Aug 21, 2014
02 | DIGGING THE DIRT ON FESTIVAL SPONSORSHIP
IN THE SUMMER of 2011 we LIVED, BREATHED, TASTED and sometimes even SMELLED FESTIVALS
IN THE SUMMER of 2011 we LIVED, BREATHED, TASTED and sometimes even SMELLED FESTIVALS
04 | DIGGING THE DIRT ON FESTIVAL SPONSORSHIP
HERE’S HOW WE DID IT:
3 months in 2011
6 of the largest European music festivals
6 countries
2,244 surveys
JUNE
JULY
AUGUST
FRANCE
UK
SPAIN
ITALY
GER
MA
NY POLAND
fansfrom30
countrieshailing
from500cities
Alongside a comparative study of non-festival goers
Over 70 personal interviews conducted onsite
66 sponsor activations analyzed including:
06 | DIGGING THE DIRT ON FESTIVAL SPONSORSHIP
HERE’S WHAT WE WANTED TO LEARN:
CAN THEY LIVE TOGETHER IN PERFECT HARMONY?
PEACE, LOVE &
ROCK’n’ROLLBRANDS
Whatever the answer, here’s THE INESCAPABLE FACT:
SPONSOR
without SPONSORS, most FESTIVALS couldn’t happen
…and festival-goers seem to RECOGNIZE, ACCEPT, and APPRECIATE sponsors for this.
08 | DIGGING THE DIRT ON FESTIVAL SPONSORSHIP
Let’s meet the FESTIVAL-GOERS:
54% are female
are under 25 years old
ARE EMPLOYED
They spendHALF as much time watching TV
VS the average consumer (116 minutes versus 229 minutes per day)*
* Source: HS&E music study and Eurodata NOTA
64% of them
compared to only 25% for non-festival goers
SHOPONLINE
They are TWICE as likely to participate in cultural activities
than their non-festival attending peers
They’re COMMITTED.
go to at least THREE other music events a year
They are VOCAL
71.9% recommend products and services they like.
37.6% think people come to themfor their opinions on products
and services before they buy
And last summer (2011)
there were roughly 2.6 million of them across Europe.
10 | DIGGING THE DIRT ON FESTIVAL SPONSORSHIP
THEY REJECT BRAND ADVERTISING
Less than 11.3% find advertising interesting
Over two thirds think advertising is a ‘waste of time’
Some don’t even notice it (25% of fans online and 18.5% on TV claim not to see advertising)
Only 20.4% think advertising helps when making purchasing decisions
Less than 33% ‘like advertising’
But the GOOD NEWS is, they don’t reject BRANDS:
Out of the 2,244 fans surveyed, only TWO didn’t notice any sponsor onsite
On average they noticed 5.8 out of every 10 brands onsite
65.2% think that brand partners actually improve the festival experience
85% LIKED the activations they visited
32.5% would visit the brand’s website as a result of the sponsorship
36% agreed they would be more likely to purchase a sponsor’s product AFTER the event
Festival fans are MORE receptive and aware of brand sponsors than the general public:
They’re ACTIVE, ENGAGED and most importantly VOCAL about the things they LIKE.
12 | DIGGING THE DIRT ON FESTIVAL SPONSORSHIP
FIT is everything. A brand’s DNA determines it
A snapshot of brand types’ ‘fit’ score – graded by festival goers, onsite*:
Title sponsor | Beer | Radio station | Drink | Mobile phone | TV brand | Transportation | Clothing | Bank
2
4
6
8
108.4
BRAND
8.0 7.7 7.06.4 6.0 5.7 5.3
4.2
*minimum 3 sponsors per category
In terms of recall, BEER brands score highest – often remembered more than even the title sponsor. But ANY brand stands to gain AS LONG AS they master the art of BRAND ENGAGEMENT.
SO WHAT ARE THE BIG TAKE OUTS?
• BRANDS MAKE FESTIVALS (they couldn’t happen without them)
• BRANDS CAN MAKE THE FESTIVAL EXPERIENCE BETTER
• THE 2.6 MILLION FANS AT EUROPE’S FESTIVALS CAN (and should) BE YOUR BRANDS’ BFF*. They know what they like, they know what they dislike and most importantly, they VOCALIZE their likes and dislikes to influence their peers.
• FestivalgoersareCULTURED, considered, INTERESTED and most importantly, EARLY ADOPTERS
• Theaudienceisonline,so BE THERE TOO.
*Best friend forever
14 | DIGGING THE DIRT ON FESTIVAL SPONSORSHIP
SIZE matters. The biggest brand activations attracted more fans – a minimum of +40%
Check list for success:
BE BIG!
74.4% visited one stand, 25.1% visited 3 or more. 5% visited 5 or more.
STAND OUT!
80% of fans felt strongly that brands should have a green strategy
BE GREEN
BE GREENBE G
REEN
BUT BE CAREFUL...
felt that sponsoring brands were ‘imposing’...
... thought they were ‘tasteless’!
19.2%32.9%
Instigate LONG TERM RELATIONSHIPS through:
REAL INVOLVEMENT
UNEXPECTED
but relevant
experiences
unobtrusive DATA capture
I agree
meaningful ongoing
dialogue online
…and most of all, give them something they’ll love to talk about
W E U!
16 | DIGGING THE DIRT ON FESTIVAL SPONSORSHIP
SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT: an interesting discovery
Their passion for SPORT directly relates to their INTERACTION WITH SPONSORS
SPONSOR
Fans interested in sport visited over twice as many brand stands on average (3.7 versus 1.6) and remembered 55% more brands onsite
A FINAL MESSAGE FOR ORGANIZERS & BRANDS
Your audience is online, WHY AREN’T YOU?
Festival-goers spend 220% MORE time online than the average global consumer.
BUT despite the 60.1% of festival goers with active social media accounts, only 9.1% of fans heard about the festival via social media. So HALF the festival audience isn’t engaging with theevent via social media.
9.1%
Festivals with an active Facebook account stimulate twice as much auxiliary online buzz as festivals without.
We discovered that fans heard about a festival via word of mouth (65.7%) – nearly half of them (45.3%) hearing about it EXCLUSIVELY via word of mouth. So they weren’t exposed to ANY other communication.
18 | DIGGING THE DIRT ON FESTIVAL SPONSORSHIP
Be THERE, be UNEXPECTED, add VALUE to their experience and the fans will LOVE YOU!
About Havas Sports & Entertainment | We’re the brand engagement network of the Havas Group. We help brands connect with fans by putting people’s passions at the center of the conversation. We do it through sponsorship, content creation, partnerships, social media, and live brand experiences.
Who we are | Over 550 dynamic and creative individuals spread across 35 offices in 20 countries. Our network includes Havas Sports & Entertainment, the Cake Group, and ignition.
Our music expertise | From driving buzz for Burn energy drink to leveraging the partnership between MTV and Hyundai, to blending extreme sports and live music for Snickers, to handling PR for Virgin Media’s V Festival, and staging major music events for Motorola, Vodafone, Axe, and Ben & Jerry’s, we are leaders in music PR and music event production.
Be THERE, be UNEXPECTED, add VALUE to their experience and the fans will LOVE YOU!
Why we did this study | To be totally credible when advising our clients, we wanted to go further than ticket sales, media coverage and gut feel by living the experience alongside music fans to determine what makes festival sponsors entertaining, memorable and welcomed.
Intrigued and hungry for more? | We had to condense three months of research into this little booklet, so we left a few juicy bits out. Contact Christopher Rapaport, Network Business Development and Global Research Manager via email [email protected] or phone, +33 (0)1 58 47 84 28 or visit www.havas-se.com to get the full lowdown, including those tasty nuggets we didn’t include such as what matters more to festival goers, which brands really bring festivals to life and why, and which ones don’t.
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