They also have to find a way to stretch their festival in time so that a sponsor can use the communicational theme better during the year. It is no longer enough running commercial activities only the month before the festival and maybe a week after. These two musts go hand in hand – if you know what your audience is passionate about (besides the festival) you most certainly will find ways to prolong the festival theme over the year connecting with these passions.

Sponsors: The festivals’ sponsors also have to improve. The most important thing – that we and many others in the sponsorship business have emphasized before – is the leverage of the projects. A sponsorship is nothing without a good leverage. But this is common knowledge these days, or…? More interesting is therefore to look upon how sponsors do activate their investments in sponsorships.

Most companies still choose to leverage their sponsorships simply by showing, demonstrate and at site sell their products and/or services. This is one type of leveraging. But it’s not the way that we would recommend to reach successful results if you want something more than just flogging stuff. If a sponsor really shall be able to reach through to the audience, and start a relationship with them, it’s crucial that they show that they share the audience’s passion and help out in boosting the target groups’ experiences. And that has to be done in a relevant and authentic way. Can you on site deliver an enhanced experience by solving a relevant problem for the target group, they will automatically engage in the sponsor – instead of feeling disturbed – when consuming their experience. If the companies want to have the target groups’ full attention, they really have to give them the same attention.

But how do you succeed?
Let us first give you some classical examples from Hultsfred (one of Sweden’s biggest rock festivals with 25 years of history):

A couple of years ago Unilever identified the problem of keeping yourself clean during the days at the festival. They then put up showers and washing machines to use for the visitors – everything supported with suitable Unilever products of course. This was a simple activity that started a relation with young target groups and learned them to use the brands in a natural way.