Coachella’s Execution On Social Media Tactics
Nowadays, social media is becoming increasingly important in regards to a brand’s presence. It is extremely likely for consumers to turn away from a product or brand if they do not like its social media because in reality, social media represents who the company is, what it does, and how it chooses others to see it.
When it comes to events, social media is equally as important. There are many events who have taken the world by storm with their social media use, and have changed drastically over time to provide a strategy that works for potential consumers. The master of them? Coachella. Now, let’s talk about why.
History
To fully understand how it has evolved, we must first discuss its history. According to Coachella turns 20 this year. Here’s how the festival has changed from the beginning, Coachella has an extremely long history of liveliness and high energy.
The article explains that the music festival first began in 1999 at the Empire Polo Field in Indio, California. Paul Tollett and Rick Van Santen of music promoter Goldenvoice found the festival, hoping to attract a variety of artists and about 70,000 guests. The first lineup included multiple music genres and performances from Race Against The Machine, Tool, Beck, etc.
Since then, the festival has evolved incredibly. While it still has a wide genre of music, its performances are slightly different, and have recently included artists such as: Ariana Grande, Frank Ocean, 21 Savage, Childish Gambino, etc.
After over 20 years, the festival has continued to thrive and is often a hotspot for celebrities. But why is it so popular? The answer is simple, its social media strategy.
Coachella’s Social Media Strategy
Analytics
According to How Coachella uses digital marketing, there are a variety of tactics that help with its growth in regards to social media. The article explains that one thing Coachella focuses on is its analytics. On its website and social media platforms, it uses trackable URLs and analytics to track how many people have chosen content from its channel. It also has an RSVP on its Facebook App, where potential guests are encouraged to spread the word about the festival, and select their preferred dates. This is of course, before the festival and gets people excited about what is yet to come.
Planning and Social Media Platforms
Additionally, there are a variety of other tactics that Coachella uses for social media success, as explained in What Brands Can Learn From Coachella’s Social Media Marketing Mastery. The article mentions that Coachella also dedicates not only a month or two before the festival to advertise, but a whole year. In fact, there is a year-round marketing strategy put into place for the event.
The festival also keeps its social media platforms updated and ready, such as Instagram. With Instagram, the festival includes: stories sharing events of the day, highlights including recaps of everything festival goers love and imagery including its celebrities, art, and music. All of this is even hashtagged, tagged with targeted mentions and interacted with as they go.
Influencers
The festival also draws in a myriad of influencers, which are some of the most popular faces on the planet. These influencers work with the festival to bring in a larger crowd, as stated by How Brands Are Working With Influencers At Coachella 2018. As stated in the article’s title, brands also work with Coachella to promote their products by working with influencers. This is good promotion for the individual brand, but also for Coachella.
One example of this was H&Ms’s collaboration with Hailey Baldwin. The collaboration included shots with outfit inspiration for the event and generated high levels of engagement. The collaboration spread the word for H&M’s style, but also for Coachella. The photo received nearly 300K likes in a week and included the hashtag #HMLovesCoachella.
Coachella: The Music and Arts Festival Turned Social Media Obsession also explained that influencers often get their hair and makeup done for social media posts, and use professional photographers during the event. The more influencers that seem to post, the more popular the festival seems to become.
Although Coachella has had a massive success thus far with social media, it has yet to enter the world we live in today (2021). Which is why, there are suggestions recommended for how to go about things moving forward.
Before Event Suggestions
One major suggestion for Coachella is that they continue to use influencers for the event, but more specifically focus on TikTokers. As of the past two years, TikTokers have become huge in the pop culture industry, some of which have millions of followers. Coachella should have them post TikToks of them getting ready and ordering outfits for the event. They can also post on their different social media platforms.
Another suggestion is that Coachella discusses how it will implement COVID guidelines moving forward. If Coachella is very transparent on their policies, then perhaps people will feel more comfortable, therefore inclining them to attend. The festival can do this on multiple platforms such as: Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, etc.
During Event Suggestions
A recommendation for Coachella during the event would be to ensure that COVID guidelines are being followed, and post these changes as they are happening on social media. Again, this will lead people to trust the brand.
In regards to influencers, it is important to have them post at all times during the event, and create unique content on how it is different. This can include all kinds of posts, and will encourage others to attend the following year.
After Event Suggestions
One suggestion after the event would be for Coachella to conduct a survey for guests. If guests complete the survey, then they can perhaps receive a discount on the next year. The survey will be really helpful because it will let Coachella know what they can improve on, which performances worked more and what they should bring back.
Coachella should also include a countdown until they reveal performers for the next year, and give people an exclusive discount if they buy tickets before then. The countdown can include videos or graphics, and they can reveal the smaller performers first, and the headliners later. This will give people anticipation for the festival.
Now that we’ve discussed Coachella as a whole, it’ll be interesting to see what the festival comes up with in the year of 2021.
