Most researchers state that millennials are a demographic cohort with birth years range from early 1980s to around 2000. (Horovitz, 2012). Millennial audiences are a massive part of any digital campaign, due to them usually being the most technically advanced, any digital marketing most connect with millennial audiences.

None more so than the music industry, music promotion company Eventbrite (2014) studies show that the details of some 20 million online conversations about 181 music festivals in the United States on Twitter, Facebook and other platforms in 2013-2014. And 75% of the people involved were aged 17 to 34 years. The same study shows that over 50% of festival goers are in the millennial age range, with a distinct connection to social media pages such as Twitter (shown in the graph below).

Millennials are very savvy in the way they operate and won’t necessarily be attracted by traditional digital marketing channels (usually see through it). They consume a much broader range of content compared to other demographics, with spread across various social network (Facebook, Snapchat, YouTube, Twitter, Vine, and Tumblr to name but a few). Any music festival must have these basic social media platforms to be successful, but in order to attract millennial customers, they must have a genuine marketing tool with meaningful interaction.

Millennials are attracted to various aspects of campaigns, according to Nielsen’s Music 360 report, 51% of consumers and 76% of festivalgoers feel more favourably towards brands that sponsor a tour or concert. Brand sponsorship for music festivals totalled $1.22 billion in 2012. With this in mind festivals try to get sponsored by the most credible and recognisable brands, in order to attract millennial customers, it also builds a relationship with consumers. Examples include the Radio 1 and NME tent at Glastonbury.

Also Pitchfork music festivals free mobile app partnered with Rdio to provide festival goers with the chance to take pictures attach songs to them, print photos and receive free trial at their sponsor tent.  Samsung’s tent provided free henna tattoo at various festivals as well. Other examples of aiding the customer experience is Bonnaroo, who are sponsored by Garnier with hair washing tents, to heighten the customer experience.

Collaboration with other brands is important because Millennials appreciate being involved, and so by including them in the development process, you are building a loyal customer base, they love to have a level of ownership. And the above sponsorship examples show that some music festivals are effectively achieving this.

Today millennials wants something more than just standard social media, they want to gain there festival experience to be heightened in an accessible manner and want the festival to give them meaningful interactions. Smith states “There is potential growth and value in using digital marketing aimed at Millennials, but the marketing strategies must be perceived positively by this generation. By taking into consideration the preferences of Millennials, the effectiveness of online communications and digital marketing aimed at this market segment can be increased.” (2012). Music festivals try to take into account the preferences of millennials, by catering to there every need.

With Smith strategy in mind, a meaningful way of marketing to millennials is through creating experiences. Coachella’s app has features such as friend finder (search for people you know at the event and there exact location), social media integration, schedule maker and push notifications, all to aid the customer experience in the most accessible manner. (Jaekel, 2016).

Creativity with millennial does not just stop there, with the anticipation of experiencing their favourite acts, with friends etc., festivals have become more creative in outdoor advertising. It can complement a fans experience, brings people together and a great way of spread news whilst amplifying advertising. Examples include Coachella outdoor advertising as shown below:

Millennials also like to feel part of a community, and festivals will try and achieve this by gaining good relations with the, such as creating a mobile app as a practical source of information (Coachella example highlighted above). Examples such as thank you videos (as shown below), will also help achieve this, and great trust and a relationship between customer and festival (something that the sponsorship mentioned above also helps achieve).

Millennials are also probably the biggest to review on the internet, so user generated content is massively used. Festivals sharing customers, allowing customer to create and share their own videos and allowing for comments on social media platforms helps promote the festival. It also acts as an implicit incentive, this allows the user to feel good as a member of the festival community and also works in direct correlation with millennials feeling part of a community whilst promoting a festival. (Chua et al., 2014).

However if festival don’t market to millennials in a effective manner, they can be left behind and there reputation damaged as a result. It is not enough to just offer them basic social media platforms, but also attach a certain outcome they can gain from using it (such as using blogs as a practical information source).  Because this is the generation that is most likely to review and news and content can spread, any words by the demographic can affect a festival on a big scale, meaning festival must cater to them as a result. This demographic like to follow the latest trends and anything out of date can be seen as ‘uncool’, and they also feel extremely alienated by traditional digital marketing and see right through it. Meaning festivals have to be coherent to these issues when marketing to them, and offer the demographic a incentive and engage them when marketing.

Overall music festival cater to the millennial crowd by trying to offer them the best experience possible in a meaningful way, through various collaborative sponsorship with brands, creative marketing such as outdoor marketing and by trying to replicate a community feel for this demographic as well, by gaining a relationship between festival and customer all to keep them engaged. To attract this demographic festivals must have a genuine marketing tool with meaningful interaction, and evidence of this are Coachella ‘friend finding app’  and Pitchforks partnership with Rdio to name but a few. Showing that millennial are a big effect on how festivals operate.

By Isaac Roblett

References

Chua, T; Li, J; Moens, M (2014). Mining user generated content. Chapman and Hall/CRC. P 7

Eventbrite (2014). Music Festival Study. Mashwork, Inc.

Horovitz, Bruce (4 May 2012). “After Gen X, Millennials, what should next generation be?”. USA Today

Jaekel, B. (2016) Coachella makes mobile headline act of 2015 festival marketing – mobile marketer – social networks. [Online] Available at: http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/social-networks/20214.html (Accessed: 1 February 2016).

Smith, K (2012) “Longitudinal study of digital marketing strategies targeting Millennials”, Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 29 Iss: 2, pp.86 – 92

Music festivals are often seen as innovators in terms of social media and digital marketing.  With the competition of the industry, festivals will try and go that extra mile to outdo each other.  This is very apparent in festivals social media campaigns and especially the visual aided platforms, where festivals will try and showcase the events culture, audience, location and artists in the best possible manner to create brand awareness and in connection the festival ethos, and this is why social media platforms such as Instagram are needed.

Visual social media (such as Instagram) is a necessity for music festivals “Through social media, marketers can gain rich, unmediated consumer insights, faster than ever before, and can foster loyalty through networking” (Hudson et al, 2015). This is something crucially needed in such a highly competitive industry as the music one, where developing competition and saturation is always a threat. The social reach is vast and if used properly can be extremely effective.

Instagram is a essential tool used by festivals to showcase there events, enhance social media presence, increase engagement and gain a higher reputation, and to back this up Hirschman states that, “One way of reducing the risk the consumer may associate with the purchase, would be through the use of visually-dominated advertising.” (1986).

User generated content is a key free marketing tool that festival can use in context to Instagram, users hashtags and comments can all aid the festivals marketing. Mobile phone network EE (sponsor Glastonbury) state that “Customers uploaded the equivalent of 1.5 million pictures during last summer’s festival” (2015), showing how big the platform can be for festival. User generated content is a form of content created users of an online system or service can use to create their own experiences and in turn promote the festival (Chua, 2014). It acts as an implicit incentive, this allows the user to feel good as a member of the festival community. Instagram allows users to share media from their lives with others, this in turn builds a relationship between the festival and customers, and it helps promote a festival without them having to promote it themselves which acts as a great PR scheme (Jodl, 2010).

User generated content is a driving force in terms of how festivals are perceived. Hyphen’s Miller-Cheevers states “The influencers on Instagram are really driving the agenda of what’s cool and which things people want to check out next year,”

However there are some downsides to festival using Instagram, because it is just a visual aid, it cannot really be used as a practical information source, meaning it should be complimented by other social media platforms. User generated content can also be negative, if users leave bad comments, which could potentially damage a festivals reputation. Instagram posts also need to engage users straight away because of the high competition, just sharing post, artwork and event images is not enough for an effective Instagram campaign.

A lot of festival already utilise Instagram, with regular updates of professional photos (of acts, audience, location), event specific artwork and user generated content. It helps build a pictorial representation of the festival, providing crucial visual engagement. Festivals Instagram pages aim to make a personal connection with customer, receive PR, build a loyalty and engagement with customer. The platform should also attract new customers, whilst engaging existing ones, effective examples of this include:

Coachella’s account is an example of an effective Instagram page by a music festival, they currently have over 931,000 followers. They post regular updates to keep customer engaged all year round (even off festival season), with various professional photos, videos of the event (showcasing the youth culture of the festival and the excitement that comes with Coachella). They also use fun/playful images (as shown below) as an effective tool for the event, through various content such as photos, memes, gifs and videos, to really try and capture the festival in a bitesize accessible manner.  All these effort means that the company’s ethos are showcased to the general public through visual social media.

Another effective example is ‘Imagine Music Festival’, they offer followers the chance of entering free competitions for prizes such as free tickets. The brand specific hashtag that comes with this promotes the contest and gives the consumer a chance to connect with other participants. On top of this it promotes the festival, engages customers and brings together the festival and customers.

The festival also usual the visual aid of Instagram to market the festivals ethos and brand, in a way that captures the whole festival excitement and audience. All working favourable in promoting the festival. The pictures are used to engage customer and entice potential ones as well.

The emerging advances within festival using Instagram, generally revolve around user generated content. Through a partnership with Instagram, several major festivals — including Chicago’s Lollapalooza and Bonnaroo in Manchester, Tenn. — have displayed festivalgoers’ images on jumbotrons and onstage monitors during their events. The importance of festivals social media and user generated content is shown in the strategy by some festivals incorporating customer experiences in the brand and festival itself, to heighten the customer experience, increase engagement and a key PR scheme.  User generated content can also be used as a metric, through likes, shares comments etc. being used to determine how successful a festival Instagram is.

Overall Instagram can be used to effectively promote a festival and engage people. The visual engagement showcasing a festival experience, brand and ethos can be achieved through a Instagram campaign (festivals must stand out from the crowd).  To achieve this a multitude of viable content such as competition, user generated content, videos and regular updates will have to be implemented. A considered approach will allow festivals to showcase their brand in an engaging and marketable manner, to use the platform in the most effective way. Research has shown that user generated content is the main driver behind a successful Instagram page, with customer’s posts and opinions being crucially used as a PR scheme, and to promote festival in the most effective way. User content such as pictures, comments etc. all paint a picture for the festival experience and engage users too.

References

Chua, T; Li, J; Moens, M (2014). Mining user generated content. Chapman and Hall/CRC. P 7.

Hermann, J. (2015). I’m with the brand: why festival goers posting pics from Instagram and Facebook is a crucial part of event marketing.[Online] Available: http://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/london-life/i-m-with-the-brand-why-festival-goers-posting-pics-from-instagram-and-facebook-is-a-crucial-part-of-10345868.html. Accessed 10 May 2016.

Hirschman, E.C., (1986). The effect of verbal and pictorial advertising stimuli on aesthetic, utilitarian and familiarity perceptions. Journal of Advertising,15(2), pp.27-34.

Hudson, S., Roth, MS., Madden, TJ., & Hudson, R. (2015) The effects of social media on emotions, brand relationship quality, and word of mouth: an empirical study of music festival attendees, Journal of Tourism Management. Vol.45, pp.68-76.

Jodl, F. (2010) Understanding Participative Consumer Behavior. München: FGM-Verl.,

Withers, P. (2015). EE to continue as Glastonbury Festival partner for third year. [Online]. Available: http://www.mobilenewscwp.co.uk/2015/05/21/ee-to-continue-as-glastonbury-festival-partner-for-third-year/. Accessed 10 May 2016.