With ACL (Austin City Limits) coming up next week, I thought I’d repost an article I wrote about music festival promotion.
Other than having to finish up the new Vallejo music video, another big reason for my minimal blogging over the past week was due to the toll that the 2007 Austin City Limits Music Festival took on me. Three 12-hour days of walking in the 100-degree Texas heat, listening to music, boozing and networking, networking, networking. And don’t get me started on the ACL after-parties that followed each music filled day. Honestly, I’ve retired to my Dallas hideaway just to catch up on work, organize all the contacts I made at the festival and detox a bit.
That being said, I’m starting to get my head together and my thoughts are becoming somewhat clear, once again. Thus, I’m going to share some of the ways I and others promoted ourselves at the ACL Festival and hopefully shed some light on how you can become a rockstar in your own right, the next time you visit an outdoor music festival. Here are 8 ways to meet hundreds, even thousands of new people and get your brand out to the masses.
Put your logo on everything.
With 100,000+ people walking around, you never know who you’re going to meet or who might approach you. One of the easiest ways to promote your company/band/self is to put your logo on everything. Bring a cooler? Put your logo on it. Umbrella? Get a logo on it. Blanket? You guessed it…logo. You could even wear a T-shirt with your logo on it, but make sure it’s a cool t-shirt and not something you got for free at your last 5K Fun Run.
Plan ahead and bring something useful.
This past weekend at ACL, it was HOT, HOT, HOT! So, the popular free handouts were the paper fans being passed out by Heineken and a few other companies. As you walked around the park, nearly EVERYONE was carrying one of these paper fans sporting the Heineken logo. People even started referring to all paper fans as Heineken fans. These things couldn’t have been more useful under the hot Texas sun. Thanks, Heineken! These paper fans are cheap, useful and a way to get 100,000 people walking around and literally waving your logo in front of their friends faces.
Bring something fun.
This one is an oldie but a goodie. Beach balls! You see one or two of these everytime you go to a concert, ballgame and many other events, but it really is a great way to get your logo in front of people and while I know a few people that hate these things, I happen to enjoy and even wait in eager anticipation for a beach ball to come my way, so I can get in on the fun. But, be careful. It’s better to have a fewer number of really big beach balls, than to have a lot of little ones, in which, no one can clearly see your logo.
I mark this land mine!
Get a flag and a retractable flag pole that’s at least fifteen feet tall and plant it wherever you end up sitting or standing with your group in front of each stage. Not only is this a really easy way for friends to find you, but it creates a reference point for the hundreds of thousands of people around you. When the people next to you are trying to give their friends directions to where in the huge crowd they are, you can bet their going to say something along the lines of “Just look up, we’re 10 feet left of the ‘Your Company Here’ flag.” I felt like a broken record this past weekend because I said something similar to this about ten thousand times. That’s a lot of people talking about your company.
People want to know what you do.
Outdoor festivals are the melting pot for music fanatics and if you’re sitting in front of the same stage as some stranger, you can bet that you already have at least one thing in common. Because of this, starting a conversation becomes easy. With all the other branding you’re doing, you can be pretty confident that people are going to ask what your company does. And while you could easily tell them and you should. You can also be pretty confident that after 12-hours of booze and sun, they’re not going to easily remember you. So, get a flyer, brochure, poster, business card or SOMETHING and give it to anyone that inquires about you and your company. Otherwise, you’re wasting your time and efforts. I was amazed at how many people I came in contact with this past weekend that had nothing with their contact information on them.
Dress to Impress. And for a few laughs.
Festival attire is very different from any other event. Anything goes and the weirder the better. If it fits your personality, dress up a little. Festivals are kind of like an out of season, more casual, Halloween. If nothing else a fun or silly hat is a great way for people, who might not otherwise, to come up and approach you. In the past I’ve pulled out my alter-ego, Michael Sugarberry, with great networking success. But, a Trojan Warrior Helmet, Beer Hat, Cat In The Hat Hat and other smaller costumes have worked with similar success. But, only do this if it fits your personality. It sucks to walk up to someone with a fun costume on and find out that they’re not at all interested in laughing about it with you. Darn you! Darn you!
Capture those moments.
Another simple way to meet people is to bring a good digital SLR camera and take photos of people. Then, tell them that they can go to your website to see them later that night. You don’t necessarily have to be a great photographer to do this. Just put the camera on auto and you’ll be able to take a reasonably good photo. Just brush up on the basics of photography and practice good framing. If you’re not confident in your photography skills, you could always just hire one for the weekend and have he/she do the work for you. This is a great way to drive hits to your website, as everyone loves to see pictures of themselves. Use an automated formula in a software program like Adobe Photoshop to brand the pictures with your logo and then upload them to a gallery on your website. Just make sure you get the pictures up ASAP! There’s nothing more frustrating than coming off a sun drunk, looking for pictures of yourself and not finding them. This can also be a good way to get opt-in e.mail addresses for your newsletter, as you could require an e.mail to download high-res versions of the photos. You might even allow people to print the photos online through an affiliate online printing company. If you’re a photographer, there’s no excuse for not doing this at EVERY event you attend.
Side Note: With a little more effort and expense, you can take the same formula above and apply it to video that is then posted to your website. This is even more attractive and draws even larger web statistics.
Make the people you meet VIP.
Everyone wants to think of themselves as being a Very Important Person (VIP). That’s why such a premium is taxed onto VIP tickets for events. It’s not necessarily that the benefits are THAT great, because usually they aren’t. But, it is fun to think of yourself as VIP and rub shoulders with other VIPs. So, make the people you meet VIP! It’s pretty cheap to print up the laminated lanyards that are often used for VIP passes. Take your company logo and create a VIP section on your site. You could pair this with any of the other things listed above, but give people some reason as to WHY this is a VIP section on your site. Perhaps a free music or video download? Now give this new contact your branded lanyard that in BIG letters says “VIP” in plain font. Then have your company logo, a brief description of what being in your VIP program means and a list of your services. Oddly enough, people love to wear something that says VIP on it, because it makes them feel just that, like a Very Important Person. It’s perceived value and they like the way people look at them, when they are a part of an elite club. Perceived value is king and VIP badges are a good way to assure that your branded lanyard isn’t thrown on the ground.
And Finally…
In the end, all of these techniques will allow you to meet more people, get your brand out in front of a ton of like-minded people and make your festival experience a lot more fun. And that what it’s all about! The more contacts you make, the more fun it is to walk around the park and run into your new friends time and time again. You can easily make yourself, your band or your company a mini-festival celebrity just by implementing the above techniques. So, try them out and see how they work for you. What do you do to promote yourself at festivals or events? How are you starting conversations online and in real life? What ways would you suggest people NOT use to promote themselves?
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