At this year’s Bilbao’s BBK Live music festival, sponsor Vodafone is bringing more than just music to its branded tent in summer 2012 with a rock star make-up initiative for festival goers that spans both the physical and the digital worlds.
The telco has sponsored Bilbao BBK Live, Bilbao’s leading annual rock and pop music festival for several years. After steadily building interest and credibility through the 2010 and 2011 festivals, the Vodafone tent has now established itself as one of the best stages at Bilbao BBK Live and is primarily dedicated to the national music scene.
For this year’s event, the Vodafone tent is offering a musician ‘lookey-likey’ make-up service for festival attendees who are also Vodafone customers.
Music lovers were offered the chance to get their faces made-up by top make-up artists to recreate the iconic look os music legends such as David Bowie and Robert Smith.
Once the transformation was complete, the brand staff then took photographs of the finished look which were then turned in to animated GIFs which were both projected by a VJ onto thee stage backdrop at the shows and uploaded to the event’s website where people could share them across their own social networks.
An additional activity participation driver aimed to build momentum behind the initiative through competition – with the picture that got the highest number of ‘Likes’ winning a new Samsung Galaxy Tab 2.
In 2012 the Vodafone Bilbao BBK festival line-up was once again led by up-and-coming, cutting-edge Spanish bands, star DJs and various international acts playing until the sun comes up. Some of this year’s top acts include Valencia’s La Habitacion Roja, Getxo’s McEnroe, hedonistic posters Varry Brava and neo-techno dance act Elbis Rever.
Vodafone also backed the festival app. Before the action kicked off, music fans were able to visit the festival site, scan a QR code to download a utility-led app that included travel, hotel and line-up information.
App for Bilbao BBK Live Festival 2012.
The festival itself is held on a complex built specifically for the event on the slopes of Mount Cobetas in the south west of the city. While the first event in 2006 was organised by Basque musical promoter Last Tour International and sponsored by the Bilbao City Hall under the name Bilbao Live Festival, it has now blossomed into more of an international festival and attracts major global sponsors.
In 2007 local savings bank Bilbao Bizkaia Kutxa became the event’s title sponsor – hence the Bilbao BBK name.
Since then attendances have doubled from 50,000 to 100,000 and in recent years has been nominated for both the ‘Best Foreign Festival’ by the UK Festival Awards andthe ‘Best Medium-Sized European Festival’ at the European Festivals Awards.
Comment
Backing Bilbao BBK Live is just one part of Vodafone’s music festival sponsorship portfolio. Indeed,
Vodafone now sponsors some of the world’s best music events and festivals using a strategy based around giving its customers unique live experiences.
It is expanding offering ranges from presale tickets for Vodafone customers (typically 48 hours before they go on general sale), to organising Vodafone’s own secret shows on MySpace and in real world venues and offering exclusive promotions, meet and greets and VIP passes for Vodafone customers.
This programme revolves around a centralised online site as well as further participatory brand-owned music online destinations such as the blogsite Myusic. This digital initiative aims to provide Vodafone customers both an experience of and some power over live music via this digital mixed media programme utilising web 2.0, social media and consumer and professional blogging and this is further supported by banner campaigns and site takeovers.
Some have suggested that Vodafone’s digital music strategy has been a little lacking in the past, but the brand has certainly boosted the online strands of its music work and making them better connected to the physical, live elements.
This live festival make-up link to social media sharing is a prime example of the direction the brand is moving.
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