'Be A Headliner' Sees Hunter Ambush Glastonbury (& NHSBT Campaign)

While Glastonbury’s officially designated ‘Campaign Of The Year was its partnership with the NHS Blood And Transplant (NHSBT) on a blood donor recruitment drive called ‘Be This Year’s Headline Act’, the festival and the campaign were somewhat ambushed by trendy boot brand Hunter and its ‘Be A Headliner’ campaign.

While the NHSBT initiative was promoted via the official programme and newsletter, activated at an specially-constructed on-site stage where festivalgoers were invited to perform (as well as at a Green Futures Field registration stall and social activation via the hashtag #HeadlineAct), Hunter’s ambush spanned festival survival kits, new limited editions,, short films, social work and a celebrity ambassador programme.

Hunter’s #BeAHeadliner initially aimed to capitalise on pre-festival excitement and launched on 12 June through a set of four 16-second short online films – posted on Vine and YouTube featuring models dancing in new Glasto-inspired Hunter ponchos and jackets while being blasted by rain and sunny confetti.

The idea was to try and capture a moment of Glastonbury’s unique euphoria and the films consisted of ‘Bud + Aidan’,

‘Claire’,

‘Nina & Joseph’,

and ‘Raad’,

The brand also used the same creative style and tone to activate the campaign heavily on social media through the festival itself (24 – 28 June) – with Vines and tweets promoting its range from its signature Hunter boots (a long-standing festival staple) to its latest outerwear range.

Discover the Hunter Original #Beaheadliner Festival Edit now on http://t.co/cd5lO76dXS. #festival https://t.co/TJxoOfUzFr

— Hunter (@HunterBoots) June 25, 2015

It’s on-site, in-event activity was promoted across its social media channels and ranged from branded vans to its festival survival kits,

A Hunter van arrives with festival survival kits #Beaheadliner pic.twitter.com/wrR7VPXD4m

— Hunter (@HunterBoots) June 24, 2015

from its ponchos,

The Original Poncho spotted at #Glastonbury https://t.co/OwkXz0voJp

— Hunter (@HunterBoots) June 29, 2015

and its foil blankets,

Spotted: a festivalgoer wrapped in Hunter foil blankets at the Other Stage. #Glasto2015 #Glastonbury pic.twitter.com/J5zQPA6pxs

— Hunter (@HunterBoots) June 27, 2015

to its more familiar boots,

Celebrities Love… @HunterBoots http://t.co/5FbbQpRMQI #Glastonbury #Glasto2015 pic.twitter.com/xq7Hfol27O

— Red Carpet Fashion (@Fashion_Critic_) June 30, 2015

And, as has been the crucial tactic for Hunter in recent years, it also heavily amplified its set of Glastonbury Glitterati (Glastorati) endorser relationships across its social platforms.

A parade of entertainment and fashion industry ambassadors and influencers paraded around Glastonbury in Hunter products (less nature walk, more catwalk) and the brand tweeted photos and films of these influencers at play.

Personalised Hunter boots were a big endorser deal for Glastonbury 2015 and Hunter tweeted pictures of them being worn by its exclusive set of celeb endorsers such as model Poppy Delevinge,

Spotted at #Glastonbury: Model Poppy Delevingne wearing the exclusive personalised Hunter Original boots pic.twitter.com/ifCnQUMmfQ

— Hunter (@HunterBoots) June 30, 2015

model Suki Waterhouse and designer Stella McCartney,

.@SukiWaterhouse and @StellaMcCartney wear exclusive personalised Hunter Original boots at #Glasto2015 pic.twitter.com/DYaQk8XHYp

— Hunter (@HunterBoots) June 27, 2015

plus fashion writer Alexa Chung,

Spotted: Alexa Chung wearing Hunter Original at #Glastonbury pic.twitter.com/sT0v1jXVE2

— Hunter (@HunterBoots) June 27, 2015

and even actor Alexander Skarsgård.

Actor Alexander Skarsgård wears Hunter Original boots at #Glastonbury pic.twitter.com/SEGE1RTWgJ

— Hunter (@HunterBoots) June 28, 2015

This endorser customisation marketing strand, thee first time in its 159-year history, saw Hunter create one-off, unique festival designs and then sew the star’s name into its red logo.

The brand was also quick to post and tweet about which famous stars – from Bradley Cooper and Nick Grimshaw to James Bay and Daisy Lowe – were wearing its products backstage.

It’s social media activity also included more straightforward and sales-led Glastonbury ambush ads, such as for its Original Tall boot, our iconic design for the #festival season,

The Original Tall boot, our iconic design for the #festival season. Shop now at http://t.co/cd5lO76dXS https://t.co/XrPwqfvHJ2

— Hunter (@HunterBoots) June 28, 2015

.@TheWhitmore have the Tipi of her life at #Glastonbury festival (featuring the Hunter Original Slides) pic.twitter.com/Ls5BsKiS2Y

— Hunter (@HunterBoots) June 27, 2015

while on its website Hunter also ran a Glastonbury headlines blog.

Comment

For several years now the historic royal Hunter has been repositioning itself amongst the cool, celebrity set and style influencers through its engagement around festivals across the globe.

It was as long ago as 2008 that Hunter really began to seriously activate around Glastonbury and that year it launched a festival range and developed a charity partnership with one of the three core Glastonbury causes – Water Aid.

It continues this music festival focused marketing approach with further joint initiatives – such as its relationship with Kate Moss and her Glasto-chic set and a 2010 partnership with Blur member (and now Cotswold cheese-maker and farmer) Alex James.

What Hunter truly understands is that perhaps the best route to Glastonbury success is to avoid traditional marketing channels, and to know who and where the influencers and the ‘Glaristocracy’ are, to build brand-relevant backstage style relationships with them and then amplify those partnerships through snippet style content.

After all, for entertainment, music and fashion businesses, the Glastonbury trend setting elite can make or break a brand with a single tweet.

‘Be A Headliner’ provides a textbook case study of how to plan and execute this tactic.

But, come on, try not to ambush the festival’s official cause of the year initiative by choosing almost exactly the same name for your campaign.

Links:

Hunter Twitter:

https://twitter.com/HunterBoots

@HunterBoots

Hunter Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/HunterBoots

Hunter Blog:

http://www.hunterboots.com/discover/events-hunter-headlines-glastonbury/

Hunter YouTube: