For a lot of us, of all of the things that are set to make 2020 memorable, the festival calendar ranks somewhere near the top of the list. But if you’re organising your own festival for this year, simply copying what other successful festivals seem to do might not be enough to ensure as many people as possible attend your event and give it rave reviews.
Indeed, knowing how to appropriately brand and market your festival, on its own terms, could make a massive difference to its chances. So, here are some of the steps that we would advise you to take.
Before anything else... be clear about your audience
When you’re considering the branding and marketing of your festival, it can be so easy to look to the ‘glamorous’ aspects first, like designing the logo and coming up with a name for the event. But your festival could end up being very poorly targeted if you don’t even know what kind of people you should be targeting in the first place.
It’s not enough to just say you want every demographic to attend your festival, not least as it’s almost guaranteed that you will be able to narrow down the kinds of people you would like to attract, if you simply take some time to think about it.
Are you looking to lure young ravers, for example, or old hippies? Will your festival be ‘high art’, or aimed at more of a ‘pop’ audience? Would foodies appreciate what your event has to offer? These are the questions to ask yourself at the very earliest stage of festival preparation.
Then, you can start thinking about things like a name and logo
Even if you already have a name in mind for your festival, it’s well worth considering whether it still makes sense in light of your answers to the aforementioned questions.
Then, there are the further questions to ask yourself, specifically about the name and logo – such as whether they are likely to strike a chord with your target audience when they see these elements on a promotional poster or even T-shirt.
Often, effective branding is about simplicity and the ability to instantly stand out from a crowd – and the situation’s scarcely any different when it comes to your festival’s name and logo.
Now, consider how you’ll be spreading the word
We mentioned posters above, and depending on how you spend your marketing budget, you may also be putting that name, logo and the associated graphics and colours on flyers, a dedicated website, Twitter profile... you name it, these crucial branding elements might well be on it.
Think, too, about the tone of voice that will be most appropriate for the audience you’re targeting – if your festival attendees are likely to be 40-somethings and 50-somethings, for example, Millennial and Generation Z lingo and memes are likely to send a confusing message.
Oh, and give some thought to how your branding will work with the associated merchandise too, which could encompass everything from pens and wristbands to the kind of dedicated reusable festival cups we can produce for you here at Branded Cups.
Remember that the exact merchandise you choose to offer can also go a long way to communicating certain things about your event’s values.
If, for instance, your festival emphasises such things as sustainability and being gentler to our planet, reusable festival cups like our one-colour screen printed, full colour digital printed and/or full colour label printed options really ought to be regarded as essential.
Contact Branded Cups now, in fact, and we can have the
conversation with you about getting your festival cups right that will enable
you to make the branding and marketing of your event key factors in its
ultimate success. From every member of our team, have a very happy New
Year!
