Music provides a fantastic platform for brands to connect with their audiences in a fun innovative live environment. Like all good advertising it is about being in the right place at the right time. Live events such as the SuperBowl are legendary for advertising opportunities. Now with new innovations in branding, through technological advances, there are new ways for brands to market themselves at live music events. To reach wider audiences in new ways that are more engaging than in previous years.
A recent article on http://www.billboard.com/ with the rather lengthy title ‘Group M Study Finds Live Music, Digital Key to ‘New Music Model for Brands’, is a great reminder of just why brands are turning to the power of live music to convert music fans into customers. The research conducted in the article provides some interesting findings.
The highlighted findings from the research conducted, found that out of the 2,000 respondents ‘All age groups felt that music was the most important medium in consumers’ lives, out-ranking TV, reading, social media and going to the movies”.
This kind of affinity and marketing potential through music has generated some new innovations in audience engagement. In the research “56 percent of concertgoers reported a willingness to pay extra for an LED bracelet that lit up in synch with the performance, while 50 percent said they would pay for an app that would enable song requests — both technologies that have become a point of experimentation for brands.”
With music providing a great platform for brands to become best buddies with their customers, in a wide variety of creative ways, innovation and advertising spend will help realise this potential.
Spending on branding at festivals is a big business and attracts the top Global brands that we all recognise. Also some brands have used this platform to promote themselves into recognition. A good example of the later is Monster. Who like RedBull have focused on music and extreme sports to align themselves with their younger audiences.
Music Festival Marketing – Stats
It isn’t just sports drinks that are involved in the action. In 2014, the share of advertising spend by Industry at music festivals in the US was recorded as follows; media and publishing (8.9%), beer (7.3%), financial services (5.3%), spirits (5.2%), telecoms (5.2%), automotive (3.6%), hotel and resort (3.2%), soft drinks (3.2%) and insurance (2.8%).
On the brand side, Anheuser-Busch is the top-spending company of all music festivals at $335.5 million. Pepsi ranks a close second with $325.1 million. Coca-Cola finishes third with $236.8 million, followed by Miller Coors ($197.1 million), Time Warner ($147.2 million) and Ford Motor ($138.2 million).
Pepsi is still the top-ranked brand in music festival sponsorship, however, accounting for 15.4% of all spending compared with Coke and Bud Light’s shared second-place ranking with 10%. Heineken, Red Bull and Miller Lite each have 7.7%, while Budweiser, Jägermeister, Monster Energy Drink and State Farm are tied at 6.9%. Bank of America, AT&T, Jack Daniel’s, Sonicbids and Verizon Wireless round out the tally with 6.2% apiece.
Music Related App Start-Ups
Music provides many options for advertising and indeed many Start-Ups rely on this readiness of advertisers in order for their free Apps to succeed. It doesn’t take long to realise that a music related App can provide new opportunities for advertisers using smart phone features that enable higher levels of engagement and participation.
The list of start-ups bridging this gap between brands, fans and mobile devices can be seen here in this article highlighting the top start-ups in this area. As compiled by Midemlab. They run a competition for start-ups in this area. The 2015 finalists provides a recent list of these innovative Music related start-ups. Midemlab 2015 Music Startups Finalists/
Innovation in marketing for user experience lends itself to the DNA of music experiences. Music has the power to cross all barriers and bring people together regardless of religion, political views, race, language and location. Perfect for Global brands and manageable enough for smaller brands to also understand these strategies and use them on smaller scales.
Credit also goes to Andrew Hampp @ahampp. for writing the initial article with the research findings. Figures are based on the US research.
