It's been a long time due, but we can finally scream from the rooftops - Live Music is back, baby! Following a difficult hiatus, the music industry can finally flex its muscles and push the boundaries of creativity, data-driven strategies, and digital literacy as a whole. This year marks the tip of the iceberg for the types of digital campaigns that festivals, labels, and artists can execute. With the creative juices flowing and the growth of data-sponsorships in music, the bar has been raised higher for authentic engagement opportunities.
Below are creative engagement campaigns and partner activations that stood out for us in 2021.
9. Outside Lands- SMS campaign
This is a perfect example of what the culmination of an effective engagement strategy can look like. The team at Outside Lands has been on a long-term journey of data collection and specifically, fan opt-ins. From digital activations, app integrations, and ticketing data, Outside Lands has been successful in building a large audience of fans who have opted-in to SMS communication.
What did all this lead to? Their forward-thinking allowed the team to super-serve their most engaged fans in anticipation of a “sell-out” event year. Using the data collected, Outside Lands targeted specific fans, sending them a direct SMS to purchase single-day on-sale tickets. Given that the festival sold out their single-day tickets in 6 hours, this simple act of sending a direct message to purchase made them feel more ‘seen’ and built further loyalty. This just goes to show the power of data, and what a long-term data collection strategy can do.
8. Lollapalooza Tower - National Geographic Integration
We said that live music is making a comeback, and nothing exemplifies this more than one of the most iconic festivals in the world - Lollapalooza.
This year, however, Lollapalooza took UGC to the next level with this National Geographic-branded interactive tower! Hyped-up fans were able to show off their best poses, snap a selfie, and feature on the tower’s social board by sharing photos with "#lolla". Not only was Lolla effective in enhancing the festival experience with UGC, they did so while integrating their sponsor, National Geographic. We love this tower because it fits seamlessly into the fan experience while providing value & increasing the brand awareness of their sponsors in the process!
7. Life is Beautiful- Predict the Lineup
Life is Beautiful built out this gorgeous campaign to kick off their 2021 festival season. Through this “predict the lineup” campaign, they got a sense of the artists their fans would love to see, while simultaneously providing fans the opportunity to win VIP tickets. We loved this campaign because:
- It’s a fantastic way to build hype
- It increased their addressable audience, and uncovered interested ticket buyers to retarget in the future
- It helped the festival uncover their audience's musical taste
6. Summer Sounds- Wheel of Fortune
Building on the success of the Summer Sounds Festival in Adelaide, Secret Sounds kicked off the Melbourne leg of their concert series with a “Wheel of Fortune” that got fans excited. Alongside a visually stunning campaign, fans were treated to some truly fantastic prizing in exchange for some basic information. Not only was this campaign effective in building hype for their Melbourne leg, it was also effective in growing their subscriber list of fans wanting to hear the latest about the tour. We love this campaign because it’s a creative spin on the classic “sweepstakes” campaign, with an element of fan interaction. When they said “Spin it to Win it”, Summer Sounds meant it.
5. Coca Cola x Live Nation- “Share a Coke”
When looking at great sponsored campaigns, we loved this holiday bundle by Live Nation Canada. Slick, on-brand, and full of holiday spirit, this campaign leveraged fan engagement to drive awareness for their partners at Coca-Cola.
By entering the campaign, fans were given a chance to “Share a Coke” with one of their favourite artists, like Johnny Orlando, Haviah Mighty, or Carys. Live Nation Canada added an extra layer of engagement for fans, with a delightful holiday message from their artist of choice at the end of every entry.
This was a great way to drive value for sponsors, uncover which fans were super fans of each artist, all while creating a special holiday experience!
4. Life is Beautiful- VIP Sweepstakes
Life is Beautiful set the stage on fire with this VIP sweepstakes campaign. Leveraging the hype around their sold-out festival, the team created a great partnered campaign where fans had the chance to win two tickets to the sold-out festivals, thanks to Bacardi. Not only was this campaign a great way for Life is Beautiful to drive intel for their team and their partners at Bacardi, it also effectively paired a digital activation (and data collection) with their on-the-ground activation - The Bacardi Art Motel.
3. Maxo Kream- RSVP & Contest
Maxo Kream wanted to do something special to mark his return to his hometown, Houston, and a free live show did just the trick! Maxo Kream encouraged any fan interested in the show to sign up using a simple RSVP campaign, and in doing so, he built a ton of hype around the event all while collecting first-party data directly from his fans. Using this simple strategy, Maxo Kream’s team was able to effectively determine exactly who was in the venue that night to build up their addressable audience. As a result, Maxo has better insights into who his fans are and has uncovered a solid lead-base to remarket to for later shows.
2. Prime Social- DJ Bracket
Prime Social Group took center stage with this brilliant DJ Bracket Campaign. Their weekly face-off not only kept fans coming back, but was also incredibly effective in driving up anticipation around their upcoming Breakaway Festival. What’s truly impressive about this campaign, however, runs even deeper, and shows the strategic brilliance of the team at Prime Social.
The DJ Bracket Campaign fed into an ecosystem of data that was tracking who participated in the campaign for later remarking, fan affinity through Spotify Auth, the impact by the DJs entering, and how the campaign pushed fans to purchase. Beyond the affinity data they could get from the fans based on their votes & auth, Prime Social was also able to determine how much traffic each DJ was pushing to their campaign, and where most participants were from. We love this campaign, not only for its creative use but also because of its place in a much larger data strategy. Music to our ears!
1. Stiletto Entertainment - Where to Listen
When it comes to engaging with fans, Barry Manilow and his management company, Stiletto Entertainment, take the cake. We love the bird’s eye view their team takes when approaching any digital campaign, from ideation and execution through to the why and what of each campaign. Every campaign they run is positioned to ask for different pieces of information from fans, so they are consistently updating, matching, and enriching the data they have on their fans. One of our favourite campaigns from the team was the “Too Many Apps” survey - which uncovered some critical information about how and where to reach their fans.
Using a simple survey with prizing attached (to create ample incentive for their fans) Stiletto asked their most pressing questions, including themes around:
- How fans preferred to be communicated with (email, SMS, socials, etc)
- Which DSP fans used most often
- Where they could find their fans online
Based on their fans’ answers, they’re able to understand Barry’s fans and serve them exactly what they want, where they want it. Talk about thinking things through! Stiletto’s successes come from understanding the importance of bridging old data with new, and asking the right questions.