A captive audience, detailed attendance profiles and thousands of people simply itching to have fun – festivals are the perfect opportunity for a brand experience. In fact, this summer we’re launching the UK’s first pop-up festival beauty experience, All Out Beauty, where festivalgoers can receive beauty treatments, refine their festival look and interact with some of the nation’s favourite beauty and fashion brands.
As festival season 2018 gets under way, we’re excited to see what new experiences brands are bringing to festivals around the world. Here are four that caught our eye recently.
1. Empowering connections.
Bumble, the dating app where women make the first move, hosted this massive activation at South By Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas, bringing to life the services of the app, which focuses on making real-life connections.
A mini-golf course was the setting for speed dates and networking opportunities, and guests shared their chat-up lines on a blackboard. The activation also hosted a calendar of live events, including inspirational speakers and musical performances.
2. HBO’s Westworld
Another hit at SXSW was HBO’s recreation of the immersive theme park from its television show Westworld. Attendees were taken by bus to a secret location, where they experienced an activation of breath-taking scale and ambition. A crew of 40 worked for 5 weeks before SXSW on the construction work alone – never mind the design and creative. To complete the experience, a team of 60 actors, guided by a 440-page script, moved through the park engaging with visitors.
3. Cold-brew cool-down.
The brand experience created by Peet's Coffee at Coachella neatly brought together product messaging (cold-brew coffee) with an experience tailored perfectly to the sweltering location. The branded bus doubled as an 'ice sauna', where festivalgoers could escape from the heat temporarily, as well as posing for a commemorative photo.
4. Festival beauty tent.
We were especially interested to read about cosmetics retailer Sephora’s beauty tent at Coachella, where festivalgoers had access to a range of free styling services. Fitting the tent with air conditioning was, again, a simple but effective way to increase dwell time in the sweltering California heat.
This summer, our All Out Beauty activation will be the first multi-brand beauty activation in the UK. We're really excited to join forces with some of the top beauty brands to support festivalgoers in creating their own unique festival look.
Image sources: Bizbash, Business Insider, Time Out
