Destination Marketing with Music Festivals and Music Branding events are a huge and growing Business. The trends is accelerating as travelers look for more meaningful experiences on their vacation holidays. They want to follow events and activities that relate to them and complement their own passion.
Event marketing is now big business for destinations all over the world. Music events are especially hot as noted in our last blog on the 2018 Vujaday event in Barbados.
The Vujaday event is back in 2019 with a new line up, new venues and for the first time all day events. In 2018 the music was staged in multiple locations during the late evening and through the nite. This year that has been extended with many day time events- See the 2019 line-up here >>
Destination Marketing Music Festivals with Confluence
The marketers behind this great event are The Confluence Group: A GLOBAL MEDIA AGENCY that works with many of the most influential brands, artists and causes in the world. They say “we help you make the biggest impact, leaving you to do what you do best”.
In each case the group creates a unique and compelling strategy for the client and claims that “We do media strategy better than anyone”. Their services cover all strategic touch points in digital media marketing such as:
Confluence International Clients Global Strategies
Confluence International Clients – Global Media Strategies
Confluence client include top names in Art and Fashion (like Diesel), Consumer Goods Food & Beverage (Pepsi), Festival & Conferences (Vujaday), Music & Lifestyles (Berklee Online), Travel (Barbados), Technology (Go-Pro) and many more.
Barbados Example
For the VuJaday Music Festival the group worked closely with the Barbados destination marketing organization along with the Vujaday founders and became a part owner of the new Brand.
Here is what they say about this innovative approach to branding and promoting Vujaday. “The Festival is a thoughtfully curated selection of musical and cultural experiences taking place on the island of Barbados. As co-owners of the festival with a famed group of partners, The Confluence helped to launch Vujaday last April, overseeing all publicity, video, design, social media, and promotion in the ten months leading up to the successful festival debut. This included a focus on local press in Barbados, Caribbean press, and outlets from around the world with a focus on music, lifestyle, travel. This campaign also involved working directly with the tourism board of Barbados to line up press trips for key journalists to attend Vujaday and ensure they had a positive experience.” Source: The Confuence Group http://theconfluencegroup.com/
The 2018 event was a massive success and has set the standard for destination music events in the future.
7 New Artists Join Vujaday Barbados 2019
7 New names will join the cast of the Caribbeans most innovative music event. The 5 day of Barbados music safari starts April 3rd to 7th. The new DJs are transcendental, they are composer and artist that bring a new intrigue with spiritual music beat. See samples of these leading musical ambassadors in the video below.
Destinations use music festivals to attract travelers to their shores in growing number and the 2018 music festival season is gearing up to be a banner year.
This year’s festivals have already posted lineups across social media and it is a dizzying variety. Starting in 2018 Vujaday set high stakes by creating a riveting Music Festival Safari in Barbados –See this review here.
It is a taste of things to come.
Right now Boston is calling with Eminem, Jack White and The Killers for its festival at the Harvard Athletic Complex on May 25 to 27.
There are hundreds of festival planned for destinations from every corner of the globe. From Creamfields (Daresbury, UK) to Rock on the Range (Winnipeg, MB, Canada).
New Standards for 2018 by Vujaday
All pale in comparison to breath of Vujaday music festival in Barbados. That festival set a new standard in organization and depth of artist and venues- 5 separate location were stages and over 50 international DJ took to the sage- Its worth sharing a few samples and reviews of the 5 days on non stop music.
But the real advantage was of course the thousands of fans who enjoy the music and can’t await to spread the word and to return to the Island that hosted it all.
Destination Branding & Music Festivals
From a branding perspective it shows Barbados is a with-it destination and introduced it to an entirely new audience. Having a new venue each night gave visitors a taste of island culture and showed them a diversity; from beaches to stately homes, plantations and rugged invigorating coastal communities. Some fans referred to it as the Barbados Vujaday Musical Safari.
Clearly music festivals have a huge impact on branding a destination. The lineup for 2018 is impressive. From Prima Vera Sound in Barcellona to Melt in Germany with endless music festival in the Uk, USA and Canada to name just a few hot locations.
The question is does a music festival help brand a destination. Its a nuanced discussion as it touches on the subject of sonic branding, music marketing and the gender of promoting festivals to drive traffic to a destination. Here the association with particular artists can have a significant impact – Barbados of course is home of Rhianna and that drives score of her fans to the site, But is it the right brand for the average boutique clientele. The Bahamas seeks out social influences like and is rumored to have paid Kendall Jenner $250,000 to promote the event on her Instagram account. So having a company like Vujaday stage an event in your destination and promote it through all their collateral and influencers must be worth a ton.
Events as Branding
The most successful and honest festival branding, it seems, relies on creating a holistic identity based on the more abstract and experiential concepts of the music and sound. “There’s an awful lot of effort in festivals—each one is trying to distinguish themselves from one another. A festival is essentially an outdoor space—a field or a glade or lake or forest in nature—what can you do to make that distinguished? That’s what we love to create. A festival is also a thing you can lose yourself in. It’s a little like the Christmas feeling and everything associated with that feeling: people let themselves go in ways that at any other time of year might seem a little odd – but these things suddenly become really exciting once you’re there, on a weekend in July.” Kiffer Keegan, Work Order – see https://eyeondesign.aiga.org
St. Nicholas Abbey Plantation {in Barbados has recently joined with
Settlers Beach villa Hotel to supply fortunate visitors deluxe vacation home holidays together with an all expenses paid excursion to what is considered to be the Caribbeans’ most im
Vimeo Video on Sonic Branding ebook: Music in Contemporary Advertising
This Vimeo video by Amazon Author Laura Montarroso Daher is a fun overview of what has motivated her to write the latest book to be published on Sonic Branding. While sharing serious insights on the latest in sound and music advertising, It is a fun animation of the facts driving one of the fastest growing segments of marketing.
The book offers an in depth look at the latest practices in branding as well as a colourful history of the evolution of Music in Marketing. Music in past and contemporary brand communications is perhaps the most powerful and engaging form of messaging today. Coupled with video (sonic branding video), its power to engage and compel is unparalleled!
In fact, sonic-video messaging is the latest form of multi-media and multi-channel communication that is becoming so prevalent in the digital age. The book looks at examples of sonic solution including some notable music video branding disasters, with a keen academic eye, while being very easy to read, full of practical advice and case studies.
The new Kindle book for brands, marketers and music professionals, also delves into how marketing has changed. It explores the psychology of why sound and music has become so effective in creating authentic brands. The Kindle book can be read on any computer or mobile device with Amazons reader which can be easily downloaded as an app or software.
The Slideshare says it all. It is part of a Master Thesis for the MBA program at ICFAI by Darpan Jain. Jain studies the techniques to measure the impact of Sonic Branding Solutions on Emotions, Brand Recall, Brand Recognition and Purchase Intention.
The report concludes with the fact that Sonic Branding through sound and music creates “distinct and memorable long term image of the brand”. This is one of its most cited advantage. The report looks at how these effects can be measured, and examines at the tools and techniques used to establish its effect on emotions, recall and its influence on buyer behavior.
However, music can both positively and negatively stimulate a responses in attention, mood, attitude, and purchase intention. Further, different genres of music affect different demographics differently. Music in branding must be chosen with care and understanding of the audience/consumer.
The report concludes that advertisers should avail themselves of the substantial research that exists. It offers a full list of resources and examples used in the research which others will find helpful.
The references provided at the end of the book to other sonic branding initiatives along with that of the academic work by Montarrosa in her latest Amazon ebook on Sonic Branding Examples & Solution, provides an excellent resource of real world case studies, research, and technology. They are very valuable guide to those who are involved in using music and sound to create engaging and authentic brands.
Author Laura Motarrroso book on Sonic branding, The BRAND and the BAND, is featured in MarketersMedia. Marketersmedia is a press syndication service designed for marketers. It is the place to announce breaking news about significant happening in marketing and is widely used by Fortune 500 and major organization. To be featured in Marketers media one must have a significant announcement and create a Press Release that is not a sales promotion, but a real newsworthy announcement. That is the case with Laura Montarroso book which explores Sonic Branding Solution with examples of both success and failure.
The band and the brand was incubated in academia when Laura, studying“Audio and Music Technology” at the University of the West of England, Bristol, completed the book as part of her thesis. Although steeped in the rigors of academic research, the book is spiked with practical experience and personal insights. It offers fascinating examples of Sound in marketing from a corporate and personal level. Bands are Brands too, Laura says, as she studies how artist step over the line is aligning with the wrong brands at the wrong time and mix up their message.
It looks at the history of Sound in marketing and how marketing is changing to adapt to the new social world where connection and engagement are now defined by emotional context. That is where music comes into the equation as it is the one stimulus that has most effect on our moods and brain thank any other. In Fact, scientific research has established that “music stimulates more parts of the brain than any other human function.” See NPR.Org
The book discusses the current changes taking place in the music industry and brands’ growing desire to add music and sound to their brand identity. Laura also builds out a paradigm for Marketing and Advertising that centers on the four Es rather that the four Ps of marketing. Namely Experience, Engagements, Exclusivity And Emotions. She maps out how music integrated with the new paradigm.
The book offers tips and ideas for artists and brands. There are lists and links, resources for help and tutorials including video and other related material.
Do you understand what your brand name sounds like? Possibly not; and if not you may be missing out on branding an important aspects of your identity. It is not all that obvious and to truly understand the effect a sound has on our mind and emotions it help know something about neurosciences.
Check out this video of the Audi sound – It is clever and gives you an idea of the power of sound. It is amazing what a musical mind can do with the opening of a car door or compartment.
The original article by neurosciencemarketing dissects the sounds of Audi. We might ask is it actual or contrived. The answer is that it does not really matter – Perception is reality and sonic branding produces meaning and sonic identity that have a significance for the brand.
A Unique Sonic Branding Example
You will have to admit that Audi has a pretty good grasp of what sound means to its market. You may not think of Audi as an example of Sonic Branding at work, because they don’t have a famous song like Cocacola. Audi is nevertheless, a leader in understanding the emotional value of sound. Its music and sound engineers have an impressive record of creating effective sonic branding solutions for its marketing. Every sound of every part of the car is an example of what might be, and could be, tailored into the brand identity.
Audi has made a significant contribution to the branding with its guide to sound style, that is quite like a visual style guide. It helps keep branding consistent across media, campaigns and place. You may not have the resources of Audi, however setting up a constant sound identity is feasible.
It can begin with a jingle or non-musical sound which you add to your ads as well as commercials; that song or tone will certainly become part of the brand’s identity, if it is persistent. The question is; is it the best sound that you? For the answer to that you may have to call in the professionals.
Marketers, brands, music aficionados and artists who are using music and sound to build authenticity and increase brand engagement will do well to review what traditional marketers have to say about branding. In this article on “How to Create an Authentic Brand Story that Actually Improves Trust”, Kissmetrics lays out a guide to doing just that. (more on kissmetrics see resources at end of blog)
Sonic Branding is just another aspect of marketing and advertising and, like all promotion – from word of mouth to broadcast media – there are some core strategies that apply across all genres.
Before we delve in Marketing 101, we should just cover the basics of Sonic Branding 101. Although it has been around for many years, it is only just becoming a reality in conventional marketing strategies. The time is right for sonic branding solutions as we have moved into a new age of marketing where authenticity, engagement and connection around shared values are now what drive consumers to be advocated of a brand.
The latest book on the subject has just been released on Amazon Kindle and is already #1 on Amazon for related searches. The book is entitled “The Brand and the Band” and it is a perfect introduction to the art and science of sonic branding solutions for building authentic brands.
The book is also for marketers, artists and music industry professionals who want to understand more about how they can help businesses build brand identity using the skills and knowledge of the music industry.
So now, if you are ready, let’s begin to review the Kissmetrics as a basis for Sonic Marketing.
In our review of the KissMetrics 7 steps to brand marketing, we focus on the story and its relation to the song – or sonic branding. All other steps are important in marketing but the story and song are literally bound together in sonic branding. For the full details of all of these points, please refer to the Kissmetrics link in the resources.
In a recent TED talk Greg Power demonstrates the power of the story refering to the US election in which Hillery Clinton lost her power when her story, mostly about herself, failed to connect and engage voters. Obama stole it from her saying that he was there to serve not because anything was owed to him. With that Hillery was painted as the establishment candidate and he as the agent of change. This is what the story does if you get it right.
Story telling is a multimedia process. And that leads us naturally to the music and the song! Taking our inspiration from successful sonic branding examples like COKE, the story does not have to be epic. It is better if it is simple and coveys a single idea that defines the brand or the product. For Coke, it was sharing happiness and for Hertz, is was Speed.
The main idea of the Kiss article is that you must have a story. As they say, “By telling a story and connecting with the reader, a storyteller can actually generate trust in the reader.” The Kissmetrics articles goes into some depth about the neural coupling that happens when we tell stories. It is the same principle covered by power marketing consultants in their sales training. It is all pertinent to sonic branding. Inevitably, the story must be about a main feature, an overriding benefit or something that the consumer feels and experiences emotionally. For example: Happiness (Coke), Purpose (Nike), Think Different (Apple) and Speed (Hertz).
Today consumers are motivated by causes and they like to know your WHY – what make you do what you do. That is a big part of your story that is worth sharing in the message and the song you sing. This is the sort of thing that connects. Kissmetrics calls it the PSS approach – Problem, Solution, Success. Power marketing takes it a step further and looks at how to implement these concepts as a sales process. It proposes using a system and tools to effectively Capture, Connect, Inform, Incentivize and Automate (CCIIA), as proposed by AllCastMarketing.com .
Ultimately, customers buy the “why” – the experience, the story and the song – not just the product. It’s never just the product and in the past, marketing focused first on the product, then the benefits. Now it’s the why, or even more intangible, the culture. A good example of this is Nike’s “Just do It” ad campaign – in praise of all the athletes it serves. “Just do It” is how they see the world and the people who like them love that idea.
Perhaps one of the best descriptions of a brand purpose that I know of comes from Jerome Conlon of Nike. As he puts it: “A brand’s symbolic meaning originates with its underlying purpose, and is expressed as a field vibration that radiates from the very core of a company. If a brand is to become iconic, to become a world-class energy that customers deeply identify with, then it must evoke transcendent qualities of human soulfulness. And to do that it has to express deep insight into its unique purpose in the world.”
Conlon believes that this sort of purpose is the “intersection of three circles of influence”. He describes this eloquently in his blog at Branding Strategy Insider.
In the first circle, it comes down to the intersection of a social problem. The second is related to a core brand truth that is at the very heart of the brand’s existence and the third is the consumer’s need that the brand can legitimately address. When all 3 are aligned, as in the case of “Just do It”, you have a resounding purpose that will translate into strong brand identity. Conlon tells a fascinating story of how the purpose and branding unfolded. It is a story well worth reading. To sum it up: the company was facing a downturn and had to do a major overhaul of its position, which at the time was very narrowly associated with top professional athletes. It had to widen its appeal and get to a route motivator that included sports and health for all.
During the soul searching, they identified procrastination as the root cause of America’s declining production and consumption at that time. Schools had laid off teachers and postponed many sporting events and health-related programs. It’s a long story but the first ad they ran for the “Just Do It” campaign tells it all:
Nike did use sound to help create its brand – most identifiable of all was the swoosh sound of the logo. It used music with its ads and videos to good effect. It has yet to translate its story into song! Any takers?
Good sonic branding is multimedia video, images, sound, music and technology, just like Coke’s anthem on the hilltop, which was followed up with the INNOVATION that made it possible to buy the world a Coke!
The best practices are to create your mission and story with the Kiss 7-Step Matrix: Be Personal, but be sure to clearly articulate the problem that you solve. Don’t complicate it – focus on one problem or feature only at a time and keep it simple. Focus on your reason WHY – the core thing that motivates you and your team, then create your story. Finally, share the story with high quality video production and translate your story into a song. That is the ultimate sonic branding that will create an authentic and engaging brand.
Sonic Branding is authentic – it reaches out to touch consumers with emotive and engaging media that connects and does not preach.
Meklit Hadero shows how the everyday soundscape, even silence, makes music. “The world is alive with musical expression,” she says. “We are already immersed.”
Joel Bekerman Founder and lead composer of man-made-music, in a interview with Ray Baird of BrandingBusiness defines “Sonic Branding” as the strategic use of music and sound to build brands. Its not just jingles or sounds but something that creates authentic brand identity and brings an emotional quality and personality to the brand.
Joel’s book Sonic Boom goes into this in depth offering examples of sonic identity from real sonic branding solutions. Adding Sonic identity, he says, is the process of translating the brand strategy into music, using the complete set of musical tools, instruments, with tune and score, rhythm and words that fit the brand.
Hertz Example
For Hertz, the key feature that management believe the team excel at is Speed. That is speed of service, delivery and speed in resolution to issues and errors.
Speed is the identity that management wanted to translated into a sonic representation for the company. But how do you represent speed in a set of music and sound element. Well there are many parts to this. There are sounds in the car, there are specific sounds when you call the company and when you drive the car.
Ultimately there must be, what Joel calls the sonic anthem, the music that is the long form sonic representation of the brand. In addition there is a sonic logo as a short form of the anthem. The logo is like a certificate or company graphics-logo of the brand. Unlike the anthem which is the entire inspirational story expressed in music, the logo is short and snappy. Speed Joel says is a journey, the logo is 15 seconds, galloping along but no song. The anthem is the song.
Amazon ebooks: Authentic Brands with Sonic Branding Solutions
Sound, they say, is now the cayene pepper of the brand. It is the spice and the personality that creates interest, empathy, engagement and loyalty of the authentic brand. A search on amazon will reveal several book and chief among them are the Sonic Boom and The Band and the Brand“. Both books complement each other. Sonic Boom takes the reader thought the philosophy of the sonic movement whereas the band brand is a practical guide.
The very latest book, “The Band and the Brand“, looks at Sonic Branding Examples, Solutions, Success and Failures, and provides the background on history as well as an update on brand marketing today exploring how sonic identity fits the new digital sharing economy. There are many current books that delve into sound and music in branding and marketing today. Latest Amazon ebooks on authentic brands sonic branding >>>>
The marketers behind this great event are The Confluence Group: A GLOBAL MEDIA AGENCY that works with many of the most influential brands, artists and causes in the world. They say “we help you make the biggest impact, leaving you to do what you do best”.
Right now Boston is calling with Eminem, Jack White and The Killers for its festival at the Harvard Athletic Complex on May 25 to 27.
h the fact that Sonic Branding through sound and music creates “distinct and memorable long term image of the brand”. This is one of its most cited advantage. The report looks at how these effects can be measured, and examines at the tools and techniques used to establish its effect on emotions, recall and its influence on buyer behavior.
sonicbrands 
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