New Trends in Live Event Marketing – Concert Lounges, VIP Lounges, Skyboxes and Viewing Platforms

A New Way to See the Show – Concert Lounges, VIP Lounges, Skyboxes and Viewing Platforms

It’s an age old problem for marketers at concerts, festivals and sporting events – how do you actively engage the audience for your product or service from a 20 foot x 10 foot booth space? Your potential consumers are walking by your activation with strollers in front and children trailing along behind. The last thing they want to hear is a sales pitch as they walk from the parking lot to the event – or even worse, from the event back to the parking lot. In this unfortunate environment, you reduce your street team to carnival barkers trying to get another dollar at the ‘pitch till you win’ tent.

A new trend, however, is emerging from experiential experts and marketing firms which may come as a surprise to some. The new trend is to engage the client by giving them place to *gasp* sit down and enjoy the event! Instead of trying to steal their attention away from the event and on to your product, simply provide concert lounges or skyboxes that complement your brand along with the event they came to see. This radically simple idea is starting to take the live event marketing world by storm. And the production experts at In Depth Events are here to guide you to the right activation for your brand!

Concert Lounges at Music Festivals

GMR Miller Lite Lounge, SXSW 2014

Outdoor festivals are a lot of fun – for about 30 minutes. After you throw your blanket down, it’s only a matter of time before someone steps on your fingers, blocks your view or lights up next to your kids. (“Dad, what’s that smell?”) Wouldn’t it be nice to have a comfortable place to watch the show without… well, the rest of the attendees?

At SXSW 2014, the largest outdoor festival of its kind in the world, two beverage companies provided concert lounges. These activations were off-the-ground platforms with security personnel, comfortable seating and beverages; along with a live video feed of the event. Both lounges were general admission and provided outstanding views of the main stage at Butler Park.

The first activation was by the energy drink, Monster. They served their namesake product along with non alcoholic soda and other beverages. With a ground level seating area and a covered platform, they were able to represent their brand to attendees without actively ‘pitching’ their product.

The second use of concert lounges by Miller Lite was built from the ground up by our production experts. The activation footprint featured a commanding 100 foot x 40 foot raised platform where attendees could charge their mobile devices, relax on furniture and see the Main Stage show in real time on several video monitors. Of course, the bar served ice cold Miller Lite with graphics scattered around the activation to reinforce the brand.

These activations showed that attendees could both enjoy the event they came to see and the marketing firm could promote their client’s brand in a complementary way. Most importantly, at both activations, attendees were charged for the beverages but not for entry to the concert lounges. In other words, the marketing firm was able to show sales figures as a direct link to impressions.

“Best Seat in the House” Viewing Platforms at Concerts

Liberman VIP Lounge

VIP Risers at concerts are not a new idea. However, providing a “Best Seat in the House” viewing platform takes an old idea and puts a new twist on it – plus the ability to market to a select group of consumers!

Pepsi has had a great deal of success with viewing platforms at Liberman Broadcasting concerts. This hispanic-themed event garners 20,000 attendees in the Dallas market for both spring and fall concerts. A 20 foot x 20 foot platform is erected off stage right, raised at the same level of the stage and covered with tents. Then, a select group of attendees are invited to the platform to watch their favorite bands. Of course, Pepsi brand ambassadors are there to give away plenty of ice cold beverages and CPGs to the lucky attendees.

While this concept doesn’t work for general admission, it gives a few lucky attendees the ability to see the show from the “Best Seat in the House” and garners the Pepsi brand lifelong consumers. The platform and the marketing banners attached to it are easily viewable by the main audience, so not only do you get ‘eyes-on’ impressions in the audience, you also have the ability to interact with general audience members who might want to be on the platform during the next concert.

Skyboxes and VIP Lounges: Perfect for Outdoor Sporting Events or Indoor Trade Shows!

Heineken Viewing Platform

Providing an elevated viewing platform is a great way to get your potential consumers around your branding and engage your specific product – while still being able to relax and enjoy the event. While this is not a new idea at events like golf tournaments (where the attendee demographic includes top income earners), the concept is making new inroads at other events. Automobile racing events, large corporate sponsored ‘tailgate parties’ for professional football, baseball and basketball events and even extreme events like the X-Games and motocross events are now seeing skyboxes sprout up around their events.

What about a viewing platform at a trade show? Heineken is the latest to provide an elevated viewing platform at a beer convention in Houston, TX. This commanding L-shaped viewing platform was 11 feet tall and was an amazing way for invited guests to view the trade show in style. Of course, the structure was branded with Heineken graphics so attendees were able to see exactly which company provided the biggest and best presence at the show.

Now, to find the best provider!

Providing a potential consumer a way to relax and enjoy the event they came to see, while still being able to promote your brand, is a simple but revolutionary new concept. These new trends in experiential and live event marketing are already here. Your client will be utilizing these new types of activations to communicate with their consumers. Make sure to bring your clients the best solution for their specific needs – or they’ll find someone else to do it!

When providing concert lounges, VIP lounges, skyboxes or viewing platforms, it’s important to choose a production company that can work with your activation staff to provide the best experiential footprint for your clients. The professionals at In Depth Events are experts at providing structures for your next footprint, as well as the audio, lighting and video requirements to make sure your message is clear. Ask Us a Question today and find out how we can help you take advantage of these new trends!

SXSW Music 2014: A Production Company’s Retrospective

I had doubts about going to this year’s South by Southwest show. Not just my typical jaded and cynical doubts over a perceived loss of authenticity, I couldn’t find my passion for the experience. Looking over different press junkets, twitter feeds and blog articles, nothing I came across about this year’s SXSW musicreally seemed to speak to me. Where was the giddy excitement of SXSWs gone by? I mean, I had a minor panic attack in anticipation for a Mogwai and Stephen Malkmus show I saw at a South by in college… Had it finally happened? Was I the frog in gradually heated water that had finally succumbed to the inevitable? Am I irrelevant?

Phew, for a minute there.

The journey begins…

My drive into Austin was uneventful. My idle mind drifting in and out of fantasy. I imagine myself as a post modern Hunter S. Thompson or possibly David Attenborough, sent deep into the jungle of SXSW to document the lives of indigenous flora and fauna. I pull into the KOA Campsite late Friday to join the rest of the crew who had been in Austin for over a week setting up and maintaining the various stages and experiential footprints we had throughout downtown Austin.

The campground was still. The only activity I see is coming from the KOA kitchen. I see a familiar t-shirt and park my car. Inside, I find enough scrambled eggs, bacon and sausage to feed a small army. Most of our crew was coming back from show site and the available stagehands make sure hot meals are ready for them. I decide to turn in early and prepare for an eventful closing Saturday at SXSW.

By the time I’m up, the campsite is empty. I call the lead to figure out where everyone else is.

“We’re already on site. Get down here, park your car and get to our events…And TAKE PICTURES!”

Downtown Austin is already alive and bustling with activity. I grab a cup of coffee, park my car off 3rd St. and begin my trek throughout the vast wilderness that is SXSW. The hipsters and credit card hippies had already begun their migration to the newly located Main Stage at Butler Park. Streams of bicycles, pedestrians, skateboards; I even saw a pack of Segways all cautiously crossing the South Congress bridge to graze on the endless fields of food trucks and carnival vendors surrounding the Main Stage.

You could hear the roar of the stage miles before you could see it. Crisp and clear, the distinct push of the line array speakers cut through the thick and damp morning air. The pied piper’s song was luring millennials away from their lofts with promises of free promotional sunglasses and caffeinated energy drinks. I am led into a maze of metal stockade to be inspected and branded with a wristband at the main entrance before I am allowed to proceed into the festival grounds.

My first visit to one of our many job sites at SXSW music festival was the Miller Lite Lounge at Butler Park. Our crews provided the structure, trussing, video and lighting for this amazing lounge overlooking the main stage at SXSW this year. The Miller Lite Lounge was massive and easily had the biggest footprint around the Main Stage. Looking from a distance, the structure looked like a giant cargo ship bringing in huge shipments of domestic beer.

Too early in the day to be active, the sleeping giant rests, waiting to receive the thousands of concert goers looking to rest their legs and recharge their mobile devices.

The Miller Lite Lounge is spotless. A gleaming white beacon unsoiled by tracks of mud and dirt. I carefully mind my steps and decide to move onward.

By this time it was early afternoon and the haze of morning had cleared. Downtown Austin was in full-on SXSW music mode. Live music seemed to blare from every direction. Around every nook and cranny, if there was room to fit a band, it had been filled. I make my way through the cacophony, stopping frequently to watch glimpses of each performance, not having a clue as to who they were or where they were from; only that they had made it to Austin with their instruments. From across the city, the state, the country and the globe, artists of every shape and size have descended to this single location to collectively spawn their creative energies and contribute to this living and breathing event known as South by Southwest.

I make my way to my next destination, The Complex Complex. Back in my relatively quiet offices, I had been the event planner for this show, coordinating the audio, location and load in times for the talented crew. Dwarfed in size and scale by the Miller Lounge, it was located in the backyard of a small house outside of the Austin Convention Center. Walking up to the front door, I am stopped by security.

“Entrance is in the back. Only artists come through this door.”

I shrugged and continued to walk to the back alley entrance. Before I could turn the corner there is more security and lines of people. It’s only 2pm. Surely, this can’t be for Complex…

“WE ARE AT CAPACITY!” yelled the muscular man in a tight fitting shirt.

“If you don’t have an RSVP don’t waste your time,” says the person in front of me. “It’s been this way since early this morning.”

I try to shake off the fact that I have just been turned away from my own event. I mean, I don’t remember “muscles glasses” making furious last minute calls around Austin to find backline equipment. I text the crew lead to see if our audio engineer can pull any strings for me as I head east to AirBnB Park.

Crossing over I-35, I immediately sense a change in climate. There is a more mellow and laid back atmosphere on the East Side. Recently gentrified by mustachioed mixologists and fixed-gear bike riding baristas, the neighborhoods lack the circus-like energy of 6th St. The stages are hidden behind bars which are peppered throughout a landscape of vintage clothing resellers, record shops and food truck parks.

The next stop on my tour of our production events is at AirBnB Park. This experiential footprint sits comfortably in the East Side neighborhood on the corner of 6th and Onion. The entire space is covered in a bright green astroturf and marked with accents of 50’s Americana. Contemporary styled lawn furniture surround faux fire pits that sit outside of superbly decorated modular living areas. I peruse the grounds, catching glimpses into the living quarters designed by Snoop Dogg and Capital Cities.

I imagine the well manicured environs of AirBnB Park to be a human exhibit in a zoo on a distant alien planet. The tour guide instructing the alien observers to keep their all their tentacles inside the car and to not feed the humans anything other than locally sourced, farm to table food truck tacos. “The humans have very specific dietary requirements,” the alien zoo guide says as a mother alien scolds her son for attempting to poke a tentacle at a sleeping human.

“Paul?”

“Oh hey, Matt. I was just–”

“Great, grab this DJ equipment and carry it to the center pavilion. We have bags over the speakers in case it rains again. Don’t let any of the wires get wet.”

As the finishing touches to the DJ booth are set for tonight’s final performance at AirBnB, I finally get a text from the lead with entry instructions for The Complex Complex. I text our sound engineer and begin walking back that way. Just before crossing 35, I spot one of our trucks already on the move for one of our clients. “Do not go gentle into that good night,” I think to myself…

Walking up to The Complex Complex again, I try reaching out to our audio tech, this time by phone.

“Hello?”

“It’s me, Paul. Your show has been at capacity all day. Can you get me in?

“Come to the front door.”

Success! I had finally been given the nod to access my own event. As I hop the mini picket fence and slip back into the backyard, I can hear the crowd going nuts.

“This show has been packed all day. What’s been going on?”

“Are you kidding? Have you heard of a DJ from LA called, Skrillex?

“SKRILLEX is on our stage?!?”

I had gotten in just in time to see Skrillex end his set with Toto’s “Africa” to a jam-packed group of lucky SXSW music attendees. This party had been so exclusive that I not only couldn’t get in, but I didn’t even know that the biggest dubstep DJ in the world was performing on the stage.

I left The Complex Complex in a daze, barely able to comprehend what had just happened. I had just seen a 6 time Grammy winning DJ who re-invented the genre of dubstep play an exclusive set on our stage to less than 300 people in a tiny backyard. I didn’t even know Skrillex was in Austin!?

I decided to stumble back to Butler Park. The streets were now filled with a sea of people. Riding the momentum of the crowd and often unable to see street signs or other familiar landmarks, I was a sea turtle returning to the same moon lit beach from where it had once hatched. The darkness of night had now completely wrapped around the Main Stage giving it a more menacing appearance than I recalled from earlier that day.

The Miller Lite Lounge was a buzzing hive of activity. People were gathered around in circles sharing the days adventures like bees sharing the location of local wildflowers. I located a quiet and comfortable spot to roost, recharge my phone and enjoyed the final show on the SXSW music Main Stage.

Relaxing with my feet up and a cold Miller Lite, I can’t believe I actually thought I had outgrown the festival. South by Southwest is not Texas’ version of Coachella or Bonnaroo. It’s a completely different animal. With over 2,000 “official” shows and an untold number of spontaneous pop ups blooming from every square inch of downtown Austin, SXSW is uncategorizable. It is simply a force of nature that refuses to be contained. Don’t attempt to structure an itinerary. You won’t make it 200 yards before you get completely hypnotized by performances of unknown name and origin. So, dive in; head first. And if you can find an area that doesn’t already have a concert stage on it, give us a call. It’s moments of clarity like this that make working for In Depth Events so rewarding.

I hope this blog has been informative for our event planner clients! For more information on In Depth Events and our event production capabilities, please Ask Us a Question today. We look forward to hearing from you and working with you on your event!

Is Your Nightlife Bad for Your Health? How to Sustainably Party Like a Rockstar

I’d like to consider myself your average, run of the mill thirty something. I wake up, go to work and come back home like any other red-blooded, taxpaying American. I am becoming increasingly aware, however, that most of what I consider to be standard weekend nightlife activity is not doing me or my health any favors. After years of cheese fries and buffalo wings being the only thing between my liver and an onslaught of an untold number of sugary, overly-caffeinated alcoholic drinks, part of me is turning to more sustainable behaviors as I quickly approach my 40s.

“We’re meeting on the baseball diamond at 5,” the instructions said. “Park behind Right Field and DON’T BE LATE!” I give myself a 15 minute cushion because, please… I’m a responsible adult. I am WAY beyond all the careless and haphazard decisions of my youth. Meanwhile, I follow my GPS directions to find a single file line of cars 2 miles long directly in front of the entrance. Ok, panic. Text the Event Leader to cover my tail, plead with the parking attendant not to charge me for parking… By this point, I already feel the bass rumble from our massive sound system as I duck under a broken fence post and arrive on the field just in the nick of time.

“Glad you decided to join us,” I hear behind a wall of Electronic Dance Music and cheers. The rest of the Event Team had arrived hours earlier to survey the site, unload the trucks, and setup over 5 tons of Professional Grade Sound and Stage equipment. “This is just the pre-party. We’re expecting over 11,000 runners, tonight.” Over 11,000?!? On a cold and windy February afternoon? Why had I never considered this?

And they came. Wave after wave of bright-eyed runners poured onto the baseball diamond with various bits of neon flair, a sea of candy-colored athletes waiting for their moment to attack the black light run course, stage by stage. My first task is to ride along with the Event Lead, fire up the electric generators, turn on the high power black light towers and crank the speakers with trance inducing dance music. “The runners are beginning to line up. Get to the Starting Line, ASAP!”

As the sea of glowing distance runners pour past me onto the course, I shamefully recount all my past weekend activities. It’s mostly sitting or standing in one place or another for hours, over paying for food and drinks while I complain about some silly first world inconvenience. I wonder if any of the runners are planning on stopping by Taco Bell after this…

As the runners finish the 5k black light run distance, they file back toward the stage on the baseball diamond. It’s dark now, and what was just bits of flair is now a glowing sea of bright neon colors. I’m having flashbacks to all the raves and outdoor tent parties I’ve been to, but this party has a different vibe. Take all the magic and power of the biggest warehouse parties you went to in college, remove the sketchy and dangerous elements, add a free range, grass fed kale shake or two – and what you’re left with is a pretty good description of a Black Light Run. Loud music, pretty people, glow sticks, but what do we have here? Clean bathrooms? A safe family environment? Concession stands? It IS a rave party… only grown up!

The DJ effortlessly mixes underground dubstep with Katy Perry to the delight of the crowd. A hype man on stage is throwing out handfuls of glow-in-the-dark party favors, as fast as he can. What happens next was MIND BLOWING.

After a knowing look to the DJ and the crowd, the hype man begins a count down from 10. It’s my first Black Light Run, so I look around as the crowd joins in. 3..2..1..

BOOM! The beat drops as clouds of neon colored powder (I later learned is treated corn starch) envelopes everything in sight. I can’t see the hand in front of my face but I can feel the crowd explode with energy as they disappear behind the cloak of colored fog. As the neon dust settles and the stage and lights slowly come back into focus, it dawns on me. THIS IS REALLY FUN! Looks like I’ll be spending more time with my new co-workers at In Depth Events!

Hopefully this blog has been informative for our event planner clients! For more information on In Depth Events and our event production capabilities, please Ask Us a Question today. We look forward to hearing from you and working with you on your event!

The Hills Are Alive…With the Sound of Live Event Cinema

Network studios are always looking to find ways to increase viewership among the masses and, more and more, they are turning to Event Cinema. The Sound Of Music Live! starring Carrie Underwood recently aired on NBC as a live event production. For the first time in over 50 years, a musical was broadcast live on network television for American audiences. Although the performance was met with mixed reviews, a total of 18.62 million viewers tuned in to watch the young country music starlet giving NBC its highest Thursday night entertainment program viewership since the series finale of Frasier in 2004.

Event cinema, sometimes called Alternative Content cinema or Livecasts, refer to the use of Cinema theatres to display a varied range of live and recorded entertainment excluding traditional films, such as sport, opera, musicals, ballet, music, one-off TV specials, current affairs, comedy and religious services.

-Wikipedia

But I don’t have the time or the money to attend a live event, you say? Fear not, my little target consumer. Event Production companies like In Depth Events will bring the live performance directly to your sensory organs. From the comfort of your own home or from a convenient alternative location such as a local cinema, more and more ad agencies and production studios are creating your live event environments around a live production of a film or television program. The last episode of “Breaking Bad” was yet another example of this growing trend. Loyal fans of the show gathered at citadels and cemeteries across the country to share the episode together in a way they would remember for a lifetime. This memorable feeling of camaraderie can be achieved through the magic of live events. A shared experience like this often has the ability to make a simple connection resonate in a way that has a greater impact on the live event audience. Keep in mind none of this is possible without an experienced production company like In Depth Events.

The bottom line is, live events, interactive, and experiential marketing companies like In Depth Events are connecting brands and products with their existing and potential consumers like never before.

Category: Events