Dropping the Ball on Branding

With the increasingly popular music festivals like Govenor's Ball on Randall's Island, brands are able to reach a new segment of consumers with exciting and unique ideas!

Governor's Ball Music Festival

Though this wasn't the largest of music festivals, it still presented a unique environment for brands to embrace the crowds. Governor's Ball brought "22 1/2 hours of music to Randall's Island on Saturday and Sunday [and] was relatively modest as festivals go: about 21,000 people each day." (Source) 

With music festivals like Governor's Ball, Stagecoach, Coachella, and many more taking place all over the world, a new market for brands has been created. Featuring many different sponsors, Governor's Ball used new and creative ways to attract consumers to both newer and already well known brands. Examples of brands using the music festival's to their advantage over the June 7-9th weekend included:

Blu Electronic Cigarettes: Recently trending are electronic cigarettes. Blu e-Cigs sponsored one of the coolest set ups at the festival, the Vapor Lounge. At the Vapor Lounge, guests were invited to stop in to use device charging stations, use social media photo booths, and even try out and sample Blu's latest products. The Vapor Lounge also featured surprise guest appearances throughout the festival- something sure to get people's attention. Blu used ticket give aways prior to the music festival in order to redirect traffic to their websites and product locations ahead of time. This was a large sponsorship for this up and coming brand and it will certainly add to their recent success.


Camelbak: Being pretty well known for their reusable water bottles, they sponsored Governor's Ball in a big way. Concerts are infamous for their overpriced food and drinks. With that said, 
Camelbak embraced the opportunity to provide thousands of people with free water. They provided 8 refillable water stations for festival-goers to rehydrate. Additionally, they promoted an environmentally friendly way to drink water, which has a growing appeal amongst consumers. 

Onomonomedia: On the rise with their event photo booths is Onomonomedia. Their innovative photo booths specialize in uploading pictures straight to social media websites like FaceBook and Twitter. You are also able to share your photos via email to ensure you don't forget that fun or special moment. At Governor's Ball they placed two of their photo booths for the fun and wild fans to remember their time well spent. 

Sennheiser: A growing, premium audio company set up "The Silent Disco" for those at the Governor's Ball to enjoy. "The Silent Disco" allowed music fans to put on high quality, wireless headphones and listen in to the different DJs from afar. Whether you needed a break from the crowded stages or wanted to chat with friends and check in on the performances frequently, they created a unique way to advertise their advancing products.

Other brands responsible for similar sponsorships in the few past years include: Pop Up Yoga NYC, Hi-Chew, Skyy Vodka, Ben & Jerry's, Yelp, Pop Chips, Zia Records, Toyota, Budlight, Barefoot Wine & Bubbly, and many others.

Along with these activities and sponsorships, these festivals usually operate high activity websites, where your brand, if featured, will receive a lot of publicity.

Sponsorships like these allow brands to be seen by thousands of people, usually of massive diversity, in a short period of time. It can often increase their sales and popularity rather quickly, giving brands a large incentive to participate in events like this. If your brand wants to associate with a favorite genre of music, say country for example, saddle up and prep an event for Stagecoach or the CMA Music Festival.