I’M WITH THE BRAND
Fashion Soundtrack on why the festival is no longer all about the music……
Palm Spring’s music and arts festival Coachella was dominated by a series of hosted parties from magazines and brands. In order to connect with the modern day consumer, brands are tapping into aspects of their demographic’s hedonistic lifestyle. The association with the hippest festival has been vital for brand engagement.
This year saw a vast number of corporate/brand sponsored party houses. Poppy Delevingne stayed at the Superdry Coachella house with her hen party attendees. The socialite/model invited famous friends Sienna Miller, Cara Delevinge (sister) Derek Blasberg, Jared Leto and fellow model Lily Donaldson.
The function was set up at the expense of Superdry whose clever investment was hashtagged under coined phrase #popchella. This personalised term resulted in thousands of promotional tweets and insta worthy pictures – sent out to Cara Delevingne’s 4 million instagram followers, not to mention the rest of the party-goer’s social media accounts.
Actress Vanessa Hudgens was reportedly paid $15,000 to attend the event, her 3rd consecutive year at the festival meant fashion brand ‘Planet Blue’ took on the role of product placement by giving the actress a new wardrobe for the weekend. Vanessa is a walking advert for fashion magazines.
Vanessa was reportedly paid $15,000 by McDonalds to attend this event (Photo: Just Jared)
The annual menagerie of celebrations began with work-wear brand ‘Dickies’ and clothing line ‘Tilly’s’ hosting poolside party with skating performances and music.
Another desert soiree saw ‘Marc by Marc Jacobs’ cram guests into photo-booths witnessing extreme plugging and promotional efforts through social media. Guests included Rumi Neely of cult blog, ‘Fashion Toast’ sending her experiences to 540k followers.
E-commerce site ‘Opening Ceremony’ teamed up with ‘Teva’ for the ‘Saguro Desert Weekender Party.’ Upcoming British artist FKA Twigs performed, this ensured that both brands were perceived as discoverers of new talent.
Magazine Parties
Magazines set out to seek their own coverage and publicity, numerous publications joined in the festivities by throwing a bash themselves.
Details magazine returned for their 3rd consecutive year. They aligned themselves with automotive company, Lexus. Their avant-garde choice of music was selected by RAC, they also funded DJ sets from ‘The Knocks’ and sought after New York couple Brendan Fallis and Hannah Bronfman.
Harper’s Bazaar treated festival goers to lunch, the magazine lured in musician Katy Perry, actress Julianne Hough (who co-hosted the event) and a variety of international stars. This Palm Springs picnic also featured two day pop up and personal styling session with magazine editors.
Julianne Hough, Louise Roe, Anita Patrickson
NYLON partnered with Olay and GUESS for their annual ‘Neon Carnival.’ It’s fifth consecutive year meant expectations were high for this shindig. Activities included GUESS branded carnival games. Music was provided by DJ Kayper, DJ politik and Zoe Kravitz. This was no doubt the most ‘insta-worthy’ gathering of Coachella.
Filter Magazine partnered with lingerie brand, ‘Aerie’ to host ‘Yacht Club.’ Musician’s Mayer Hawthorne, ASTR and Au Revoir Simone serenaded the guests.
BRAND INFLUENCES
Lacoste
The hashtag was exploited at Lacoste’s two day pool festivity, #Livebeautifully celebrated their new platform and slogan, ‘Life Is A Beautiful Sport.’ (See campaign here.) Inflatable alligators floated in the pool amongst bloggers, musicians and Hollywood names.
Emma Roberts at the ‘celeb filled oasis themed party’ (Photo:Just Jared)
E-commerce
E-commerce brands ‘ Dolce Vita’ and ‘JD Fisk’ threw a two day house party complete with sounds from ‘Lucas Walters and friends.’
H&M Loves Music
Last year’s performance from ‘Santigold’ set the standard for H&M’s antics. 2014 saw Alexander Wang’s co-hosting plus announcement of his collaboration with the Swedish retail company. This made the party more memorable, another savvy move from H&M, appealing to the junior and contemporary markets by offering cheaper alternatives. Supporters of the collaboration Major Lazer, Jesse Marco, Just Blaze, and Iggy Azalea added to the excitement.
Adidas Originals X Jeremy Scott
The sports brand threw two parties during the first weekend of Coachella. One co-hosted a celebration with designer Jeremy Scott. Scott’s invite only affair are among the super exclusive at Coachella, his Adidas collaborations push the boundaries on sports-wear design, not to mention his guest list of industry tastemakers.
Spotify
A brand that exceeded experiential marketing standards was Spotify. Their on-site partnership offered an air conditioned 150 person tent. It was here that guests could chill out in relaxation pods, re-charge their phones and listen to Spotify playlists. The most innovative aspect of the festival was Spotify offering guests the ability to “Connect, Collect and Share” their festival experience. This marketing tool was hashtagged, #Wewerehere, it enabled users to track their festival journey with RFID technology through their festival wristband. Guests could then check in all over the event basically competing with hit app ‘Shazam’ to ensure all tracks enjoyed were documented.
Spotify’s Head Of Experiential Marketing explained “We want to connect with Coachella users so that they can relive this festival experience, which strengthens their relationship with our brand and [will] have them listening to more music,” Moreno says.” “This is about enriching their experience and making it more meaningful and personal to this audience who are already super passionate about music. It’s great way, through their Coachella experience, to continue to relive it just by listening to the music they love on Spotify.”
FOREVER 21
Perhaps competing with Superdry’s ‘Popchella,’ Forever 21 renamed the festival ‘cranechella.’ This concept saw a ‘party in the sky’ where a shipping container was lifted by a crane. It was here that Azealia Banks performed to huge crowds which proved to be one of the most interesting stages on site.
