Strategic Sponsorship: Winning in the World of Music Festivals
- March 27, 2024
- SponsorPusle Staff
Let’s Dive into the Music Festival Sponsorship Data
Audience Engagement Across Festivals
While Coachella leads the pack (more on that later), other festivals also boast significant engagement numbers at a national level. The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival engaged 32% of Americans over the past year, with more than 1 in 5 excited for the festival. Lollapalooza, another major player, engaged 33% of Americans in the past year, 30% excited.
These festivals, among others including the likes of Bonnaroo and Stagecoach, engage consumers across the country and perform even stronger within the state they're hosted in. Bonnaroo engages 34% of Tennessee residents, with 30% reporting excitement about the festival, while California's Country Music Festival Stagecoach engages 35%, with 23% expressing excitement.
These statistics reveal a healthy appetite for festival experiences across the board, with each event drawing its unique audience—from the contemporary jazz aficionados in New Orleans, to the indie music devotees who go all out for Lolla.
Coachella: A League of Its Own
An undeniable icon in the festival space: Coachella is the place to be for music lovers every spring. SponsorPulse data is clear: Coachella is the top-performing music festival in the country, even outpacing certain music award media properties. An impressive 36% of Americans have engaged with Coachella in the past year—that’s 76.89M people! Furthermore, 29% of those engaged do so on a weekly basis, and 36% are understandably excited about the property.
You may be thinking—how can consumers engage weekly with a twice annual music festival? The reality is, Coachella is among several festivals who have invested in developing rich content experiences for music lovers to engage with year round, and it’s paying off. At the end of the day, these figures highlight Coachella's unparalleled reach and the vibrant engagement it fosters among its audience.
The Coachella Audience
The most engaged segments of Coachella's audience, as revealed by our data, offer insights into the demographics that brands can effectively reach through sponsoring the festival. So who exactly makes up the vibrant Coachella crowd?
Analyzing the festival, it’s clear that the target audience is young. The top two consumer age groups engaging with the festival are those aged 19-24 and 13-18, with 49% and 48% of people within those age groups engaging with the festival once or more throughout the past year. The audience provides brands significant opportunity to reach these high value age segments.
When it comes to gender, the Coachella audience leans male. Across ethnic groups, 48% of African Americans, and 42% of Hispanics engage with the festival. These two ethnicities over index with the festival relative to its overall engagement.
Coachella also resonates significantly with those identifying as LGBTQ+, with 42% of those who identify engaging with the festival, and among them 42% are excited about the festival. This diverse demographic profile underscores Coachella's broad appeal and the opportunity it presents for brands to connect with varied consumer groups.
Deep Dive: Beverage Sponsorship Opportunities
Beverages are a key seller at music festivals and Coachella is no exception. When you factor Indio’s desert sun with dancing attendees—it appears a no-brainer that real opportunity exists for beverage brands looking to partner with the festival. But how to best capture the attention of your target audience amidst fierce competition? Let’s first review the data to determine the beverage category with the highest likelihood to convert.
Among the most prevalent consumer beverage categories, a significant 65% who have purchased non-alcoholic beer also engage with Coachella. This indicates a growing interest in healthier, non-alcoholic beverage options among festival-goers. Other popular choices include whiskey, rye, or scotch (53%), energy drinks (50%), vodka (47%), and sports drinks (46%). These preferences not only reflect the diverse tastes of the Coachella audience but also point to the various avenues through which beverage brands can engage with festival-goers.
With the evident demand for non-alcoholic beer options, let’s imagine you’re a brand in that sector looking to make a splash by sponsoring Coachella. Understanding that your main beverage competitor, alcohol, is dehydrating, and factoring in the blazing desert heat, you might wish to run refreshment-focused activation tents across the festival that help attendees beat the heat without sacrificing the hoppy beer taste they know and love. Your activation would feature branded tents filled with misting machines and barrels of ice stocking complimentary non-alcoholic beer cans—the exclusive flavor you’re launching in collaboration with Coachella itself.
Alternatively, a similar approach could be taken for a sports drink brand, with a messaging emphasis on replenishing attendees electrolytes and staying hydrated under the California sun. This route would position your brand at the forefront of health-conscious consumption among a captivated young audience.
Get Strategic with SponsorPulse
At SponsorPulse, we leverage consumer data to accelerate your journey towards making impactful sponsorship decisions. Create your free account today to get started!