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Summer’s over… but now is the perfect time to start planning your 2025 festival sponsorship strategy
From Leeds to Latitude, Bestival to Boardmasters, the UK is home to the world’s most-loved summer festivals. Whether its Glastonbury that gets your toes tapping or Isle of Wight that puts a song in your heart, there’s no question that the sector offers a huge array of sponsorship opportunities for brands of all shapes and sizes.
Summer 2024’s roll call of festival sponsors underlines the point, with high-profile brand partners including Vodafone, JD Sports, Co-op, L’Oreal, Uber and Land Rover Defender among others. But as with all areas of sponsorship there are sector-specific nuances that need to be taken into account. Here are a few factors brands need to consider if they want to get the best out of this dynamic and constantly-evolving arena.
Check who’s conducting affairs: Large sections of the UK festival business are controlled by a few key players, with Live Nation, Superstruct and AEG at the top of the pile. Some independent players are concerned about too much concentration of power in the sector, but from a brand perspective a major plus point is that it creates opportunities for sponsorship activity across multiple events. For example, PepsiCo-backed Rockstar Energy Drink has a deal with Live Nation that encompasses six leading UK festivals – Parklife, Wireless, TRNSMT, Reading, Leeds, and Creamfields. For brands that would rather not work with the industry heavyweights, it’s worth contacting the Association of Independent Festivals or visiting their annual Congress.
Pitch your involvement at the right level: Festivals offer a multitude of ways for brands to get involved, so it’s important for brands to work out what level of investment will meet their objectives. At the top end, there are title sponsorship opportunities along the lines of American Express presents BST Hyde Park. But several events also allow brands to sponsor individual stages (eg the L’Oreal stage at All Points East). Official supplier partnerships, (eg Three and Latitude), corporate hospitality events, retail outlets, and all manner of bespoke brand experiences can be found within the ambit of festival real estate. Co-op, for example, has carved out a niche by creating pop-up stores that offer festival weekend essentials such as beers, lunch meal deals, iced coffee, emergency sun cream, fresh fruit, snacks and drinks.
Stay in tune with the audience: The festival market skews young, which means brands must have a presence across social media. The vast majority of festival goers create their own content at events, so sponsors need to try and be part of this narrative. Brands that strike an authentic tone and make it easy for festival-goers to tag their business will generate more meaningful engagement. One option is to sign up on the ground influencers who can drip feed brand messages to their fans.
Hold the high note as long as you can: Summer festivals only last a few days at most, so it’s vital for brands to create methods of engagement before and after the event. Easy options pre-event include ticket giveaways – perhaps in the form of radio competitions or on-pack promotions. As referenced above, creating a content strategy is a way of extending the partnership’s shelf-life beyond the festival. More ambitious solutions could be to sponsor several events across the course of festival season. Brands need to get as close as they can to the consumer journey – from the moment they decide to go via the planning phase right through to the afterglow.
Don’t strike the wrong chord: The Gen Z’s and millennials that make up the festival audience have strong opinions about brands – so it’s important to test the temperature of opinion before making a serious financial commitment. It goes without saying, for example, that good ESG credentials are vital. For example, Leeds Festival travel partner, Big Green Coach, offers carbon-neutral coach returns to the festival gates. Brands also need to consider whether there is any social or political issue that might scupper their activation plans. Barclays, for example, was forced to suspend sponsorship of all Live Nation festivals for 2024 after protests from bands and fans over the bank providing financial services to defence companies supplying Israel.
Beware competing harmonies: Sponsors that partner music festivals need to keep in mind they are competing for voice with a lot of other brands and a myriad of rival activities. Not only are there other festivals, but summer is always crammed with high-profile sports events. Then there are flagship events such as the Notting Hill Carnival, Edinburgh Festival and Pride London. With so much competitive clutter, brands need to ensure that they have a clear rationale and distinctive creative execution.
Final Thought – Let fans call the tune
Above all, keep in mind that festivals are often the most important (and expensive) social event of the year for fans – so they will not forgive brands that try to hijack their experience. The summer festival is a scenario where brands have to put fans first – meeting their needs rather than trying to overwhelm them with unwanted and overblown brand activations. At the same time, it is important to be agile. A rainy/stormy weekend, traffic hold ups, an unpredictable band…there are plenty of factors out of everyone’s control – which means brands have to be ready to improvise.
Interested in entering the UK Sponsorship Awards? The 2025 edition of this prestigious annual event is now open for entries. For festival sponsors, there is a dedicated category for Live Entertainment & Event Sponsorship. Visit the UKSA website for more details.
