Isn’t it great to see the sun again! People are outside – gardening, walking, even camping – and this brings our thoughts quickly round to this year’s festival season which will soon be upon us. Festivals offer a unique opportunity for businesses to get their names known and to get to know their customers. So what must you do to get your business festival-ready?
If 2025 is the year you plan to dip your toe into festival marketing, fear not. The festival crowds are a happy bunch and will welcome you with open arms. You will need to conduct the usual market research of course to ensure that your products align with the philosophy and preferences of the festival attendees you are targeting then package them well to ensure they survive the festival. Don’t forget, there is a stark difference between storing products in a tent in a wet, muddy field for 3 days and simply carrying them home on the bus immediately after purchase.
Getting Ready for Festival Season
1. Mind Over Matter
To start your planning, first get yourself into the mindset of a festival-goer. Really imagine you’re there, moshing to the music and meeting new people. Consider the elements, the catering, the clothing and the clientele when designing your stand. Think of what you will need to buy or rent to prepare for the occasion.
Gazebos are great as they offer shade and shelter, protect your products from inclement weather and can be personalised with your logo to make sure you stand out from the crowd. You may need a coolbox to store food and drink for your staff, and they will need clothing and lanyards that clearly identify them as your brand representatives.
2. Select Your Products
Where possible, try and select products that will survive and enhance the festival experience. If you have a broad product range, focus in on the smaller, lighter, portable and robust offerings that will survive a festival. There is little that will extinguish a customer’s spark for your brand more than buying something only to see it damaged before they leave to go home.
Consider stocking link-sell items such as solar powered phone chargers, microfibre towels, sun cream and reusable bags to encourage customers to spend. Branded clothing will always sell well at festivals as festival-goers’ wardrobes typically run short sooner than they expect when faced with foam parties, melting ice creams and mud.
3. Offer a Safekeeping Service
Businesses can make good money at festivals by safely storing customers’ personal items and valuables for them. These need not only be items purchased from you, but things they bring with them from home or purchase from other stallholders. Offering a secure lockup facility can increase your brand visibility and boost your reputation.
4. Choose the Right Staff
Your staff will need to mingle and mix with the festival-goers, so choose staff of a similar demographic to your customer base and who will be able to gel easily with them, sharing their love of the music, the environment and the ethos of the festival. When your staff have the power to create shared connections, they will attract customers back time and time again, and this is great for business.
5. Offer Promotional Items and Freebies.
While an eye-catching gazebo and outgoing, friendly staff will attract customers to you, nothing gets tongues flapping like a great freebie or promotion. Word of mouth recommendations fly around festivals at the speed of sound (literally!), and with a captive audience on site, you can see footfall increase massively simply by offering a desirable promotion or freebie. Consider printing your logo onto a glow-in-the-dark wristband, along with the name and date of the festival, to create a lasting memento. Bags, sunglasses, umbrellas, sweatbands and water bottles are other popular festival items which can easily be personalised with your business logo and the festival’s name and date.
6. Be an Event Sponsor
Either as well as or in addition to having a physical presence at the festival, becoming an event sponsor is a great way to raise your brand’s visibility among its attendees, as your logo will be included in all of the festival’s marketing material, adverts, event programmes and on-site displays. The cost of sponsoring an event is usually recouped quickly through increased sales during and shortly after the festival.
In conclusion, there are many things you will need to do to prepare for your first festival season. If you are a seasoned festival-goer, hopefully, the above list will serve as a useful refresher. We hope you have a successful festival season and look forward to helping you with any promotional material and products that you may need.
