10 Reasons for a Music Festival to have a Mobile App

We think that smartphones and Music Festivals owe a lot to each other.

In less than 10 years mobile has transformed the music industry. CD sales are plummeting and downloads are soaring. Corners of living rooms and walls of bedrooms have been reclaimed again with these tiny devices holding all of your music. The likes of Spotify and YouTube have turned us into streamers rather than owners of music. Boxes of CD’s are joining the boxes of vinyl up in the attic.

The demise of 7” single sales has had further knock-on effects: The Charts have vanished, music has all-but disappeared from mainstream TV and so bands now need to perform live to get by and promote their music. This is expensive and risky to do on your own and this has led in part to the huge rise in the Music Festival industry as bands ‘tour’ festivals.

So you could say that in many ways the music festival and the mobile phone are good mates. The music demographic, the festival demographic and the mobile demographic must be a ridiculously good match.

 

So mobile is booming. Music festivals are booming. But a quick check on the app stores and very few music festivals appear to have a mobile app. Why is that? Here's two thoughts. Apps for this kind of purpose are still a fairly new idea as mobile overtakes the PC and the cost to produce and App has been traditionally in the ten of thousands.

Here Pockit World we think the now is absolutely the right time for festivals to produce their own app, the with our costs to produce an app being much lower than you think its time to close that gap in the market!

So here are 10 reasons why your music festival needs a mobile app.

 

1.      Sell Tickets!

This is the #1 priority of any festival. There is so much fixed cost involved in putting on a festival that unless you are called Michael or Emily then you have probably got some selling to do. A quick browse around some big festival names - Latitude, Reading, Leeds, V, Download, Isle of Wight, T in the Park – and they all have some or all of their ticket availability for sale. So how will a mobile app help?

Stand out from the crowd. The world’s gone mobile. Not everyone is sat at a PC anymore clicking around your lavish website. People are out and about. Anyone interested in your festival will have the chance to download the app and experience some of your buzz before they dive in and book.
Also, loads of people going to your festival will download the app. People going to festivals love to talk about that and share it.

“I’m going to T in The Park!”
“Cool. Who’s on?”
“Let me show you….”

With your app on their phone you will have 100’s and 1000’s of mini sales agents running around showing your line up and sharing your ticket sales page.

2.      Promote Your Acts

We can put on your app YouTube clips, Twitter, Vines and a full music download section for iTunes on Apple or 7 Digital on Android. This means that your people can sample and listen to your bands and you can keep your headliners very happy by having sections of your app featuring them and boosting their music sales.

3.      Festival Buddy

For a lot of people this will be their first time and many others will be out of practise. So you can feature shopping lists, what to take, helpful hints, links to other peoples Blogs to help everyone get the most out of their wild weekend. We can fill your app up with content pages, PDF material, web links and all sorts to make it totally useful for everyone who goes.

4.      Line-ups

How much money is spent on printing and once it is printed what if there is a change? Oops. But this is the big question on site. Who is on? Where? And are they any good? Your app can display the line up in all sorts of ways.

5.      Site Information

As above. Think printing costs and what can be transferred onto digital. Map, Directions, Site information, Stage Maps, Campground information, Lock ups, Mobile charging….. plenty to get out to the masses on here. Oh, and a weather link might be good.

 

6.      Generate Revenue

Of course a festival is not just about the music. There are shops, services, bars, food, merchandise and all sorts of concession stands who have paid good money to be there and would like to join in on the app. Through the app you could advertise availability, discounts, Happy Hours, promote causes, charities, shows, talks, presentations and good things happening over the weekend.

It’s up to you. Use the app as powerful a leverage and attract commercial partners. With our QR code feature you could have deals within the app such as “Go to the AA Tent / Vodafone Orange Mobile / Oxfam tent, scan their QR Code and get Free Ear Plugs / Mobile Charge / Coffee…..”. With all the money that these partners invest in getting to site your app can guarantee them the footfall. How happy would that make them? And how much would it be worth?

Sponsorship. If you are looking to secure a festival sponsor then the app is just the most amazing platform to bundle into the deal.

Finally though, be cool. Don't have rubbish Ads on the app. Your typical festival go-er (well done us for getting this far before calling someone a "festival go-er") will reject that stuff immediately.

7.      Digital Tannoy

Push Notifications are an extremely important part of the functionality. You can send promotional messages, Line-Up changes alerts, remind about site rules and safety, lost children, traffic coming to and going home from the Festival. This gives you an instant news channel – a digital tannoy. You can even send a message to a selected area!

8.      Your brand

An app will make have you seen as a dynamic, forward-thinking and welcoming Festival. We can 100% brand an app as yours. If you are a niche or charitable festival with a purpose this is vitally important.

Also, Unofficial App’s spring up from time to time which takes your brand out of your control. Tackling that legally is costly and unseemly. The fact that they appear suggests that there is a major gap in the market and demand for them.

 

9.      See you next year then? 

Repeat customers are just the best. People who have had a great time will come back and you will create a massive fan base that you can build on. A mobile app will add value to the experience of not just the festival-goer but also the bands, concession community, suppliers and your partners. Adding images, video, and all sorts of Post-Festival coverage and content will help you grow your fans.

10.  Finally, have a bit of fun. 

Have a giggle with it and involve the app into the festival programme. Not only will the app bring all of your social media into one area – Twitter, Facebook, Instagram – you can add interactive features and sharing features in all sorts of ways. How about a Crowd Cam, Chat Wall, Feedback tabs as well as a Best Wellies, Best Tent, Best Fancy Dress competitions. 

For more information Follow Us on Twitter @PockitWorld, email us at theteam@pockitworld.com, visit www.pockitworld.com and we are also on FestivalNet.

We’d love to hear from you!

Facebook buys WhatsApp: The Cost of Social Media

WhatsApp?

You normally wait until your 16^th Birthday to do something outrageous. In brief, the 10 Year-Old Facebook has bought WhatsApp - an app that allows youngsters to LOL at each other - for some $16 to $19 billion dollars. OK, ‘only’ $4 Billion in cash, but it’s enough to live on. We look at what is in store for social media, digital marketing and business.

What does this mean … for Facebook

Well, that was a whopper of a deal.  Facebook needs growth and presence in emerging markets. WhatsApp has half a Billion users. This will allow them to capture the younger social media generation that they have been missing out on, adopt some technology and, of course, head off a major competitor at the pass.

It’s a tricky move taking out your competition. It can horrendously expensive when they are in a strong position, which WhatsApp are. Much of this deal is in equity so the true cost can be argued is far less. Facebook will be worth so much more by swiping market share so by diluting its stock its probably in a decent position overall - albeit letting any new start-up App Team that they too could have a SuperYacht if they are any good.

One thing is for sure, Instagram will be kicking themselves. In 2012 they sold to Facebook for an eye-watering $1Billion at the time.  Which might not be enough to live on or at least the Yacht will be smaller.

Where does this leave Facebook?

This is a very interesting year for the giant of social media. Floated in 2012 for something along the lines of the total GDP of Sweden (we don’t know, we’ve just made that up. It was probably more) the stakes are very high now.

Far from being the jeans-wearing, Starbucks waving and skateboard-in-the-office entrepreneurs of freedom, connectivity and sharing the landscape of social media now is big business.

On the surface Facebook is still great place to post about your life, complain, complain about people complaining or just read about people complaining about people complaining. It’s easy to knock it (“I’m on it but I never GO on it”) but in truth it’s really very good.

Yes, there are more Sponsored messages, more Suggested Pages and the news feeds act funny at times but its underneath is where things are changing.

What does it mean for business?

To get noticed and sell your stuff you had the old school advertising media of TV, Radio, print and the High Street. Each is its own way of getting in front of buyer traffic. These have all been getting slaughtered by the internet for quite some time now.  

Google was the biggest disrupter.  My iPad is now bigger than my Yellow Pages which is a sign of the times. But soon Google began to line us all up every month to pay dues to the SEO guys just to point a bit of the internet jet stream at their business.

Then along came Facebook. It was a superb antidote to the costs of all of the above. Set up a page. Stick on some funny pictures and away you go! There are pages on Facebook that serve no purpose whatsoever with literally millions of followers. Hurray! Goodbye SEO, goodbye 30 second adds. Suddenly marketing became easy. Everyone could do it.

Not so much anymore. Things are changing. No one is quite sure but check the blogosphere of Social Media guru’s and you will see declarations and wailings of foul and unfair play by Facebook, its search, its feeds, its algorithms. It’s what? Basically it’s changed how it works.

You could always sponsor and advertise on Facebook. See here. I’ve set up an advert on Facebook to profile maybe you. If you use a PC those panels to the right that you never click on? The thing was, you never really needed to. You post something, you Like it, your friends see it, they like it and your content moved….

Now Viral has caught a Virus. To move that content, the Bloggers argue, you need to pay to play. Pages are seeing their “reaches” are being strangled by upto a half or even more. Fair enough. But the above page is for a Community Group

But something was up. It was suspected as much. Ken Auletta in his 2010 book “Googled” noted how Google's initial business plan for search was to bounce you off their page as quick as they could. Whereas Facebook wants to keep you within their world for as long as possible - you can be “on” Facebook but not really “on” Google. Now they have built their captive market they are perhaps looking to cash in. And they will need to if this $19 Billion deal is anything to go buy. The cost of advertising is probably only likely to increase.

So, what does this mean for Social Media?

The pole has got greasier again. Facebook is by far the most dominant platform but easy and cheap virility has gotten harder. It’s kind of a good thing as plenty of trash content will die away. Watch out for lots and lots of sharing scams (Share our page to win a Car…House….Unicorn…).

What should you do as a business? Well, its sign to go back to good honest traditional marketing. The pursuit of Likes, Followers and Hits is all well and good but in the end it’s not replacement for real engagement, community-led ideas and a social purpose.  Social Media is still incredibly important but it’s so much more than “Post and Hope”. 

We suggest:

Diversify - Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. When you play in someone else’s sandbox, expect them to change the rules

Professionalise yourself – Linkedin is a great place for this and it’s astounding how few companies have not set up a Company Page for people to follow. Even if you are a one-man band you can create a page, feature products, post messages. “People don’t like to be shop where they socialise” and isn’t it true you are in a different mood when you are on Linkedin and receptive to plugging and boast posts?

Blogging – gets your personality across, your knowledge and builds credibility.

Engage on Twitter – Its OK Tweeting about yourself, but will it get results? You will notice everyone is Tweeting about themselves and sometimes when people are trying to be heard no-one stops to listen. How about engaging? What do we mean? See an event that somebody is up to. Retweet it, attend it and follow up your new contacts. Its a listeners market. We guarantee you will be further ahead as a business than if you didn’t. Or your money back.

Create your own community – forums, networks, semiars, workshops, meetings. It can all help.

Mobile apps – mobile is screeching past PC use. Cut through all the noise and park yourself right next to Candy Crush and Talking Tom on everyone’s most prized possession.

Use Professionals – the cream always rises to the top and top agencies can help. There are plenty of people professing to know about the Black Magic of SEO and all that so take recommendations. And stop sharing pictures of Cats to get people to like you.

Measure - track your success and investment in terms of revenue. Always.

See this great Infogram for more ideas.

Finally...

Well, we see this as a natural progression. Platforms become fun and then fun becomes media and media attracts the money men.

There is clearly a demand for viral platforms. And clearly people and business prefer them to be free. This year might be year where Facebook Mark II is born.

Anyway, we all had the last laugh.

Mark Zuckerberg paig $19 Billion for WhatsApp.

We downloaded it for free.