Social networking has become a key ingredient in marketing events and driving ticket sales, and three of this summer’s big music festivals clearly illustrate that. Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, Lollapalooza and All Points West have all adopted Gydget, a social marketing platform that allows music groups and other organizations to reach their audiences on social networking and fan-based Web sites.
“Social marketing is the cornerstone of our festival promotion,” Kerry
Black of Superfly Productions, the co-producer of Bonnaroo, said in a statement. “Bonnaroo is about the community as much as the music. Creating a festival gydget allowed us to develop a communications platform to broadcast news, video, music and more across all social networks. We looked at many solutions but chose Gydget because it allowed us the most flexibility and customization.”
Added Nick Shuley of C3 Presents, producers of Lollapalooza, “We needed a technology partner to create a widget that could follow our strict branding guidelines while integrating premium content that we had already developed. By
allowing us to link to RSS feeds and YouTube channels, the Gydget updates
dynamically as new content is added, which helps to keep our audience current on all things Lollapalooza.”
Social networking sites have become fertile ground for advertising and promotion over the past few years, with several ticketing and concert-related companies launching Facebook applications and other viral marketing efforts.
“The All Points West Festival is all about connecting the fans to the music,” Glenn Miller, Internet Marketing Manager at AEG Live, said in a statement. “We felt the most integrated way to engage the community with our festival was through a branded widget. We all win when the fans feel they are a part of the marketing force and endorse the event with their friends.”
