How Social Media effects Promoting the Best Music/Entertainment Events By Holly Butler

Introduction Main focus on music events such as festivals/concerts Sponsorship Location Promotion Planning a successful event

Sponsorship Main reasons companies use sponsorship in their marketing strategy: increase brand awareness; create brand image; re-position the brand/product in the minds of consumers; increase profit over a short period; and achieve larger market share (Rowley, J. Williams, C. 2008, p ) Other reasons why companies might use sponsorship are to: eliminate any negative feelings that consumers may hold about the brand/company; and, suggest a connection between the event and the brand (Rowley, J. Williams, C. 2008, p.783).

But sponsorship can also have a negative effect on young people in association with alcohol When the events have alcohol companies sponsoring them it advertises for people who attend these events to consume alcohol at the festival (Google Image)

Location Important aspect to the success of an event. AEG Live came to Ireland to set up Winter Wonderland in Kilmainhem. It was inconvenient for customers because there was no parking. The company had no knowledge of Ireland as they came from the UK, which was why the event wasn’t successful. The main reason was for the location they chose. (Lynch, J. personal communication, 20 th November 2013) (Google Image)

Promotion Promotion is communicating with the public in an attempt to influence them toward buying your products and/or services (about.com) Social media outlets are a significant promotional vehicle and that there is potential for firms to use social media as an advertising agent (Okazaki, S & Taylor, C.R, 2013, p. 58) A study was conducted by the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and found that 73% of companies have a corporate account in Twitter and 66% have an account with Facebook (Okazaki, S & Taylor, C.R, 2013, p.56)

At the Billboard International conference they spoke about how social media is the direction of how companies are going to be advertising in the future (Lynch, J. personal communication, 20 th November 2013) Events such as concerts and festivals need social media to gain a wider audience. (Google Image)

Planning a Successful Event Take up to 12 months to organise. Look into the place, time, planning permission, local authority and ticket pricing. Lynch worked on British Summertime in Hyde Park, I found it interesting because it was a different type of festival. They wanted customers to have a different experience to regular festivals. (Lynch, J. personal communication, 20th November 2013) (Google Image)

They provided flushing toilets and created different themed tents for the different shops. They created cashless technology, with your ticket you receive a wristband that you put money onto before you get to the concert. When you need to buy a drink or food you just swipe your wristband instead of carrying money. The idea was to keep customers happy and to give them their moneys worth of the ticket they paid for. (Lynch, J. personal communication, 20th November 2013)

References Lynch, J. personal communication, 20 th November 2013 Rowley, J. William, C. (2008) The impact of brand sponsorship of music festivals [Emerald] Marketing Intelligence & Planning, Vol. 26 No. 7. Pages Okazaki, S & Taylor, C.R. (2013) Social Media and International Advertising: Theoretical challenges and future decisions [Emerald] International Marketing Review Vol 30, pages 56-71