To reach the audience of over 13 million consumers aged 18-24 who attend major music festivals each year, we created #GarnierMusic, an innovative product immersion experience at five of the nation’s hottest festivals: Bonnaroo, Coachella, Big Barrel, Firefly, and iHeartRadio.
#GarnierMusic provided festival-goers with a shareable, lasting experience, designed for full brand immersion with direct on-site product sampling that included free hair-washing and styling.
At the heart of our program, we provided something all festival fans crave – a cool hair wash and hot new style, delivered via a multi-sensory experience that maximized brand immersion: The Garnier Salon.
Over the course of these three-day festivals, our 40'x40' custom-built, fully-enclosed Garnier Salon provided on-site hair washes, color consultations, and styling by professional stylists, using Garnier products, for up to 80-90 concertgoers at a time. To manage the crowds that would start forming as early as 7:00 AM, we developed a sophisticated digital queue system that ensured a seamless, hassle-free brand experience.
The Salon experience also allowed attendees to ‘Rock Their Style’ socially via photo activations and social integration on-site.
Given the nature of camping-based festival weekends, on-site showers are always in hot demand. So, Garnier took over all showers on the grounds at each of the five festivals during the dirtiest of days, providing free product upon entrance and exit, thus allowing every consumer who showered to directly experience Garnier products.
We also distributed festival survival kits to festivalgoers, featuring sample product and free branded swag, like sunglasses, bandanas, and hair ties, to support festival style. The kits were sampled to artists, VIPs, and early arrivals at the hair-washing queue, and were also seeded socially to contest winners online.
For concertgoers rushing between catching their favorite music acts, we set up Garnier self-style stations throughout each festival. These mini-stations enabled attendees to quickly touch up their looks using Garnier’s hottest styling products, while the brand benefited from engagement across the entire festival footprint.
We built credibility and relevance with our audience by partnering with notable artists like ToveLo and Phoebe Ryan to style their looks for their festival performances, while also giving select consumers VIP access throughout the weekend.
We further leveraged artist relationships with ToveLo, Tori Kelly, and Phoebe Ryan by aligning with audience-relevant media outlets like MTV, VH1, and Fuse to capture and seed on-site content and interviews.
Before, during, and after each festival weekend, we partnered Garnier with beauty and style influencers like @imjennim and @happilygrey to seed product, encourage reviews, and engage followers. Bloggers and vloggers visited the on-site Garnier Salon to chat with fans, get their hair styled, and capture content for their online fan bases.
