Event & festival attendees epitomize the high-spend consumer persona. Learn how to effectively market to your audience at these mass gatherings to increase your bottom line.

Getting your product into the hands of consumers is the best form of marketing. 

You won’t find many marketing leaders that would disagree. With the staggering rise of eCommerce and direct-to-consumer (D2C) sales opportunities, the landscape has changed. Your competitors could be in another country and still target your local community with social campaigns and paid media. However, many would argue that we are desensitized to many of these channels; making in-person activations all the more important to your strategy.

Why activate at an event or festival?

Event and festival attendees epitomize the high-spend consumer persona. Nearly 70% of guests tracked in AnyRoad for field events are in that millennial sweet spot, and almost 60% live within 100 miles of the event.

It’s a captive audience of social media power users that have disposable income. You also get social equity or “cool points” when your brand is associated with the whole experience. Most importantly, back to the value of brand experience, the average NPS increase for this type of activation went from 54 to 79!

Brand sponsorships for music festivals, tours, and venues exceeded $1 billion more than a decade ago, and that investment continues to climb. These don’t necessarily need to be events with 100k attendees but can be distributed amongst a series of smaller events like our partners at JUST Egg. Their target was 300 events in 2022 within music and wellness spaces based on their customer demographics. With thousands of field activations at festivals and events powered by AnyRoad, we’ve put together the top 10 things to consider for your next experience.

Important Considerations for your Experience

1. Define Goals - document and communicate your goals for your activation at the festivals or events. Goals can range from basic brand exposure to growing your database, or sales targets. 
   
2. Customer Profile - Know your customer demographic profile to properly plan your event schedule. Only book those that align with your target audience that can convert to brand loyalists.
   
3. Location, Location, Location - work with event organizers to identify the ideal location for your activation. Determine the cost/benefit of your placement.
   
4. Immerse & Interact - The goal is to get your product in their hands, but “sensory marketing” will attract passers-by in ways that stimulate through visuals, sound, touch, and taste. Uber's successful activations have included Lounges, Pop-up shops, Contests, VIP areas, and Games.
   
5. Get Social - use the event to drive social content across platforms before, during, and after your event. Encourage and reward sharing through giveaways.
   
6. Generate Revenue - it’s not always possible or necessary to sell something while at the event, but a field activation can be a profit center. Build the brand with an ROI. It's a win-win!
   
7. People buy from People - even great products and experiences can get missed or forgotten if you don’t have engaging, well-trained staff at your event. Seems logical, but often overlooked. 
   
8. Ask Great Questions - If it can be measured, it can be managed. Check out this article if you want to learn more about data capture and customer feedback; always get an email address!
   
9. Follow up - you’ve gotten feedback and need to close the loop. Leverage your survey responses,  and reach out to your growing database with exclusive offers.
   
10. Test & Adjust - there are no sacred cows when you see trending feedback from your customers. The offering can change and the experience should improve.