NOVEMBER | THE COLUMNISTS
Access’ Columnists
this month have a
US-slant, examining
the country’s event
strategies and
challenges ...
Helping US focus All secure?
Alex Jukes, director, Jukebox PR FestForum founders Laurie Kirby
and Stuart MacNaught
After establishing itself in
the UK and Europe, Jukebox is
expanding internationally. Europe
has long been at the sharp end of
the underground festival scene
and Jukebox PR has been a partner
for many of the biggest events, but
there was a shift happening – these
events were looking Stateside.
Specific to the North American
market, these include elrow USA,
SXM Festival, Heart Festival, Esto
Es Tulum, Electric Zoo, DiskoLab,
National Hotel Miami, Groove
Island and many more.
The challenges have been around
understanding the nuances of the
US market and getting an event’s
message across, with engaging
content that will connect with the
target demographic.
Despite the online boom, the US
still values offline, print and radio,
and many overlook these mediums.
Meanwhile, positioning festivals
in the minds of social influencers
and lifestyle and travel press has
required brainstorming with
pioneers of the US scene.
Our brand partnerships with
radio stations and streaming
platforms with a global reach into
the hundreds of thousands has been
instrumental in understanding the
shifts in consumer behaviour.
Events with a few hundred
visitors, to ones with a few hundred
share commonalities and audience
touch points. It’s an exciting time.
Since the horrific night of 1 October,
2017 when the Route 91 Harvest
Music Festival in Las Vegas, Nevada
became the deadliest mass shooting
in US history, festival producers
have been contemplating security
measures. On a July weekend this
past Summer, four more deaths
occurred at the Gilroy Garlic
festival in California, and across
the US, an attendee was killed at an
‘Old Timers’ neighborhood music
festival in Brooklyn, New York.
It is not a matter of if but when
the next attack at a festival will take
place. One way to ensure a strategic
path forward is by getting industry
experts together in the same
space. Hundreds of the top North
American festival producers gather
every November at B2B thought
leadership forum, ‘FestForums’, in
Santa Barbara to analyse, strategise,
and collaborate.
For five years, the biannual
FestForums conferences have
pursued a desire to forge alliances
between festival producers in food,
beverage, music and film,
FestForums conferences
host panels, presentations,
keynotes, a booming exhibition
hall, networking parties, private
concerts, and an industry award
show. The events are held in April
in San Francisco at the Regency
Center and in November at the
Hilton Santa Barbara Beachfront..
Emotive thinking
Tom Lovegrove, head of
planning at marketing services,
Wasserman
Brands need to switch from
analysing consumers in terms of
demographics and concentrate
on their emotional behaviours.
We’re starting to see a convergence
between consumers on both
sides of the Atlantic. Consumers
are demanding that brands are
more truthful and authentic, and
there is also an expectation that
they behave far more ethically
across a range of issues including
the sourcing of raw materials,
environmental impact and fair
working practices.
Having said that, there are
still clear differences when you
deliver activations for UK and
US consumers. Research from
VisualDNA, has shown that US
consumers are more likely to be
responsive to emotive campaigns,
and less concerned with price
points than the average Brit. The
British are more likely to be idea
seekers - they are more practical
than emotional, and are this more
likely to respond to simple, fact-
based campaigns.
Wasserman has a range of
consumer insight tools at our
disposal. These include globally
syndicated consumer panels, the
latest trend reports and Unlock,
our proprietary social audience
platform provides data across more
than 330m social profiles.
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