How to Avoid a Music Festival Disaster

How to Avoid a Music Festival Disaster  

Putting your business name on a music festival can give you great exposure. But as we’ve seen in real life examples, this can also backfire greatly. Take the case of the Fyre Festival in the Bahamas, which was promoted as a luxury experience but turned into a disaster. Abby Ohlheiser reported for The Washington Post that headliner band Blink-182 and others canceled just before the event, many of the tents for the event were not set up by the time guests arrived and other significant problems occurred. What should have been great publicity for the organizers turned into the wrong kind of exposure.

Obviously, you don’t want your company's name associated with a disaster. So here are some tips on how to avoid a music festival disaster and create a successful experience instead.

Work With an Experienced Team

It’s essential to have an experienced team working on a large event like a music festival. You either need your own experienced team or to work with a production partner who understands the nitty-gritty of how a music festival works and what is needed, down to every detail. Foremost, you need a strong management team who can organize and execute the event plans, with a system in place for potential problems.

Focus on Practical Needs

Putting on a music festival is not just about the music and the marketing. There is a lot of background work that needs to be done – and done right. You need to ensure you have the necessary power for the specific event, as well as access to water and proper management of waste. An experienced team will think about potential problems and make sure the logistics are capable of working out in the earliest stages before moving forward with a particular venue or the rest of the event planning. Event professionals told BizBash that they probably would not have continued with the Fyre Festival's location, at least not before consulting local professionals.

Start Small and Take It Slowly

Apparently the Fyre Festival planning started a few months before the event, and organizers ran out of time. Professional organizers take much longer to plan an event of this scale, beginning the process at least a year in advance. The Fyre Festival organizers also went full speed ahead with marketing, while event professionals normally would perform a soft launch in the beginning and try to gradually build interest and a reputation. By taking more time, you also have the chance to test your site, learn and grow in the industry and work on fitting your tactics with the right audience.

Be Prepared to Cancel

Sometimes you simply cannot get an event to work out. Planning and proper management will generally prevent the need to cancel an event but you need to realize when canceling is the only answer. Event professionals told BizBash that the Fyre Festival organizers should have canceled when they knew they couldn't fulfill their marketing promises.

When you perform proper planning and work with event professionals, you can prevent a music festival disaster and create an event that successfully promotes your brand.

Miami Music Week 2017

Let's get this party started Miami!  Picking up from where it left off in 2016, Miami Music Week 2017 promises to be the place to be this March 21st through the 26th.  In 2016, there were more than 1,180 artists performing at over 260 events that were hosted at 78 plus venues and the event planners hope to top that during Miami Music Week 2017. For the past 7 years, Miami has transformed itself during the MMW into a dance music paradise.  This is a week-long marathon of non-stop parties and concerts featuring all the major artists in the electronic dance music scene.

Soho aka "The Miami Music Week Hotel" is the place to be during this year's MMW.  Located right in the heart of Delano, the prestigious urban resort, in South Beach.  This will be the epicenter of the parties throughout the week and the gathering place, both day and night, for music fans from all over the world.  These promise to be the best parties Miami has to offer the dance music enthusiast.

During the grand finale, also known as the world's premier electronic music festival or "Ultra Music Festival" which is held over the course of the final 3 days of Miami Music Week expect to join more than 165,000 fans from over 90 countries during the culmination of this amazing week.

Miami Music Week's 2017 highlights:

At Soho check out:

Marshmello and Friends. 10 p.m. Wednesday, March 22, at Soho Studios, 2138 NW First Ave., Miami; 305-600-4785; sohostudiosmiami.com. Tickets cost $40 via ticketfly.com.

or  Mosaic. With Maceo Plex, Marcel Dettmann, Stephan Bodzin, Mike Servito, North Lake, and Danyelino. 9 p.m. Saturday, March 25, at Soho Studios, 2138 NW First Ave., Miami; 305-600-4785; sohostudiosmiami.com. Tickets cost $20 to $40 via residentadvisor.net.

Some other hot spots that week include:

Party all night on March 21, 2017with Firebeatz & Friends and Special Guests from 11:00 PM til 5:00 AM at FDR at the Delano

M.A.N.D.Y. will be at Do Not Sit on the Furniture on the 21st from 10 PM till 5:00 AM. Ticket prices are $20 and up.

Axtone's throwing a major Miami Pool Party on Wednesday, March 22nd from 2:00 PM till 11:00 PM.  Hosted by Delano Beach Club, the Tickets start at $48.

For those looking for free fun, there is a night with S E R A F I N and Friends happening on Wednesday, March 22nd.  Check them out at the Foxhole located at 1218 14th Court, Miami Beach.

Ultra Music Festival begins on Thursday, March 23rd  and runs through Saturday, 25th.  This show will feature headliners such as: Cypress Hill, Ice Cube, and Underworld.

You do not want to miss year's Miami Music Week.  Check out the whole schedule online at www.miamimusicweek.com.  We at Soho can't wait to see you in the house.

Beyond the Music: What Makes a Festival a Truly Memorable Event

Music festival sponsorships have long been parts of marketing, but all too often, the audience only remembers the band after it's all over. This is because companies tend to stick to boring signs of sponsorship, such as banners on fences, that do nothing to engage the audience. Even if a banner is plastered across the top of the stage, it fades from notice the moment a hot band strikes the first note. What can you do to ensure that your brand actually becomes part of the show instead of another thing in the background? The key is to give the audience a serious chance to truly interact with your products or services in a way that matches the look and feel of the rest of the event. Toyota is a master of this, and looking at what they've done should spark some ideas for your own events.

The Cars Are Really Parts of the Event

Many automakers do no more than park their cars around when they host an event. This isn't the case for Toyota, though: They made their vehicles an interactive part of one of their music festivals lately. There, patrons partook in activities like competing to see how many objects they could cram into the cargo area of a car or minivan, using the back of a minivan as a climb-in vending machine, and more.

Interactive Zones

Say goodbye to boring souvenir stands with standardized trinkets. Toyota had guests make their festival mementos on the spot using Shrinky Dinks and other such craft items. This gave everyone who got one a unique memory to go with the experience, so they'll remember this part of the event for a long time. Of course, all mementos were also branded so everyone will always have that extra reminder of the sponsor's identity.

Taking the Test Drive Up to 11

At exciting events like these, it would be a letdown to just have people putter around in a regular car. Yet, it is important to get people into Toyotas in driving situations so they're one step closer to buying. The solution? Have the people take the company's trucks over an off-road course. Logs and ramps make the vehicles' maneuverability come to life as drivers have fun.

Choosing a Venue

Music festivals can be held in all sorts of venues, ranging from arenas that are fully under roof all the way to fairgrounds that are entirely outdoors. When you want to be under roof in Miami, consider Soho Studios. Our venue offers up to 70,000 square feet and can be configured any way you'd like.

Event Trends: The 90s Make a Comeback

Marketers know that one of the easiest ways to catch people's attention and produce good feelings is to go for nostalgia. Because of this, it's a certainty that every generation will be treated to a round of advertising and marketing meant to call up feelings of the good old days. This is why we've all been seeing a resurgence of 90s-themed products and events. Millennials, companies hope, are already looking at this time period with the airbrushed memories of those wishing for simpler and happier times. These 90s-based marketing efforts have taken several forms. Here are some examples you can use for inspiration for your own company's nostalgia marketing:

Nickelodeon's 90sFest

Nickelodeon didn't just put on a few marathons of 90s shows for its celebration of the Millennials' decade. Instead, it hosted several retro music festivals, complete with 90s acts like Sister Hazel and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. Attendees dressed up in 90s clothing or as Nickelodeon characters from that period in order to fully immerse themselves in the experience.

The company got down to business with its obstacle course, which was present at each event. This course was set up to promote The Splat – the network's block of 90s game show and cartoon reruns. Other Nickelodeon offerings were also promoted in fun and immersive ways.

Crystal Pepsi Summer of '92

PepsiCo was another company that made great use of old music, this time to re-introduce Crystal Pepsi to the market. Salt-N-Pepa, En Vogue, and others started off the entertainment at concerts that featured 90s sets along with the music. A retro mall was also set up, and patrons could get 90s hairstyles, play in an arcade featuring the games of the decade, and buy assorted swag just like they did as teens.

TRL

MTV revamped its old Total Request Live, or TRL, studio into Total Registration Live to promote National Voter Registration Day. Along with being able to register to vote, attendees were also able to check out various celebrities, who spoke about the election issues they were passionate about. Celebs who came included Joss Whedon and Ty Dolla $ign. Of course, the musical artists also performed to ensure that people would stay interested.

These are just some of the events that took place during the last year to target Millennials with nostalgia marketing. Such marketing isn't limited to this age group, though. You can easily use it to reach any demographic that isn't still young.

If you're looking for a venue for your next immersive marketing event, look no further than Soho Studios in Miami. Our event space can be adapted for any size function, with up to 70,000 feet available. We can also set up custom features to make sure your event is an unforgettable hit.

AT&T Draws Consumers with Graffiti Art and Music

The Austin City Limits Music Festival offered far more than audio art. AT&T U-verse, stationed near band favorites, utilized the power of graffiti to promote its new GigaPower television and Internet service. Hosting engagements aligned with the event’s culture, the AT&T U-verse approach stayed true to the music festival while adding its own touch.

Two Long Weekends

AT&T commenced its project over two three-day weekends last fall. It offered local artist demos, a recharge lounge and astounding “quick delivery” giveaways. Additional to its digital tactics was a lifestyle activation event geared towards AT&T lovers abroad.

Festivalgoers began interacting with U-verse several months before the event ever started. The brand’s declaration of Austin City Limits representation featured a speech discussing title sponsorship. U-verse similarly created an Austin City Limits mobile app, engaging consumers within trivia contests, during festival pass giveaways and throughout the event.

AT&T’s support didn’t stop there. Users with big social media presences were invited into one-on-one conversation channels with U-verse. Participation resulted in festival ticket giveaways and visibility across AT&T’s music festival area.

The Tight-Knit Social Media Community

The AT&T U-verse style didn’t create itself. In fact, its influencers spanned across a multitude of online platforms. The brand teamed up with Vine celebs, bloggers, Snapchat favorites and Instagram gurus. Its social media partners told the AT&T story through their lens—which was a remarkably innovative approach to flexible marketing outreach. Vine influencer Frank Danna, in particular, impacted AT&T’s display positively with a four-vine special triggering over 500,000 loops in days.

Of course, the brand’s social community was guaranteed a well-deserved break from the in-event action. AT&T hosted a U-verse footprint refuge, granting attendees soothing relaxation from festival performances. Televised football games and device recharge stations were installed to grow the comfortable couch environment.

Artist Team-Ups

AT&T’s image was boosted by several ACL artists, including Alabama Shakes, the Foo Fighters and Gary Clark Jr. Hosting an exclusive festival documentary, the musicians slated the host footage for a February release. Packing performances, interviews and a unique eye on Austin’s rich culture, the video will soon be available on Direct TV and AT&T platforms.

AT&T knocked it out of the park during ACL. The event’s highlights brought the festival to a peak, pairing the area’s unique culture with an all-encompassing U-verse marketing platform. Rich with confidence and creativity, the AT&T approach to experiential marketing certainly entices the imagination.

What are some of the best event promotion techniques?

Event promotion is one of the elements that can make any business’s marketing strategies a huge success. This is so much so that, if one doesn't plan out the whole campaign it can become very difficult to collect benefits from organizing the whole event. With online marketing gone to a whole new level, social media has become the center of the world. Hence, using this tool one can make any corporate happening a huge success on its own.

Ultra Music Festival promotes the event via social media and email blasts with announcements about the line-up and ticketing tiers. This keeps the audience engaged throughout the year and draws them to their website to explore content surrounding  the music festival.

With the online world now being the center stage for all marketing tactics, it should be known that the customary methods of marketing have not gone obsolete. The traditional marketing tools are in fact still intact and it is the combination of offline and online methods that is now making event promotion a huge success in the current times.

With the online world now being the center stage for all marketing tactics, it should be known that the customary methods of marketing have not gone obsolete. The traditional marketing tools are in fact still intact and it is the combination of offline and online methods that is now making event promotion a huge success in the current times.

So, what exactly are the popular marketing trends that companies are now adopting to make their events a fruitful?

Organizations are making investment in out of the way methods. Currently, the efforts are all geared towards assuring that the time and money that goes in investments are able to give a turnover in the optimum ways. Therefore it means that the target is now more towards quality and not quantity. This should be the basis of your judgement when you are sending invites for any event promotion.

People who are attending your event need some practical and real information to believe. All the experiential details should be managed. This means that once again you should deliver quality and substance and not the revenue collected from a couple of days. Therefore, go for involving and engaging displays and sessions should exhibit communication and of course, valuable discourse in your event promotion.

At present, the exhibition of audio and visual content has become the norm. This on the other hand doesn't mean that you go for glamour. The idea here is to be dynamic with hints of sophistication for you definitely don’t need to make your event promotion a mainstream occurrence. So, engage your audience in live session so that your attendees are not left out of the event. After all it is your attendees that make or break any event.

Dynamic branding is without any doubt the new trend these days. This should be kept in mind that branding is the key element in making any event promotion a huge success. Thus, the message that you choose is of integral importance and should nail the whole crux of your brand. In the event itself the message should be concise, comprehensive and of course influential on the target audience.

On the last note, there is no single recipe that automatically makes event promotion a success, as there are many ways to turn any particular strategy by customizing it according to your brand and message. You should always consider a number of options at first, select the best out of each and find the one that works best for you.