For decades, since the core business model of music shifted from record sales and ‘tastemaker’ endorsements to agenda-setting and influencing, a none-too-amicable relationship has existed between music producers and advertisers.
Music purists have assumed the position that allowing brands entry into the creative world of music can force artists to sound and message for a profit. It could even impact on the likeliness of newcomers to garner commercial success, making it more difficult to sustain their artistry.
It has also been argued that a relationship between band and brand could impact heavily on the creation of a counter-culture whose existence, once it reaches high levels of mainstream popularity, becomes obsolete.
However, the production of music depends on profit and in an industry that offers artists very little bank on sales alone, brand advocacy and advertising becomes the saving grace.
Nowadays, the question is no longer ‘can brands and bands coexist’ but, rather, ‘how can they get along’.
Splendour in Sales
Splendour in the Grass is an Australian music festival, set on the picturesque banks of Byron Bay in New South Wales. Since its inception in 2001, it has provided a platform for music’s global headliners and newcomers to leave their mark on a 30 000 strong audience.
“Splendour is a cultural right of passage for young Aussies,” says Marketing Manager for alcohol giant Diageo, Dan Bitti.
Year-on-year, ticket sales have increased, creating furtive ground for brands to tap into and disseminate their message.
“What makes it important for us, in particular Smirnoff, is that we’re a big, mainstream brand and it gets harder, year after year, due to channel diversification,” Bitti says. “There’s more and more messages out there and it becomes really hard to cut through the noise. Splendour gives us that chance.”
And, according to Splendour co-owner Jessica Ducrou, the relationship isn’t only one that gears towards the needs of brands. Rather, it is one of mutual benefit.
“Festivals are a very difficult area to make a living from,” she says. “There’s not a lot of margin in it. Brand involvement is paramount to the success of a festival, financially.”
Nonetheless, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the music industry, along its festival byproducts, will willingly cater to advertising’s every whim. Rather, the exchange should be considered reciprocal.
“The festival audiences have changed a lot and they’re not as offended by advertising as they used to be,” Ducrou says. “But there’s still a constant battle and we’ll always push back with what we’ll do in the hope that the end result is a credible experience.”
That is, advertisers need to move away from forceful promotion and seek a means to value add to both event and industry.
“If you go back to the very early days of festivals, of which I was a part of, the way they used to connect with the audience was with the girls in bikinis handing out samples or lazing over revved up cars,” she says. “We’ve moved on from that place which, we felt, was one dimensional. We now work with brands to offer the audience a great experience that adds value for us.”
Keeping it Real
Rimmel London at Splendour (Image: Supplied by Splendour in the Grass).
Kristy Rosser, Director of Secret Sounds Connect, an Australian music rights management agency that works with Splendour on its on-site brand activation campaigns, believes the way to value add is to communicate authentically with the audience.
“It’s not enough to gain exposure,” she says. “Content needs to be engaging, entertaining and on-tone, and the experiences need to be immersive and exciting.”
More specifically, for any campaign to be successful, particularly within the parameters of a festival, it needs to resonate with the audience and add to their experience, not go against it.
“What the brands are doing at festivals nowadays, is providing an extra experience for the audience,” Rosser says. “By doing so, they’re providing a better experience and presenting in a way that people can enjoy and aren’t turned off by brand presence.”
Hamburger franchise, Grill'd at Splendour in the Grass. (Image: Supplied by Splendour).
This year, beauty brand Rimmel London took to offering punters a makeover, Aveda washed and blowdried hair as a means to wash the festival out the strands of those spending hours on its grounds. Optus,the festival’s official telecommunications sponsor created a virtual reality content series that followed Australian hip hop artist, Illy as he prepared to perform at the festival. Diageo, on the other hand, offered the Smirnoff House, an all-night party experience, flanked with a generous bar and a procession of entertainment.
“Brands should think of creating a world within a world when it comes to festivals,” Bitti says, “Give the audience something to take away. Consumers are savvier, they clock onto it a lot quicker nowadays. You have to ride the culture, not go against it.”
And while the last of the festival trickles away from the shores of Byron, both festival owner and brand hope that the audience has taken a message away with them, one of witnessing their favourite acts live. The other? A myriad of experiences brands offered during the wild weekend of sound and sight.
