A highly creative company.
Festivals & Events. October 2010
With the festival season sadly over, this month's Insight Report looks at the key themes that have been present at festivals and events during 2010, to help you with planning for 2011. We've looked at the all-important event branding and how that translates into print and online. From an iconic identity to an information-packed website, we've picked out what we feel has worked best this year. We also look at the role of sponsorship and how brands are becoming more savvy to gain cut-through. As well as the events themselves, we've looked at the role technology is adding to the festival experience, as identified by our new Head of Digital at Studio Output. From apps to mobile charging equipment, companies are getting onboard to help answer the vital festival questions – including, “how do I find my tent?� A highly creative company.
What makes us different. We understand what is new, what is now and what is next. We translate this into inspired, relevant creative work across every medium for brands and companies.
A highly creative company.
Identity.
Big, bold, bright. This really sums up festival branding for 2010. This year more than ever colours had serious impact as festivals attempt to stand out in an already crowded market. From simple primary colours at The Big Chill to on-trend pastels at Lovebox and retro tones at SXSW, identity was bright and beautiful. The hand-drawn illustrative style was still seen at Bestival and The Big Chill, a way of expressing the friendly, family vibe and creative atmosphere. The overall style has become iconic, but is moved on and developed year on year. It's interesting to see the Bestival brand and how that has rolled out across the core festival and the more family-focused event. A simple, graphic style is used by Creamfields, in line with the electronic music played at the festival. It has a youthful feel which is on target with their audience. SXSW uses a 60s retro approach which is more mature, and a slightly muted colour scheme adds to that feel. The retro style is unsurprisingly evident in the Vintage at Goodwood branding. New on the festival scene, this taps into the current trend for 'austerity-chic', with a make do and mend creative design sensibility. Our own work for BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend and Thomas Cook's The Big Reunion (the UK's largest winter festival) recognises the importance of a strong and iconic logo 'lockup', giving strength, recognition and continuity to the identity across all executional platforms.
Festival Report. Identity.
A big challenge with the branding and event materials of any festival is how to show an increasingly sprawling line-up in an interesting and readable way. Making sure all promoters are happy with the size and positioning of their acts is always a consideration to challenge the designer.
Line-up.
With a broader offering at most festivals in the way of comedy, theatre and film, the challenge comes in how to split up this information to make it easier to digest. The Edinburgh Festival and SWSX code each different artform in colour, working across posters and online. Lovebox assigns a colour to each day, to help break up the communications. Giving each a day a different feel in terms of music also helps to differentiate the graphics. Vintage at Goodwood uses different fonts associated with the decades. These are the communications which work most effectively and have most standout. Bold typography also features in our work for 1Xtra Live – building on a new direction for the station, we have created a new fatter weight of the BBC Radio corporate typeface, Century Gothic. This has more impact and also appeals to a younger, street-savvy audience.
Festival Report. Line up.
We have seen the festival brand expressed through a vast range of merchandise this year. Consumers want more than just a poorly made lanyard and t-shirt as a souvenir, and the ethos of the festival has to roll out into the merchandise. The Big Chill t-shirts feature the illustrative style on good quality eco t-shirts. Lovebox and The Big Chill are also notable for their publications. Big Chill's guide was printed on uncoated stock and featured work from their bank of illustrators. As well as giving more detailed information on artists, this almost becomes a coffee table book. It's also a great chance for sponsorship opportunities from brands wanting to link themselves to the festival, another viable revenue stream.
Merchandise & collectables. Festival Report. Merchandise.
Lovebox take the publication even further, producing a magazine that is given away in the Evening Standard. As well as promoting the acts involved in the festival, it focuses on fashion and East London style. The brand new Vintage at Goodwood festival ticks all the boxes in terms of merchandise. Fantastic tote bags, t-shirts and posters were must buy items as a souvenir of the festival.
The eagerness of festival sponsors to impress a lasting memory of their products on punters has encouraged a trend for ingenious and diverse branded locations. With money behind them, sponsors can create something original and different, ensuring their products have exposure and are remembered. Spirits brands did it particularly well this year, as there is the obvious synergy between festivals and drinks. Monkey Shoulder had a particularly good presence at The Big Chill. The treehouse bar was interesting and well positioned, with a great view over the festival and had its own line-up of acts throughout the event. The brand was still very evident but fitted perfectly with the event. This was all backed up by a good website showing photos of the treehouse escapades.
Brand tie-ins.
Festival Report. Brand tie-ins.
Sailor Jerry's is another example of a good brand presence which fitted perfectly with the crowd. Their Ink City offered a tattoo parlour or temporary tattoos for the not so brave. This was memorable, tongue in cheek and again backed up by a great site. On another level Fairtrade partnered up with Bombas and Parr to create an installation that allowed guests to literally taste and inhale fresh fruit on a slide, to draw attention to the Fairtrade Fruit campaign.
Websites are information portals first and foremost; they are the first point of reference for someone thinking of attending an event and are the chance for the festival brand to come to life. This is an opportunity for photography, film, festival information and comment to be combined, so the overall impression is often an assault on the senses. The trend – as in previous years – is often for a modular site with taster information all easily viewed from the homepage. The overall impression is to show just how much is going on and giving a really good impression of the festival experience. Obviously social media is more and more important as a means of festival communication, building up excitement and loyalty. This seamlessly integrates into sites but also transfers the brand message onto the festival's Facebook, Twitter and YouTube pages.
Online presence. Festival Report. Online presence.
Vintage at Goodwood is notable for a first-time festival – when images of past successes can't be used, it managed to create a really exciting feel about the event before it happened.
Observations from our new Head of Digital, Dave McDougall. The appearance of mobile apps over the last two years provides much-needed handheld information. As well as being useful for listings, this has the advantage of making events more safe – including maps, information about lost & found and medical tents. Everything from real-time updates and weather information at festivals like Snowbombing, are invaluable.
Beyond the browser.
Festival Report. Going mobile.
Glastonbury’s GeoTag site allows festival-goers to tag themselves in a super high-resolution crowd shot taken at the festival, all connected through Facebook. What’s great is that by using Facebook Connect, crowd members can search out their friends, spreading the site organically through the Facebook community. Gliider allows you to keep all your web-based research in one place right from your browser tool bar. No more post it notes, print outs and tatty maps! We’re likely to be seeing more activity following the UK launch of Facebook Places. Extending the already popular location based social interaction we’ve been seeing with Foursquare and Gowalla, Places allows Facebookers to share where they are and what they’re doing right from a mobile. You can then see who’s nearby and share collaboratively.
As with everything, technology continues to make our festival experiences more interactive, more electric, more immediate.
Harnessing technology.
Festival Report. Harnessing technology.
Finding solutions for integrating technology into festivals, which are famously 'no frills', has also acted as a catalyst for innovation that could have implications for the wider world. The Burning Man festival in Nevada, known for its counter-culture and complete lack of attachment to the outside world, was always completely without mobile phone reception. However, OpenBTS has developed and been providing a pared down service to the 50,000 attendees for the last three years. With its low-power requirements this technology has the potential to bring mobile communication to people in impoverished and hostile environments all over the globe. Other technological solutions we saw this summer include welly boot phone chargers from Orange. Beyond of the world of mobile, cashless payments via a wristband have started to appear. This development is something the Croatian Garden Festival has previously done, with vouchers bought in advance to avoid festival attendees carrying cash.
The bottom line. Festival and event branding is at the core of the Studio Output offering. We work with some of the biggest brands in the UK on a rostered and project basis. From BBC Radio One Live in Nottingham in 2002 to Thomas Cook's Big Snow Festival in 2010, we've worked on branding, campaigns, print and digital. We know how to appeal to the festival-going public. We have an exciting, relevant way of working that delivers great results. Our understanding of the youth market ensures our work is always effective and fresh. We've sent you this as we'd really like to work with you. Please give Gemma a call if you'd like to discuss ideas for branding festivals and events in 2011. Gemma Ballinger Account Director Direct +44 020 7239 9273 gemma@studio-output.com
Studio Output / London Unit 5, The Piano Works 117 Farringdon Road London EC1R 3BX Tel +44 020 7239 9270 Fax +44 020 7239 9279 studio-output.com