Will Dowdy
VP Global Partnerships
Music matters to people. When the world around us seems to get bleaker each day (I’ve given up opening X or watching Channel 4 News!) music is often the escape. And people want to ‘be there’ sharing in it.
With that in mind it’s no wonder the live music industry performed at its very best in 2024 and truly solidified its place as a dominant force in entertainment. We saw some record-breaking tours from global stars across multiple genres and a strong presence of internationally renowned acts gracing our European festival stages.
This success has not only driven extraordinary ticket sales and audience engagement, it has also intensified brand interest in sponsorships and partnerships, as marketers increasingly recognize the unique opportunity of ‘being there’, in the moment and connecting with passionate fans.
Rising demand, new market entrants
With marketers prioritising more and more investment in live events, we saw demand continue to grow across our burgeoning festival portfolio, from existing partners looking to renew or expand their partnerships with us, as well as fresh interest from a range of new partners across a wide variety of categories.
While legacy sponsors from the drinks, finance and telecoms industries remained key players, 2024 saw a much broader variety of categories entering the space than we’ve seen before. Brands spanning beauty, fashion and electric-automotive companies all began investing in festival partnerships to build emotional connections with music lovers.
Additionally, we saw a rise in fast-growth businesses and category ‘disruptors’ exploring festival partnerships for the first time, including ride-share apps and gaming companies, as a means to engage with younger audiences and tastemakers and gain traction with those who are really driving cultural trends.
Deeper integration into marketing strategies
In 2024, we also saw partnerships become more seamlessly woven into a brand’s broader marketing strategy with clear objectives to connect with fans on issues that are important or resonate with them. Brands join our festivals and live events to champion everything from environmental, social and governance interests (ESG), to diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) initiatives, as well as loyalty, audience engagement and much more.
Where more ‘traditional’ tactics or a heavy reliance on social media may have taken the lead in previous years, L’Oréal Paris used festivals as its key communication channel to promote its hugely inspiring ‘Stand Up’ campaign, which calls out street harassment.
Similarly, where automotive brands used to focus their marketing campaigns on TV or sport sponsorships, electric vehicles are capitalising on the opportunity to engage directly with a progressive and open-minded audience at festivals and are baking this into their core strategies, with CUPRA at All Points East and Volvo at Eden Sessions to name but two.
The rise of interactive and immersive activations
The use of cutting-edge technology to enhance fan engagement also advanced dramatically in 2024. At AEG Europe, tools like AXS’s digital platforms provide a seamless, personalised ticketing experience for fans, with quality content that can be intelligently targeted so that we can communicate with fans before, during and after an event.
This not only aids the fan experience, it bolsters the longevity of our partnerships, providing even more touchpoints to connect with the audience. One example of a brand that expertly utilised these advancements to its advantage is Uber, which chose to launch its membership community, Uber One, at our festivals last summer. Not just because tickets to sold-out shows are a great reward to existing customers, but because – crucially – we could also manage the digital communications and significantly reduce its cost per acquisition.
We have also seen new levels of interactivity and immersion incorporated into brand activations on the ground. With fans expecting more than just passive sponsorships, partners incorporated augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) experiences, gamification and personalisation tools to captivate audiences.
The level of engagement that brands are now bringing to live events adds so much colour and fun to the festival experience that fans are not just passing through brand activations, they are seeking them out. We’ve seen early-entry ticket holders running through the gates at Victoria Park as soon as they open to secure the best spot in Kraken Rum’s Freaky Tiki experience!
The Kraken Freaky Tiki Stage at All Points East Festival, Chris Bethell, 2024
Proving effectiveness
With increasing investment in live event sponsorships, our brand partners continue to demand robust measurement to assess the impact. Advances in data analytics have enabled us to evaluate the performance of sponsorships and activations more deeply across multiple metrics, including brand awareness, perception shifts and purchase intent.
Data from our post-festival surveys conducted after the likes of American Express presents BST Hyde Park revealed that brand consideration, trust and belonging increased when attendees recalled partnerships, and even further when they engaged with the partner activations onsite.
Average consideration among attendees who recalled a partner was 46% – a significant 60% uplift compared to those who did not. Even more compelling – engagement on-site with a partner drove consideration to 62%, a further 34% increase.
The prospects for 2025
As events continue to be the main area of marketing budget growth by quite some margin, our expectations for 2025 are strong and optimistic.
With some stellar line-ups already announced for our flagship festivals, and new shows including LIDO in London, The Warwick Sessions and Forever Now in Milton Keynes Bowl going live this summer, we’re launching even more touchpoints for brands to create experiences for every demographic of music lover. And there are still some amazing opportunities for brands. It’s going to be an incredible summer of live music … will you be there?
Find out more
If you’d like to talk about reaching live music fans, please do get in touch with Will Dowdy.
