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The Method Behind The Music

Here at FRUKT we pride ourselves on our festival activations – in fact we’re known for them. To the outsider they may seem like the fun end of the advertising stick, but there’s strategy behind the madness, and in our case a clear understanding of behavioural economics has helped us get to where we are. Here are four tactics we live by.

MEMORY MAP - Shape activations to create memories

Festival goers have an experiencing self (who lives in the moment) and a remembering self (who creates the story of their experience and holds on to the high points and the low points.) The latter shapes how they think about our activations after they walk away – and what defines their memories are changes, significant moments and endings. For this reason we create three striking and sensory memories at every activation – a first memory, last memory and peak or ‘power’ memory. This is even more important when you realise the remembering self is also in charge of future decision-making. They will likely decide whether to engage with a brand again based on their activation memories.

MAKE IT EASY - Offer the path of least resistance

Humans are lazy! We’re far more prone to using the unconscious, instinctive and associative side of our brain, than the rational, active and involved side. Drawn to things which are mentally and physically available - we don’t want to have to think and this is particularly the case at festivals – where the focus is on relaxation and play. For this reason we always ensure our activations are in prime locations, have snappy UX’s, clear brand cues and are effortless to talk about and share with others. This ease of interaction also engenders a sense of trust - a nice side benefit!

GET COMMITTED - Give a lot in return for a little

Festival goers are happy to engage with brand activations, but demand value in return for participation. They need to feel special and expect experiences to be tailored to suit their needs not brand or client objectives. This can be tricky for us  – we’re seeking to please two masters - but we have a way. Simply put - we ask festival goers to commit to something (answer a questionnaire after they leave, try a new drink etc.) in return for fun. If we can get people to express commitment out loud or on paper, they’re then far more likely to fulfil that commitment, due to an inherent sense of obligation/responsibility. We provide amazing experiences and in return benefit from an innate human desire to behave well.

ALTER CONTEXT Let the bigger picture do the talking

Brands work hard to create a particular and specific identity. However shifting commercial objectives/category influences can require brands to alter how they’re perceived, how they behave or whom they talk to. Rather than use an activation to tell people they’ve changed their story, we allow context to do this for us - encouraging brands to go to festivals with a new demographic, aligning brands with specific and new genres of music, locating activations in unusual/bespoke settings and shifting the role of activations dependent on need – from bar, to stage, to club.