The Partner
OCESA is the largest live event promoter in Mexico and organizes some of the hottest music festivals in the world. With festivals like EDC Mexico, Corona Capital and Coca-Cola Flow Fest, OCESA is at the heart of live music in Mexico. The OCESA team decided to experiment with something new for Coca-Cola Flow Fest 2023’s on-the-ground experience: a campaign that would be named the Best In-Venue Activation for Entertainment at our 2024 Fan Marketing Awards.
The Challenge
OCESA was looking for a creative way to make the 6-8 hours that fans are physically present at their festival as engaging as possible. That’s why when exploring a new campaign strategy for Coca-Cola Flow Fest, the OCESA team outlined three major goals:
- Find a way to add value to fans on the ground through a new contest or activation
- Find a way to earn data from the fans on the ground (both for themselves and for sponsors)
- Provide commercial sponsors with new products/digital inventory that would exceed their expectations while being easy to replicate at future events
The Strategy
The OCESA team came up with an on-the-ground activation idea that would combine the reach of their digital channels with an in-person experience. This resulting campaign would hit three nails right on the head: genuine fun for fans, new data unlocked for OCESA and a positive experience tied to a supporting commercial sponsor.
The Winning Campaign
A festival-wide Scavenger Hunt, requiring fans to check-in digitally at each station for the chance to win festival- branded merch.
How the campaign worked:
To join the fun, fans signed up through a digital form promoted across the festival’s socials and through signage on the festival grounds. This digital form served as a gateway to the adventure, giving fans access to “check-in spots” across the festival in exchange for key details – things like age, how many times they've attended the festival, etc – allowing OCESA to gather valuable first-party data.
Over the course of Coca-Cola Flow Fest, fans raced around the festival grounds to scan five hidden QR codes. Once participants located and scanned all five QR codes, they became eligible to redeem that day’s prize: an official Coca-Cola Flow Fest merch item. The OCESA team ran this activation on all days of the festival, meaning that fans could return the next day and play again to receive more goodies, or to get their friends in on it.
The Result
The Scavenger Hunt was a huge success. Bridging the gap between the digital and physical with a gamified live activation turned out to be an effective way of boosting engagement, as it:
- Created organic engagement on-site
Merch prizes ran out within the first two hours of the festival, meaning that the fans who showed up early were rewarded for their dedication. This created a natural incentive for more fans to show up earlier the next day in the hopes of making it before the prizes were gone.
- Revealed 400+ anonymous ticket buyers in attendance that were not in OCESA's database
Fans who either had their friends buy them a ticket or purchased from a reseller were identified as qualified leads. This worked to expand OCESA’s known audience, providing them with actionable insights that will help them market more effectively next year.
- Drove over 1 million impressions on social media, positioning it as a worthwhile promotional opportunity for sponsors
Social media promo for the Scavenger Hunt not only created more buzz around the contest; it was also clearly effective in driving these leads to the point of conversion, bringing the fans offline and into the real world. Because of its extensive digital reach and successful on-site translation, this campaign proved to have the potential to be a valuable sponsorship opportunity at future events.
The Conclusion
Using a Tradable Bits Live Activation, OCESA found a new format to:
- Engage with fans on event day
- Gather more data and insights about the fans attending their events
- Turn into a recurring initiative to sell to sponsors at future events
The success of the 2023 Coca-Cola Flow Fest Scavenger Hunt shows how taking ownership of your data can empower your company to create better experiences, and foster longevity with both your fans and your sponsors.
Happy Fan Marketing!
