SOCIAL MEDIA - MUSIC FESTIVALS
Using of the social media channels in FIB, Arenal Sound, Rock en Seine and Ilosaarirock
0. TEAM MEMBERS
Alba Cid Blanco
Sofia Esteve Santonja
Esteban Izquierdo Mora
Audrey Ramos
Sami Juntunen
Riikka Uhmavaara
1. RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Our research topic was social media usage in music festivals and music festival marketing. Our goal was to understand how social media channels are used and do the channels, or the use of these channels differ depending on the country or size of the festival. We also wanted to find out which social media channels appear to be most useful for music festivals and why.
On this research we also tried to understand if using social media in marketing is essential for music festivals these days, or are some of the channels unnecessary or lack value otherwise. We were interested in finding out if social media is used to enhance customer’s experience by adding social interaction and community-building.
Social media as a marketing tool was another side we looked into. In this research we have tried to understand music festival’s marketing strategies by analyzing their social media behaviour and used platforms. We wanted to find out if these platforms were improving their marketing strategy and how the usage of social media differs between an on-going festival and a festival that is not currently on progress.
2. HOW WE DID IT
We started our research by working on Google documents and discussing about our own interests and wishes for this group project. After coming up with first ideas and guidelines for research questions, we moved our working platform to Facebook where we felt communicating and co-operation was easier.
We decided to research a few festivals and their social media usage. This research consisted of analyzing music festivals and their appearance in social media channels by trying to find answers to our research questions. We separated our work so that some of us did the research and one the final conclusions and analysis of found information. This we felt was most clear for all. There was communication throughout the project.
We decided to research a few festivals and their social media usage. This research consisted of analyzing music festivals and their appearance in social media channels by trying to find answers to our research questions. We separated our work so that some of us did the research and one the final conclusions and analysis of found information. This we felt was most clear for all. There was communication throughout the project.
3. WHAT WE FOUND
Music festivals these days seem to use social media as their main marketing tool and marketing strategy. Music festivals are thought to be social and interactive events, that usually want to give customers the feeling of community. This is why social media and community-building seem to have a big part in many music festivals’ marketing strategy.
3.1. Festival Internation of Benicàssim
Social Media channels are essential for the Festival International of Benicàssim existence. There are a perfect way to interact with its public throughout the year and get to know people likes but, above all, the FIB employs its social media channels as a marketing tool, promoting itself and generating its own brand.
The social media channel most used by the Festival Internacional de Benicassim is, as usual, Facebook. In it, the festival publish all kind of contents during the year and also while the festival is on progress. The festival uses Facebook as a way to promote the invited artist to the festival publishing news about them or simply songs and videos. It is also used for own promotion (merchandising…) and to give interest and important information (ticket prizes, schedules…). We can say that Facebook is more important and used that the festival website because of his capacity to be in continuous flow.
As the other big social media channel, The FIB’s Twitter is not very exploited, acting as a complementary of Facebook used to publishing FB posts apart from to retweeting people comments. Of note is the continued use of English in both Twitter and Facebook because of the large concentration of English public, being its principal target.
A different and clever way of exploiting the social networks apart from the usuals Facebook and Twitter are the compilation of pictures, music and videos that the Fib have intelligently gathered between Tumblr, Instagram, Flickr and Youtube.
Another distinguish way that the FIB has implant in its social media channels are some annual promotions such as the viral application “Crea tu single” (“Make you own single”) or the free tickets for 16 bloggers and community managers of the 16 webs more visited in Internet in collaboration with the Generalitat Valenciana where the festival is hosted.
Finally, mention a social media accident that the Festival has suffered although in the end it turned as another way of promotion in the social network. The last year the poster of the festival (in which the artists are announced and almost the best kept secret) was filtered in the net and infinitely shared. The FIB neither confirmed nor denied the news becoming trending topic, which is always good.
Apart from that, normally there is a lack of proposals that encourage user interaction and other strategies that could take more advantages of its social media leaving the FIB as a secondary spaniard festival in social media use behind the Arenal Sound.
3.2. Rock en Seine
This festival is one of the most famous in France. In January 2014 it was the 4th french festival with the most fans on Facebook (82 525 fans, a growth of 35,16%) and the 1st french festival with the most followers on twitter (20 861, a growth of 62%)
The target group is the same on the website and on the social medias, young people less than 35 years old. In the website frontpage there is a “current events”, in which they put link of social media channels, in order Facebook, Twitter and then Instagram.
Facebook is the social media the most used by festivals. Myspace is totally dropped. Google+ is not really used a lot but it could be more important is the near future because of the way publications are referenced. On instagram, they just put pictures of the staff not that much information or breaking news. On Twitter they post similar things than on Facebook, music videos or artists programmed, news about offers, ticket, new artists.
This festival shares videos on Youtube, Dailymotion and Vimeo and they share pictures on instagram (1415 followers), flickr (since 2006, 69 members, 898 pictures), pinterest (11 paintings, 200 pins)
Rock en seine is also active on spotify with a playlist with artists per year and they have an app for smartphone.
When the festival is in progress, they put videos of artists and some comment about lives. When the festival is not in progress, like in christmass, they do advertising about “christmas pack” when tickets for 3 days are less expensive but you don’t know the programmation yet. They don’t post things except that when the festival is not in progress.
These platform, by using video clips, are more attractive than simple advertising in the street and less aggressive than radio. In your timeline you see videos of artists who are going to play in the festival and you can choose if you want to discover it or not. If you like it, it makes you wanna go to the festival.
3.3. Arenal Sound
Just three years after the starting of the Arenal Sound, it has already been the most crowded Spanish music festival, and the one that has most followers in its facebook page. It is characterized by the mixture between Spanish and international groups, and it mostly attracts young Spanish people. That’s why, the posts in the different social media channels are written in Spanish and also in a very lighthearted language, which, on one hand, stops the international marketing, and on the other, seems to be very successful among young people.
Facebook is from far the Social Media most used by the Arenal Sound. It’s use by the festival as a way to build the consumers loyalty, to descript the different aspects of the Festival and as an advertising tool. So, the Arenal Sound uses most of its marketing strategies through this social platform. Specially, posting videos of last editions of the festival, which creates future expectations, providing information about the festival and posting videoclips and news of the bands performing in the festival. But the most important marketing strategy used by the Arenal Sound in Facebook, is the “Sounders al abordaje” contest. The contest challenge each Monday people to achieve the highest amount of crew members (friends in facebook) for their ship. This allows a high interaction between consumers and the Festival, reinforcing the community building made by it, which has a name for their own participants: “Sounders”.
The use of the other Social Media Platforms is quite low compared with Facebook. Actually, twitter, where it has just achieved 42.000 followers (compared with the 335.000 of Facebok), and it has now converted in just a complement of Facebook. Other platforms such as Kedin or Daily Motion, has a very poor amount of followers. Nevertheless, is important to mention that the festival use this social media channels to post videos of the last editions, and, contrary to facebook, they don’t disappear after posting more posts, so the followers can find them in an easier way.
Finally it’s also important to mention the Spotify list made by the festival, which is a very practical thing for the people attending the festival, as it contains the most popular songs of each group performing. In that way, people can easily find and listen a quick summary of the festival music. Finally, it’s also interesting to name the use of Instagram as way to create future expectations, as people can see some amazing pictures of the Festival, and probably would like to go.
3.4 Ilosaarirock
Ilosaarirock is one of the oldest rockfestivals in Finland. The festival has an image of being a real musiclovers festival with loads of new artists and only a few major acts. It is also among the most followed festivals in Finland with almost 26 000 likes. The festival and all the related sites are mostly in finnish and the organization is not aiming their activities outside Finland.
Ilosaarirock-organization is active all year in the social media. They announce new signings via their facebook- and twitter profiles, arrange competitions, inform about new happenings around the festival, relay messages from their partners and sponsors and even use facebook to recruit voluntary workers to the festival.
In addition to these almost standard new media outlets, they have their own youtube-channel and Instagram-account and even an app for IOS and Android.
Facebook is clearly to main outlet and the organizers use it quite effectively and frequently with long updates and lot of information. Twitter is more fast paced and is used more for ”call-to-action” type of messages. Instagram is also active all around the year, but it really comes alive during the festival weekend. Youtube is not very active, but the content is interesting for those people coming to the festival. The app is designed to be used during the festival with updates on what is happening right now and schedules and artist profiles.
There is a clear plan of how they use social media and understanding how to be effective. Facebook-updates have some relative information about the festival, it is not just doing an update because it has to be done. They are able to create interesting content to the social media during the not-so-busy months but during the summer leading to the festival updates are not so frequent and is seems that there is no time to create quality content. Instagram is an exception, for example, during the 2013 festival there was loads of photos published every day of the festival and on the facebook there was only five or six updates during the weekend. As the festival is mainly run with voluntary workforce it is clear that there is no resources for creating editorial content on facebook.
The use of social media by the Ilosaarirock-organization is not exceptional and it does not differ from other festivals, the same channels and methods are being used, but somehow I can relate more to them than I do to the other festivals. Perhaps this is a reflection from my own very positive experiences from the festival. So the real life affects to the perception of the social media.
3.5 Tomorrowland
This electronic music festival is one of the most famous around all the world. It takes place in Boom (Belgium) 32 kilometers north of Brussels in July. With more than 5.000.000 fans in Facebook and it has 575K followers in Twitter.
The most social place use is YouTube, after every festival they always upload an Aftermovie, in this video you can see how Tomorrowland was that year, which music they had played and the decoration of the festival. The Aftermovie of 2013 was watched for more than 58.000.000 times. It is the way they show us the festival and the way that they try to sell it.
In twitter they post every single day videos of the DJ that are going to go the electronic festival the next year and when the tickets are going to be sold, because when they open the webpage to sell the tickets it is sold out in just 20 minutes.
Also, the use too much Facebook to uploads the news of the festival and let us know when it is going to take place. Furthermore they use Instagram too for posting images and videos of the festival.
The last festival they set an online platform for watching in streaming (real time) the festival, because there are many people who could not get the tickets.
4. CONCLUSIONS
According to our research it is quite clear that Facebook is still thought as the most important social media channel. Music festivals use it to promote their events and spread information, but also to interact with customers and add other social value. It is considered most useful tool for allround marketing, and is also a good way to reach a majority of customers.
Even though Facebook is the main social media channel, a lot of other channels have become important in music festival community-building and marketing as well. Twitter along Facebook seems to be used for informative reasons whereas Youtube, Spotify and Instagram have different values for users.
Even though Facebook is the main social media channel, a lot of other channels have become important in music festival community-building and marketing as well. Twitter along Facebook seems to be used for informative reasons whereas Youtube, Spotify and Instagram have different values for users.
Adding social interaction and asking customers to participate is considered a useful tool for marketing. Example Instagram is not a tool festival organizers necessarily actively use for marketing, but the social media users create the content themselves.
For a music festival it is important to have social media coverage and have content that people are willing to share. There are a lot of smaller social media channels that are used in various creative ways, but seems like Facebook is still the main channel to focus on. Spotify has a clear importance in social media marketing of music festivals and seem to be used with most music festivals today. Using social media in marketing is interesting, because it doesn’t seem to matter what is the size or location of the festival, the marketing tools and strategies appear to be alike.
http://www.rockenseine.com/http://selenus.es/index.php/2013/05/07/festivales-de-musica-redes-sociales/
Hi!
ReplyDeleteHere’s some feedback on your first team assignment. Let me start by making a general comment that involves almost every team; The final reports have been quite lengthy overall. This is perfectly understandable since students who work hard like to demonstrate it by presenting a large amount of content. However, there is some real value in the difficult art of boiling things down to the essentials. Our suggestion is that you produce an impressive wealth of content in your work files inside Google Drive and then find clever ways to compress the information to the parts that really matter.
That said, I also have to commend the teams for producing thoughtful and interesting content in this task. I know you worked hard to figure everything out, collaborate efficiently and research your subjects thoroughly! Thank you for that.
As a final general note, most of you presented information about your sources, which was good. It would be even better, if you would reference those sources in the actual text, so that the readers can easily fact check your content. There are several different citation styles, of which two of the most common ones are Vancouver Referencing and Parenthetical referencing [1] The one I just used there is a form of Vancouver Referencing. If you make a thesis for TAMK you will be using Parenthetical referencing (TAMK Opinto-opas 2013). You can use the style you like. I personally prefer Vancouver referencing in square bracket subscript, which is also what Wikipedia is using. It makes the text clean and easy to read.
Here’s some feedback especially for the music festivals -team:
+Returned on time!
-Research questions presented in a slightly vague format.
-Description of used work platforms is not necessary in the final report.
*Festival Internation of Benicàssim
+Interesting observations
-Could benefit from some statistics
*Rock en Seine
-Descriptive, could benefit from some analysis
+Good information
*Arenal Sound
+Nice observations (Spotify)
*Ilosaarirock
-Remember to be consistent with capitalization of words like Facebook and Twitter
+Some nice analysis included.
-It would be interesting to see more statistics.
Tomorrowland
+Some stats included
-Could benefit from more analysis
-Doesn’t answer all the research questions
In total:
+Conclusion in the end
-Could dig a bit deeper, now it’s sometimes quite descriptive
-Charts and graphs would be a nice addition
-Sometimes sloppy language and inconsistent capitalization of platform names
+Lots of sources
Citations:
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citation
TAMK Opinto-opas 2013. Tampereen ammattikorkeakoulu. Read 7.4.2014.
http://opinto-opas.tamk.fi/
Thanks for the comment. I agree that our work would've benefited from final polishing and it's lacking the questions in actual question format. But I think the first chapter still introduces the points we were trying to find answers for. There are some mistakes and it is true, that we maybe didn't get deep enough into the topic. Overall working in a short time with multiple people was quite difficult, but we did the best we could! Maybe the next task will go more smoothly, now that we have some experience with these sort of tasks.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your feedback! I'm sure the next task is easier to do for everyone, since know you know the work methods much better. It always takes a while to get used to new ways of working!
ReplyDeleteFeedback from Kseniya & Phu
ReplyDeletePositive:
In the beginning the team “Music Festivals” has posed very significant research questions abut social media interaction and community building within music festival industry.
The research has proved that social media is inherent part of music festivals nowadays. Analysis of festivals and their social media channels was excellent.
Personally I would like to emphasize the importance of mentioning the Spotify in the research. Today this service/social media plays crucial role in the music market.
Constructive:
Adding some chart or graphic would make it more interesting.
Also, as mentioned in other team's report, Having a consistent format of report for each music festival would make reader easier to compare between them.
First impressions: Wait, not a single picture or table? This is going to be a hard read. But again, 6 authors; there’s going to be a lot of interesting stuff. I like the first part - something worth remembering for future – you are trying not only to report and describe, but also to understand. Good choice of words.
ReplyDeleteI have glanced through the text and all festivals seem quite well covered and all research questions at least touched if not completely answered. The whole paper seems like one unit, not just a collage of separate parts.
Conclusions offer no big surprises, but they still complement the whole paper very well. Good job!