Hello, hello! Happy Friday to everyone out there!

We're back with a fresh and exciting edition to kickstart the weekend.

A special shout-out and warm welcome to all our new friends who just hopped on board this week. We're absolutely thrilled to have you join our community. Let's dive right in!

In this issue, we have our follow-up chat with Senior Marketing Manager at Untitled Group, Steph Mrmacoski. In Part 2, we discussed technology's impact on the music festival landscape, influencer marketing, future trends, and more.

Also, in this week’s edition:

• Beyond The Valley Hotline Teaser Campaign.

• Seamless Ticketing Experience.

• BandLab's NME Revival.

Unpacking the Current State of Festival Marketing with Steph Mrmacoski: Part 2

Thank you for joining us for part two of our discussion with Untitled Group’s Senior Marketing Manager, Steph Mrmacoski. In case you missed it, last week we had the pleasure of catching up with Mrmacoski, who shared her insights on the current state of festival marketing and Untitled Group’s strategic approach to changing consumer behaviours. You can check that out here.

This week, we’re unpacking technology’s impact on the music festival landscape, influencer marketing, future trends in music marketing, and more.

Working with Changing Tech

As a team who specialise in appealing to youth culture, Mrmacoski explained that Untitled Group remains adaptive to the ever-changing digital landscape.

“We always work to keep on top of trends but feel it’s important to not always be immediately reactive to them. Rather, we see if and how they fit into our overall strategy,” she said.

“Developments in AI is something we definitely keep up to date with, however we have found that AI and computer generated content can be quite alienating to the user. Since a music festival is inherently a human experience, we want to reflect that in our marketing. Taking risks is important, but it has to make sense for the experience and the brand.”

Embracing Trending Platforms

The rise of video-sharing platforms, like TikTok and Instagram, have also had a significant impact on music festival marketing.

Mrmacoski shared how Untitled Group’s strategy has embraced this new popularity, saying, “...producing and sharing festival content tailored to each platform is more important than ever.”.

“Over the last couple years, we’ve found new and creative ways to utilise Instagram. While it’s still a space to showcase experiential and lineup focused content, it can also be used to share important event comms and educate our audience.”

“The explosion of TikTok has changed the way brands communicate with their audiences. If you look back a few years, content was generally quite polished and refined - but this type of content doesn’t resonate as well on TikTok.”

“TikTok has begun shifting festival marketing away from showcasing perfectly polished festival moments to spotlighting real and raw moments that are relatable and emotive.”

@beyondthevalleyfest

@nellyfurtadoofficial joining @domdolla at BTV 2022 for Glue x Say It Right ✨ #NellyFurtado #DomDolla #BTV #BeyondTheValley #BTV2022 #Unti... See more

Collaborating with Influencers

Alongside video-sharing platforms, we discussed how influencer marketing has risen to popularity over the past few years, and how Untitled Group collaborates with influencers on their campaigns.

“We jumped onto this as soon as we recognised that influencer marketing was on the rise. We have worked closely with the same influencer marketing team for five years, who are now part of Untitled Group’s agency arm, Underscore.”

“We have well established relationships with influencers and creators across Instagram and TikTok Australia-wide who are major fans of Untitled Group and our events. There’s a lot of authenticity with who we work with. We feel it’s key that they love our brands.”

“As each festival is unique, we carefully tailor our influencer strategy to suit each festival. No two campaigns are the same,“ she explained.

Measuring Campaign Success

When it comes to determining the success of their music marketing campaigns, Mrmacoski shared that Untitled Group takes a comprehensive approach, by looking at a wide range of metrics.

“Overall, for a festival campaign, the key objective is to sell tickets, and we strive to keep our marketing cost per ticket as low as possible, so monitoring conversion campaigns and Cost Per Customer Acquisition is paramount,” she said.

Mrmacoski also cited the following key festival marketing metrics:

• Post engagement: audience reactions, likes shares and comments.

• Website and ticketing page insights: session analytics.

• Email marketing: open rates and click through rates.

• Video view count, watch time and cost per view.

• Click through rates and cost per clicks.

“Additionally, Untitled analyses presale registration benchmarks, presale conversions, and the amount of new vs returning attendees,” she said.

Future Trends

Mrmcoski also shared three emerging trends that she believes will shape music marketing in the near future. These were; values-based marketing, user-generated content, and personalised experiences.

Speaking of values-based marketing, she said “Continued connection with audiences and making an authentic effort to showcase shared values and social awareness is an emerging trend that is here to stay."

“People, in particular our target demographic being Gen Z, expect brands to articulate the value of their offering; effectively communicating a festival’s value through considered and quality content can be another opportunity to set your event apart in a saturated market.”

On user-generated content, Mrmacoski said, “both Beyond The Valley and Pitch Music & Arts were organically trending in the weeks leading into the festivals as the excitement for the events grew amongst our community. User-generated content is nothing new, but with the continued rise of platforms like TikTok, I think this is a trend that is here to stay.”

And finally, on personalised experiences, she said, “music fans are opting for more personalised festival experiences. I think we’ll see an uprising in uniquely tailored festival add-ons, VIP experiences and more originality in sponsored activations.”

Staying Informed

Mrmacoski also shared how she stays up-to-date about changes to the market, and festival marketing in general. She explained that weekly in-house marketing catch-ups, alongside market research are her go-to approaches.

“Looking at case studies of festivals overseas, rather than just here in Australia keeps us informed and inspired on a global scale. This helps us remain at the forefront of festival marketing nationally.”

Traditional Marketing’s Value

We also discussed the value of traditional marketing methods, despite the rise of digital music marketing strategies.

Mrmacoski said, “we do focus most of our attention on digital marketing. However we still see the value in traditional marketing methods such as Out Of Home and radio. They’re a strong reinforcement tool and help combat market saturation. Plus, they’re a great branding exercise!”

The Takeaway

Thanks to our conversations with Steph Mrmacoski, we’ve been reminded of the importance of agility and flexibility in music marketing strategies.

An adaptive approach to festival marketing is best, and that’s been exemplified by Untitled Group’s work, especially over the past year.

^{Written by Olivia Gliku}

In Other Music Marketing News

Beyond The Valley Hotline Teaser Campaign: Victoria's much-loved new years music festival, Beyond The Valley, has kicked off its anticipation-building teaser campaign for the upcoming event.

Starting with a hotline released on social media and complemented by an engaging out-of-home campaign, organisers have set the stage for a thrilling lineup reveal.

Fans who dialled the hotline were treated to a voice message encouraging them to take a guess at this year's performers.

💡Insight - It's awesome to see Beyond The Valley launch this year's teaser campaign. Hotlines have been used for album launches many times (we did it with Gang Of Youths in 2021), but not often for festivals, so it's refreshing.

Getting the audience engaged both online and in the real world, like picking up the phone to dial a number, is a big tick in our book! - NL

Seamless Ticketing Experience: Australia's renowned ticketing giant, Ticketek, has joined forces with Spotify's Live Events Feed as an official partner.

In an innovative move, Spotify users will receive personalised concert recommendations tailored to their listening habits and taste profiles.

This collaboration aims to create a seamless ticketing purchase experience, making it easier for fans to discover and attend live events that resonate with their preferences.

The integration promises to bring an enhanced level of convenience and a seamless ticketing experience.

💡Insight - Not sure what this means for the existing Songkick integration, but anything that can help artists sell more tickets can only be a good thing. Will more ticketing companies join in? What fan data is shared between them? Keen to learn more. - NL

BandLab's NME Revival: BandLab Technologies is set to revive the iconic UK music media brand, NME, as a global bi-monthly print magazine.

This development comes five years after NME ceased its physical publication, transitioning to an online platform. Notably, NME launched a monthly print magazine in Australia in 2020.

The new global print edition aims to serve as a comprehensive guide for music and pop culture enthusiasts, with a particular emphasis on highlighting emerging artists and bands.

Speaking to Variety, NME Networks COO Holly Bishop stated, “We believe there's value in scarcity, mirroring the hype and buzz created in the fashion world, particularly around sneaker drops.”

Bishop went on to say “our approach to the magazine is about super-serving our super fans through this physical medium, creating a pop-culture bible to capture a moment in time.”

💡Insight - Is print media making a comeback? I don’t know, but I do know most people are looking for more ways to detach from their phone.

What I admire here the most is Bandlab, a music creation app, with over 60million users is willing to bring fresh ideas to old things. They also purchased Reverbnation, and just relaunched this week. - NL

Learn

Deciphering the YouTube Shorts Algorithm: Paddy Galloway, a renowned expert in YouTube growth strategies, recently conducted an extensive study of 3.3 billion views with the aim of understanding the YouTube Shorts Algorithm.

For a detailed analysis, you can refer to the complete thread here.

Here are the key findings but you should definitely check out the whole thread.

1. As expected, the algorithm favours videos that retain viewers for longer durations.

2. The initial 1 to 2 seconds of a Short should be highly engaging, serving as a virtual thumbnail.

3. Shorts can effectively boost subscriber growth.

4. Shorts are currently not significant revenue generators (yet).

Press Worthy

• ‘An appalling instinct for branding’: designers react to Twitter’s ‘X’ rebrand.

• Lana Del Rey Works a Shift at a Waffle House in Alabama.

• TikTok is adding support for text posts.

• Madonna has discreetly launched six albums in 2023.

• Facebook surpasses 3 billion monthly active users.

• How the Barbie Movie Soundtrack Became a Viral Success

• Excitement over Threads fades but users return to app.

• Spotify CFO Hints at More Layoffs in Earnings Call.

ICYMI

Catch up on our recent stories:

• The Marketing of Peach PRC's Chart-Topping EP

• Inside The Teskey Brothers' Chart-Topping Album Campaign: Part 1

• Behind Arlo Parks’ ‘My Soft Machine’ Release

Written by Olivia Gliku and Nick Lynagh.

Promoed is created and published by Habit Music Pty Ltd.

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^{We acknowledge the Turrbal people, the Traditional Owners of the land on which we stand, and pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging.}