaces ranging from as small as 10' x 20' to as large as 60' x 60'.
Festival activation marketing is expensive, as fees for prominent events are upwards of $75,000 for a three-day event.
Festival marketing is desirable as it provides access to specific, often affluent, audiences on a large scale.
Festival sponsorship and participation give your brand the right to promote your activation prior to, during, and after the event via social and public relations.
The most prominent music festivals (e.g., Coachella, Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, Governors Ball, etc.), hashtags are searched by millions of people on Instagram, offering your brand the opportunity to reach people globally.
Cultural and celebratory festivals (e.g., Essence, Art Basel Miami, SXSW, Taste of Chicago, etc.) offer brands opportunities to participate in events that are near and dear to people.
Livestreams, influencer interactions, and exclusive product releases are other ways brands leverage their festival marketing investment.
Top-tier cities such as New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago often have three to five high-profile, nationally watched festivals, plus regional respected mid-size music festivals.
Festival Marketing Services
1.) Festival activation strategies to achieve your goals
2.) Ideas to attract and engage festival attendees
3.) Finding the best festivals for your brand
4.) Event asset design and fabrication
5.) Coordination with festival producers
6.) Staffing, outfitting, and swag production
7.) Receiving and storing event assets, swag, and samples
8.) Issue a event marketing insurance certificate covering the brand, public, staff, venue, and assets
9.) Prep, rehearsal, and training week before your first event date
10.) Event activation transport, setup, activation, real-time reporting, postproduction, and assessment
Process & Timeline
Engage ALT TERRAIN 2+ months before your first festival date (as events often get booked up way in advance, plus event assets often require a month or two to produce).
Share any ideas you'd like to bring to life, plus brand goals.
Receive a festival marketing recommendation within a week.
Start your festival application process and event asset fabrication.
Staff, train, and prep your festival marketing team - from brand ambassadors to drivers to production assistants.
Activate and have fun doing it!
Takeaways
Festival marketing is a big endeavor - it takes a lot of lead time and investment.
In turn, be meticulous with your strategy, festival selection, event asset design, staffing, production, and goal tracking.
Festivals are a high-profile way for you to show up and engage desired audiences.
Moreover, it aligns your brand with the music and culture people are passionate about.
Connect
We'd love to hear about your festival marketing ideas and goals, say hello!
Turn up your festival marketing!