Lovebox â Beer Today, Gone Tomorrow

I had not been to a festival for seven years (two children has put a break on the partying) – in fact the last one I had been to was Lovebox, so I was eager to see how it had moved on as an event, but also to see how well the brands present were activating their sponsorships.

As I arrived at event, the format was similar to how I remember it - a variety of stages/arenas interspersed with food, drink and fun stuff to do – standard festival get up. But the demographic was very different from my last visit – someone asked me over the weekend what the crowd was like – ‘a raver version of the TOWIE cast’ was my response.

So what about the brands present? I had been given the brief to look at two popular beers – Corona and Becks Vier – good news! So how did they get on? Beer at a festival – great fit – what could go wrong?

First off Corona. Corona were hosting ‘The Corona Sunset Stage’ which promised to ‘bring the sounds of the Balearics to Lovebox’. Did it deliver against this? Yes. If you ignored the tower-blocks at the periphery of Victoria Park you could easily be partying on the white isle. So what about the activation? The experience itself was good – the design was the right fit for festival, the DJ pleased the crowd with his Balearic classics set and the bar staff were knowledgeable - the execution was slick. But what about the surround sound – did the experience live beyond the festival itself? Not quite. The popular Corona Facebook and Twitter pages both pre-promoted the event and content from the event was shared after, but there was a disconnect. If you were not already an existing member of Corona’s social channels there was no call to action at the event to join the conversation online, which seemed like they were missing a big trick. A shame since the rest was very impressive.

Becks’ presence was very different. Rather than having a big experience, they simply had groups of ‘jet-pack’ sales teams roaming the site selling pints. This may have been their business objective, and I am sure it was very lucrative, but will people remember Becks at Lovebox? In my view, no. Becks had a great opportunity to create a deeper engagement with the tens of thousands of consumers in attendance but failed to do this, in my opinion.

Beer will always sell at festivals, but is it worth spending money on activating beyond the pouring rights? In my view – yes, but it has to deliver an experience that continues the conversation beyond the event itself. Successful brand activation at an event like Lovebox should be live, interactive as well socially engaging if it is to cut through.

Right, I’m off to get a spray tan and buy some short, shorts ahead of my next festival visit. Reem