5 effective music festival marketing tips 

It’s the return of festivals! The time of year where music becomes the central talk, we eagerly anticipate line ups & headliners and get our festivals outfits in order. It doesn’t stop there as we continuously wait for the reveal of new branding, website takeovers, campaigns and more, all which were simultaneous to draw us in and make our festival experience. 

1. Refresh & revitalise your brand 

Breathe new life into your festival collateral with a brand refresh, we don’t recommend completely reinventing your entire branding, but a few smalls tweaks here and there will be sure to keep the brand up to date and exciting as new trends emerge. Who knows you may become a talking point within the industry and amongst your fans.   

In our first festival series blog, our lead Digital Designer, Hayley took on the evolution of Glastonbury, showcasing the updates and shifts the brand has undergone from 1970 to now. One thing we continuously discovered was that Glastonbury was capable of setting the tone of the festival, through its branding, setting and delivery expectations every year with their audience in mind. We also noticed that the translation of a logo and identifiable features of the brand are inevitable to ensure that an audience can associate and recognise the brand from the offset.

If you are struggling to find the spark in your brand, connect with your audience effectively or just searching for something that sets you apart from those in your industry. Clicky could be your answer as we are passionate when it comes to creating brands or refreshing them, we make sure your brand is futureproofed and in line with the times. 

2. Building a festival experience from awareness to attendance

As soon as festival season begins the excitement and speculation lures you in, as a festival brand is it your job to build a festival experience and culture that individuals can’t wait to be involved in, whether they are attending or not. The key here is to target and speak to your audience continuously, all the way from announcing your festival to the festival being over for another year. 

Your audience wants to hear from you, no matter how big or small the information is, they anticipate the line-up, who will be this year’s big headliner? You also want them to endure the festival prep and lead up to the big day/weekend alongside you. Your fellow festival goers will also crave to get up close and personal, whilst attending or watching from home so be sure to satisfy. Finally, you’ve just smashed this year’s festival, why not delve into your attendees festival blues and provide post-festival content that allows them to relive the moment.

But how do you achieve all of this? Three simple words consistent user journey. As we know no customer journey is one single interaction, the same applies when it comes to festival marketing. As we can see above, festival attendees are expectant of multiple touchpoints, pre and post festival, they only happen once a year so why not make them special. To achieve this ensure all visual elements are uniform across all your marketing and web material. Make sure you have brand guidelines in place, whereby consistent logos, colours, typography and tone of voice are used throughout all touchpoints. 

If approached correctly you’ll be able to excite your festival goers throughout, set expectations and deliver a brand that is immediately recognizable and reputable. If you would like support or want to know more about how to create a visually consistent user journey read our talented Digital Designers blog. 

3. Maximise your digital and social music festival marketing

Are you maximising Social and Digital Advertising to market your music festival, both platforms provide a great opportunity to reach millions of your potential customers. It is a great way to connect and engage with festival goers or those wishing they were attending. As long as you remain authentic, post consistently and be present at all times, you’ll hit the nail on the head with your Social advertising strategy. 

Did you know 45% per cent of festival-goers discovered a festival through online advertising campaigns

– Eventbrite 

How could your festival be using social & digital advertising: 

• Keep your audience on their toes, by building up excitement through behind the scenes/ sneak peek content such as, artist updates & festival preparation – this will make your attendees feel included and excited before they’ve even arrived. 
• Take the plunge and delve into free giveaways and competitions across social networks, these type of posts receive lots of engagement. 
• Whilst running your festival, showcase broadcast screens that update in real time. This technique will enable a network for all festival goers to be a part of and communicate with one another.
• Deliver live coverage of the festival, allowing those at home to feel like they are experiencing the festival with you, this may also act as a customer service tool.
• Create a custom festival hashtag and encourage festival goers to post, talk and share using the hashtag.
• Encourage your audience to share their live experiences whilst attending, they can do this by tagging the brand across social. This will truly generate a buzz and add to the authenticity. 
• Continue to speak to your attendees once the event is over by releasing images, videos from the day. 

In our previous festival blog, we took a look at 4 of the biggest festival names Coachella, Glastonbury, Parklife & Tomorrowland and why they are so successful amongst social media during festival season. Want to make your mark on social effective, our Paid Social team is on hand to help you conceptualise, design and deliver campaigns that achieve fantastic results. 

4. Visual content marketing 

Video Video Video, it is everything when it comes to festival marketing, as we know the rise in video content is not slowing down. It is one of the most eye-catching forms of content whilst being easy to digest in an enjoyable way. Video content enables viewers a real-life experience of what is going on at that moment in time, it is also a great medium to share across platforms.

GATES ARE OPEN!
Have an amazing time everyone. And please look after the land and each other. #Glastonbury2019 pic.twitter.com/Z6l2NVAX3C

— Glastonbury Festival (@GlastoFest) June 26, 2019

We highly recommend taking advantage of video content when promoting, capturing and reliving your music festival, you can do this in a number of ways such as: 

• Behind the scenes, get those involved during the set up of the festival to document progress & planning.
• Use video content to get people excited, make new announcements i.e a new artist release & provide exclusive content, keep these short and try not to give too much away.
• Live stream, go live from the event so viewers can get up close and personal at any given time, this is especially valuable for those who didn’t attend. Live video content can showcase performances, interviews, the crowd. 
• Social videos, these can be used on this year’s festival or get one step ahead of the game, and use as the return of your festival next year. We recommend organising a brand video and multiple highlight videos, in order to attract future festival goers. 

View this post on Instagram

#CreamfieldsTechno

A post shared by Creamfields (@creamfieldsofficial) on Jun 7, 2019 at 5:26am PDT

There are also an array of other pieces of content you can provide to your festival fanatics, ensuring they are kept up to date, engaged during the run-up to the festival and beyond. Why not establish: 

• Cool infographics, which provide more information about the festival, i.e previous line-ups, festival evolution. 
• Event guides & Programs will allow attendees to plan their experience 
• Maps, showcasing the layout of the festival and where artists will be performing 
• Poster & Flyers revealing the basic information of the festival (date, time, location) 
• Regular email newsletters, to continue the excitement and buzz around the festival

Looking for the perfect photography and videography to document your festival, you can count on Clicky, it’s what we are good at. Alternatively, if you want to take your content marketing to the next level you can rely on Clicky to take a data-driven approach that delivers a bespoke content strategy. 

5. Website design & features 

Finally our last festival marketing tip, your festival website, the information hub for all things related to the festival and where tickets can be purchased. This being said, the primary function of the website is to sell the festival experience and convert those who are interested in to paying customers. So what does a good festival website entail? 

• A consistent theme, which matches the branding and marketing collateral. 
• A seamless user experience, allowing website visitors to find all the information they need at a click of a button. 
• Design with mobile friendliness in mind, it is important for festival websites to be mobile friendly as many users will operate the site on a mobile device when looking at the line-up/ purchasing tickets. 
• Dynamic and engaging content in the form of videos, blogs, galleries of the festival in previous years
• Implement social media integrations, this will allow users to keep up to date with the festivals social feeds.
•  A simple, easy to use booking engine, whereby users can book and pay for tickets online.