Access All Areas November 2019 | Page 11

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. 11