Marketing Initiatives and Strategy for the Festival - Assignment Example

The Strategy • The “Green” Message Environmental concerns continue to be a key concern for all and sundry in the Festival. In the past two years, major progress has been made encouraging the struggle in opposition to pollution of the streams thus stirring better waste management practices! I would suggest that the “Green” message should be raised and encouraged from the beginning - chiefly discouraging people from urinating in streams and hedges and persuading them to only use the toilets and urinals made available, and following the “Bin it, Bag it, And Recycle it” message which should be highlighted staunchly in the Festival’s Environmental Statement. Preceding to the occasion the “Green” message should be included in Festival publicity material, on the Festival website, in the Fine Guide and should be included in make contact with the media. During the event all efforts should be made that the visitors must not miss the “green” messages. They must be stated in the program and the news papers, there must be highly observable posters and announcement and the message must be reinforced from the main stages. The Festival should also go on to working with sponsors in promoting recycling! • Personal Security Ticket security when coming to the event, safety in the car parks, leaving cars visibly clear, the support supplied by Campsite Stewards and the use of property lockups should all be highlighted. • No Ticket No Show Messages to the media should continue to reaffirm that admission without tickets purely will not take place. Promotional material should be delivered to educational institutes and should be circulated at events where public who may be lured to approach without a ticket can be found. Radio and the internet can play its part in supporting this point. The event website notice boards should be observed repeatedly and the internet community can be very helpful in supporting this movement. Marketing Initiatives The following marketing media can be developed to encourage the promotion: • Media & Press Glastonbury Festival has over thirty year familiarity in the use of media to successfully express messages to its viewers. The marketing campaign should use a cross range of music industry, journalism, nationwide and local titles, radio and the web. The music industry titles that can be used are Q Magazine, NME, Mix-Mag, MoJo and Kerrang. Regarding newspapers, The Guardian has a staunch authority on the Glastonbury Festival visitors; however there are other powerful papers as well, such as Time Out Magazine, student papers and The Big Issue. Most of the audiences arrive from the South West, mainly from Bristol and Bath area, and they represent one of the main aims in this campaign, so the use of local press can be vital to the movement. • Advertising Advertising has a significant job to play. Advertisements to be placed in national and music press, specially in the following local dailies - The Mid Somerset Series, The Bath Chronicle, The Bristol Evening Post, Venue, Weston & Somerset Mercury Series, Bridgewater Mercury, Burnham & Highbridge Weekly News, Somerset County Gazette, Standard & Guardian Weekly Group, Sedgemoor Express and Star, Yeovil Express, Yeovil Times, Blackmoor Vale & Fosseway magazines & The Western Daily Press, • Press Liaison The Press can be fully briefed on the topics by a series of seminars and press releases. Media interest will be at its peak around the licensing meetings. Subsequent to that, at the launch of ticket sales, at the announcement of the line up, and in the days running up the Carnival, briefings will say again the key Press Release messages. • Editorial and Press Articles One of the most winning and successful methods of developing the profile of any Festival has been through the publicity of articles and editorials. The leading media presence at any UK music fiesta has been Glastonbury. Every week local, national and international press approach the fiesta for interviews. Such opportunities can be used to support a message and special interviews can help support the campaign. • Flyers Student unions will be approached to distribute flyers. Visiting people along with travelers will also be targeted this year, flyers will also be distributed at small and big music and various organized events before the 2007 Festival. • Radio The principal national radio station for the younger audience, Radio 1, will be a key avenue to communicate the “No Ticket; No Show” message, other youth stations such as XFM and City Radio will also be approached. Local radio will help us in targeting our key audience. In thus urge we would be approaching and using; 1) Orchard FM 2) Radio Bristol 3) Bath FM 4) Somerset Sound 5) GWR 6) Vibe and 7) Radio Bridgwater • Internet Weeks before the festival, the official website; www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk is expected to register over forty million visitors. PR messages from the Regulatory Board License meeting the actual event will be the main article on the home page, headlines and festival updates will be continuously updated and run. During the event, the PR strategy will be supported as required by the website team based backstage. Commercial websites such as; www.virtualfestivals.co.uk, www.efestivals.co.uk and other sponsors, supporters and beneficiaries have agreed to work with the Festival on this campaign by providing their websites for advertising, specially Oxfam, Greenpeace, Playlouder, The Guardian, Radio 1, Wateraid and Emap. • On Site Persuasion The use of graphic information about the work of charities on the stage screen will continue in the Glastonbury Festival, to highlight that by paying foe a ticket they have a direct life or death impact on those the Festival supports. In order to drive home the “Green Message”, on site graphic environment images, signage, posters, the program, daily paper articles and the “Green Police” will be utilized. • Public Transport Advertising will take place by the National Express Coaches in regional cities and the coached will only take people with valid GF tickets to the site. Similarly, these companies will advertise that only ticket holders will be transported to the festival site. • Competitions Any approved ticket competitions in 2007 will support the core message. Success Measures Record of all press coverage will be cut and documented to confirm that the intended activity specified in the actual plan did take place. Environmental monitoring will be carried out by the Festival Infrastructure Manager and will inform upon the effectiveness of the Green Message, s/he could point to changes in approach during the festival – on spot. Onsite and ongoing monitoring of the biodiversity of the festival will highlight both positive and negative impacts to ecology of the site and will inform for further activity. Timetabling The campaign will start only after the license is granted, which will be followed by a page advertisement in the newspaper edition of Q magazine and on the GF website. The message and festival will take a higher profile with the ticket purchasers closer to the event and during the event itself, so will the message of personal security. Continuous monitoring media coverage will be undertaken by the implementation team and they will further take judgment on the need to make any further changes. Implementation Success of the campaign will highly depend on the employment of a dedicated team of individuals with sufficient knowledge of the festival and extensive media coverage. They will be held responsible for the successful implementation of the campaign, reporting back to the Promoter, the Licensee and to MDC. Flexibility will be given to the team to respond to media as the campaign progresses. GF is confident that the objectivities of the plan can be achieved and that the implementation team will once again win maximum media coverage for the core messages. Implementation cost of this marketing plan is estimated to be £150,000. In addition the Festival can entertain agreements with various companies/organizations to a notional value of £250,000. Conclusion However the main issue remains the same as of the previous years, therefore the plan for 2007 is more of a mirror image of the previous years, only which were successful in the past. The proposed activities have been carefully and critically considered and will be undertaken in full knowledge of the importance of the previous success. Implementation of this plan will build on the work of the past years and continuity will ensure greater reinforcement of the core message. Read More