Hunger and Situate at Lovebox

As another Lovebox newbie from the Brand Activation council, I was somewhat surprised at the physical scale of the festival area, and wondered how easily I would find my assigned brands, ‘Hunger’ and ‘Lula’ (magazines) and the community project ‘Situate’.

Our group arrived early in hope of finding the experiences before they became hidden amongst the vast crowds and queues that were due to ascend upon the festival. After a bit of a wander around, we found Situate with their colourful flags and wooden platforms- perfect landmarks for when the crowds did arrive!

On first glance, the idea was not obvious, but we found ourselves naturally gravitating towards the wooden structure at one of the tips of the triangle but it was not clear what the brand wanted us to do. After a little while, we were given pens and asked to sign our names onto the structure which, by then end of the day, was full of names – it seemed everyone’s inner kid loved the idea of doodling on the wall.

Visually, with the wood and colourful flags, the Situate stand fit in well with the general Lovebox vibe but, in my opinion, the experience was a missed opportunity for the brand. It would’ve been great to have been greeted as we walked into the space, told the project name and explained what the area was about. What exactly did the brand want us to do and why?

Having gone online to find out more about Situate and their activity at Lovebox, I found out that “the space will be brought to life through spoken word and lyrical flash mobs”. This was not expressed or promoted enough during the event, so the concept was very much lost.

The second brand I looked at was Hunger magazine. Unfortunately, I could not find a physical presence of the brand at the festival at all on the day of my visit (Friday). It appeared however, they were covering Lovebox online with several news pieces and social media posts.

They had, however, written a good guide to Lovebox – which directed people on how/where/when to find them:

“We’ll be hosting the VIP area on Saturday, so make sure you pay us a visit! As well as reading the current issue and sipping on a signature Hunger cocktail, you can get your portrait taken by Rankin’s talented team who’ll be setting up a special photo-shoot area on the day.”

Sounds great! Sadly, those that visited on Friday of the festival missed out on interaction with the brand as they were nowhere to be seen...

All in all with so much else going on at Lovebox I wonder how many people found these two brands at the festival – had I not been specifically keeping an eye out for them I certainly wouldn’t have unfortunately. With so many merry festival goers I feel this was a bit of a missed opportunity for both.