Successful festival marketing
Use festivals' unique atmosphere to promote your brand authentically and creatively. Find out how you can successfully market your brand at festivals through targeted planning, the right promotional products, and the right targeting.
Festival marketing: How to ideally market your company at a festival
Every year, millions of people are drawn to festivals, especially music festivals. Various genres and sizes are catered for, from smaller independent festivals to truly mass events. "Rock am Ring" and "Rock im Park" attract 130,000 visitors a year, Parookaville is visited by 80,000 people, and the Splash Festival keeps up with 40,000 festival-goers. This abundance of happy, free and adventurous people offers your company the ideal opportunity to become better known and gain a large customer base with the right marketing measures. Learn more about the right festival marketing for your company at print24 so that you can represent it in the best possible way at the next festival!
Create a strategy for your festival marketing
When developing a strategy for your festival marketing, it is essential to start planning early. As soon as the last visitors leave the grounds, organisers and their media partners prepare for the next event. Early planning also pays off for you. The particular advantage of festival marketing lies in your brand's authentic and credible presentation in a positive and relaxed environment. The exuberant atmosphere of a festival increases the impact of your corporate message. It creates an ideal platform to communicate your brand convincingly and strengthen customer loyalty in the long term.
Your promotional items must become an integral part of visitors' personal festival experiences. By planning creatively and thoughtfully, your products and messages can create unforgettable memories of the festival. This emotional connection ensures that your company is remembered positively and that your brand is firmly anchored in visitors' memories. Through an authentic appearance and the skilful use of the unique festival atmosphere, you can effectively increase the reach of your marketing measures and build a strong emotional bond with your target group.
Identify the right target group
When identifying target groups for festival marketing, choosing the event that best represents your brand is crucial. With a creative approach, you can reach many representatives of your target group at festivals and present your brand in a positive, dynamic environment. The first step to successful festival marketing is to identify the right festival: In addition to the big, well-known music events, you should also focus on smaller film festivals, jazz events, literary readings, medieval festivals, vintage car shows, comic and gaming conventions or food festivals, depending on which environment suits your brand.
Smaller, local music festivals with a particularly young audience are ideal for medium-sized craft businesses looking for new trainees. Universities, technical schools, driving schools, health insurance companies, and transport clubs can also present themselves at these events. Companies from the food industry find the perfect advertising environment at food festivals, while providers of magazines on medieval history are better off at medieval festivals.
Fair trade shops, organic markets, specialist natural cosmetics shops, and public transport companies benefit from participating in reggae or other alternative festivals attended by people who value environmental awareness and sustainability. With a careful selection of the festival and a creative approach, you can reach your target group efficiently and present your brand authentically and convincingly.
Optimising festival marketing as a sponsor
If you want to appear as a sponsor at a festival, there are some important points to bear in mind. Whether a major national event or a local event, sponsors play a crucial role as they cover a significant proportion of the costs. Festival organisers usually offer various sponsorship packages that differ in scope and price. It is advisable to think carefully in advance about the budget you would like to set aside for sponsorship to be able to provide sufficient funds for effective promotional items.
Larger sponsorship packages offer more extensive options and are often divided into A, B and C categories.
Größere Sponsoring-Pakete bieten umfangreichere Möglichkeiten und werden oft in Kategorien wie Paket A, B und C unterteilt.
- Package A could be a head sponsor package in which your company name appears in the festival title. It includes exclusive rights such as a VIP area, stage sponsorship, prize draws and mentions on the festival homepage, advertising material, tickets, wristbands, and festival merchandising. The presenters will also mention you in the announcements.
- Package B could be designed as a main sponsor package. This package offers mentions on the festival homepage, tickets, advertising material, and festival merchandising. You also receive permission for a sponsor tent and can organise walking promotions.
- Package C is an ‘on-the-ground’ partnership. You pay the stand hire fee and can advertise on your stand but are not listed as an official sponsor.
Choosing the right sponsorship package depends on your budget and marketing objectives. Even with a smaller package, thoughtful use of the available funds can have a big impact and successfully present your brand at the festival.
Ways to successfully market your company at festivals
It is essential to target the needs of festival-goers and use creative advertising measures to present your brand attractively and successfully at festivals. Start by thinking about what festival-goers might need during the event. Small items such as hand fans, blankets, toiletries or earplugs are particularly popular. These increase the comfort of visitors and show that you have understood the needs of your target group. So choose promotional items that are useful and appealing to festival visitors. Practical giveaways such as reusable drinking bottles, sunglasses, portable chargers or rain ponchos are also very popular and help ensure your brand is perceived positively.
Of course, your logo must be clearly visible on all promotional items when giving away giveaways. You can also offer special promotions or bonus offers at your stand.
Competitions, discounts or vouchers, in particular, attract visitors. Organise fun and exciting games where festival visitors can win anything from small gifts to grand prizes. Smaller prizes can be earplugs or water bottles; for the grand prizes, you can give away free subscriptions for up to a month or year if this is compatible with your services. Also, hand out high-quality, reusable carrier bags with your logo. Festival-goers can carry their personal belongings in these as they enter the festival site while you increase your brand's visibility. Stickers are a simple and effective way to get your brand out there. Particularly creative and eye-catching designs and witty sayings are favoured by visitors and passed on. Alternatively, you can try water-soluble tattoos, which are particularly popular with younger festival-goers.
No matter which giveaway or gift you choose, always think first about your target group and what they might need, both privately and at the festival. Also, use giveaways made of high-quality materials that are robust enough to survive a festival (if used correctly). For rain capes, in particular, it would be an advantage if they didn't tear when you put them on.
Showcase your festival stand with flyers, stickers, beach flags and more
Take the opportunity to design your advertising technology with your company logo or slogans and jokes with your brand. At print24, you can have these produced in large quantities. Simply upload your desired motif to us, and we will print your textiles, such as baseball caps or blankets, beach flags, flags, pavilions and much more. This is how we support you effectively with your successful festival marketing. If you have any questions, please get in touch with us!