Festival goers at Splendour in the Grass enjoyed a stacked line up of live music, art and a record amount of brand activations.
Behind the partnerships is festival marketing company Secret Sounds Connect which across the festival’s three days brought to life dozens of activations from returning brands — such as Red Bull, Smirnoff, Byron Bay Brewery, Rimmel and Platypus — as well as Garnier, Modibodi and Casamigos Tequila joining for the first time.
The benefit for brands? Activations at festivals form long-term audience attention and deep engagement with the 40,000 attendees, says Kristy Rosser founder and managing director at Secret Sounds Connect.
Secret Sounds Connect works as a full service creative agency across strategy, creative execution and talent acquisition, but they also work with agencies as part of the overall campaign.
“Sometimes a client may want to work with us just to access our festival, that's great, but if a partner needs more from us we’re a turnkey solution for them,” Rosser said.
For example, Secret Sounds Connect worked with Smirnoff’s global agency McCann to bring to life their Splendour in the Grass campaign.
Beverage company Diageo, owner of vodka brand Smirnoff, has partnered with Splendour in the Grass for 18 years, with this year hosting a double storey bar named Smirnoff seltzer springs and extending its sponsorships with Casamigos tequila.
“We're seeing big trends around margaritas, so for the first time we presented a tequila activation inside the festival - it's a great drink to be enjoyed in the sunshine,” Rosser said.
Since Splendour is technically a four day camping festival audiences are engaged with what’s around them, allowing brands to spend a lot of time with the festival goers through their activations.
“It’s all about passion point marketing, aligning brands with interests, and because music is the number one passion point for this generation, showing up as part of music culture demonstrates a powerful affinity between the brand and the audience,” Rosser said.
“Everyone attendee remembers their Splendour in the Grass and they remember the brands that are part of that experience. Especially post-covid fans really crave connectedness.”
Agencies lean off the back of Secret Sounds Connect's independent fan base research to ensure the festival activations specifically cater to their music lover audience.
For example, a recent agency study found that Gen Z is prioritising their health over having a good time, and most are seeking healthy hedonism (pleasure in a more mindful way).
“Typically the role of brands in our festivals is to create something that enhances a fan experience. Modibodi is a great example because festival goers can buy their product as well as use a premium toilet,” Rosser said.
Festivals hold a lot of emphasis around getting ready and expressing ones-self, allowing great opportunities for beauty and fashion brands to show up.
“Garnier did hair styling and Rimmel did makeup touch ups, which all makes the 15,000 people camping feel really looked after by the brands facilitating that experience.”
There's also great storytelling opportunities at a festival, “we've got an incredible activation with Red Bull which takes attendees through a flying experience to Mexico,” Rosser said.
“That was part of a global creative brief for Red Bull unforeseen which is a ‘seek and you shall find’ discovery program. We launched that for the first time globally at Splendour in the Grass last year and returned this year.”
Beyond RedBull many QSR brands find success at Splendour. From a snack company handing out free snacks, Chatime having three pop-ups across the site and Boost Juice on ground as well.
"We like to think about Festivals as a mini city for 40,000 people for four days so we need to make sure they have everything they need - so there's a lot of opportunity for brands to play a role in providing for that audience,” Rosser said.
Secret Sounds Connect also offers off-ground advertising opportunities such as in the ticketing process. Live Nation has ticket access partners like Vodafone, who offer the first chance to buy concert tickets. Foxtel also has partnership with reserved ticket allocations.
To ensure maximum audience attention Secret Sounds Connect also focuses on advertising the brands beyond just the festival ground by capturing content pre, during and post festival to share through a multi channel program.
Despite festivals being well catered to an 18 to 24 year old demographic, there's a demographic of music lovers that are a little bit older and more affluent attending.
And typically the older demographic gravitate towards the more premium experiences such as VIP tickets and more expensive drinks during the festival.
Beyond Splendour, Secret Sounds Connect organises partnerships with single day festivals Spilt Milk, Harvest Rock, Spin Off, Heaps Good and four-day Falls Festival. Each festival has an audience of around 30,000-50,000 attendees for brands to captivate.
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