HTC at Lovebox â just smoke and mirrors?

Music festivals have, for a long time, partnered with brands in order for them to really work as commercially viable events and as a result, and perhaps unsurprisingly, festivals have become a key arena for brands wanting to target young adults.

A study by AEG Live and Momentum Worldwide, last week found that Millennials who have attended a live music event in the past year are more likely to trust the brands partnered with that festival. In fact, 93% of 18-24 year olds actually like the brands that sponsor live music events.

It therefore didn’t come as a surprise to see the likes of Schuh, Corona and Nando’s at this year’s Lovebox festival. Schuh had a quirky photo booth with free photos and an in-store discount code, Corona had its own stage and Nando’s its own DJ booth –food, beer and free stuff: a no brainer for the largely 18-24 year old audience.

An interesting addition and one that I hadn’t so readily expected was HTC. In many ways it makes perfect sense. They powered the Lovebox app for example. However, in terms of its physical presence, HTC kind of hit the nail on the head, but kind of also missed the head completely.

What HTC did have was a mirrored tunnel-like installation that people could walk through, have their photo taken by a member of the promo team (with an HTC, of course), and then take a load of selfies in the mirror surrounding them. And… well that was more or less it.

There was little explanation from the copy on the outside of the installation (a replica of which was also on the Lovebox website), neither was there a whole lot of clarification from the people working the site. But I don’t blame them. I read the thing a number of times and still can’t make head or tail of it.

HTC’s premise, if you like, was this notion of ‘straylight’, described as “the light which follows paths other than the intended” (see below for the rest of the copy), and is supposed to reflect the ethos of the Lovebox/HTC brand of pursuing “the road less travelled”. Unless I’m missing something, I took this as pretty vapid, throwaway, gobbledegook. Though innocuous – it doesn’t really mean anything.

That’s not to say the installation wasn’t impressive – it looked great! Everyone loves a selfie and you couldn’t escape your reflection in the mirrored tunnel – I just wonder if anyone even noticed it was for HTC?

Anyway, we took a stroll through the giant mirrored kaleidoscope, took a few snaps, tweeted our pics and were on our way. I’ve since realised though (after scouring their Twitter), that they had some backstage activation in the VIP section, exactly what, I’m not too sure – they hardly let on at all on social media bar a few retweets and there was no build up prior to the event.

All in all, I left feeling that no real impression had been made and with no real desire to investigate the HTC brand any further. However, I will be using my Schuh discount code – thanks, guys!