For our Special Topics class, Rachel Munroe, Natassia Silva, and I have decided to find a music festival that needs a lot of help. We all three love branding and music with a fierce passion, so this only made sense. We wanted to find something that was in the PNW and in line with our music tastes.
We stumbled upon What the Festival: a fairly new music festival with great reviews. With all of the press releases we read online about attracting a more mature audience, we checked out their website:
The name, the name of the stages(OMG stage), and difficult and clumsy navigation, all did not align with what we had been reading online. We chose to move forward with WTF.
Creative Brief
Project: WTF Rebrand and Marketing Campaign
Background
Please summarize the history of the company.
First festival was in 2012. The Boyds and their small team of veteran organizers splurged on musical acts and amenities to attract a more mature crowd. They had hoped to draw 1,200 at best. Instead, they sold out at 2,000. Attendees gave the weekend high marks for its production values.2013: Having already outgrown the valley, this year WTF bought Wolf Run Ranch, a beautiful 250-acre stretch abutting Mt Hood National Forest, which will allow it to host 5,000 fest goers.
Please describe the product/project./service your company provides.
What The Festival is a boutique experience of art, electronic and live music located 90 miles east of Portland, Oregon June 17th - 20th 2016.The festival offers a round-the-clock immersive experience featuring music on 7 stages, experiential art, silent disco, movement classes, workshops, a hookah bar, ambient cocktail lounges, spa treatments. All of this takes place on the private breathtaking 250 acre Wolf Run Ranch.
“People are bored with what’s offered out there—the concert-focused fests like Sasquatch that are very formulaic and corporate,” Boyd says.“A festival as we see it pulls on art and creates an immersion experience. I think we’re just at the beginning of this getting really big.”The festival will showcase a diverse set of sub-genres in the electronic and dance music scene to headline the event. The various main-stage acts include the jazz and hip hop influenced styles of Big Gigantic and GRiZ, the inspiring, chill tones of ODESZA, and the grimy trap energy of Keys n Krates. There will also be an eclectic set of supporting acts that guarantees a party for every palate at this year’s event.
Does the company or product/project/service have an established reputation
or perception in the marketplace?
Overwhelmingly positive. A superior festival experience, with a more mature audience. They believe that the festival will provide an immersive music experience with a good lineup.
The Audience
Is there a secondary audience or potential growth audience?
The audience is 18-35. Locals, and people from the Northwest. People who like edm, and electronic music, who have the funding and time to enjoy a more mature music/camping festival experience.
What do you want the audience to do e.g. make a donation, contact you, and learn about you, become a loyal customer?
We want our audience to become loyal customers. We also want our audience to market for us by word of mouth and social media.
Primarily Electric Daisy Carnival in Las Vegas. It is held the exact same dates as EDM Festival. Other competitors include Paradiso, Electric Forest, Burning Man, Decibel, FYF and other electronic based music festivals.
What sets your company apart from them?
We are a more mature music festival experience connecting in nature. A summer camp for adults. The art installations(The Illuminated Forest).
Are there any key attributes of your product/service that is unique from your competitors?
What the Festival Rebrand Project
Creative Brief
Background
The Audience
The Competition