THE EAST COAST'S PREMIER MUSIC EXPERIENCE
In 2012, Red Frog Events identified a market opportunity to launch a new, mega-music festival on the East Coast. Approaching the industry as outsiders, to enter this space the company would need to make a major splash.
Here's how we built a brand, sold a vision, and delivered an experience worthy of our aspirations to be called
"The East Coast's Premier Music Experience".
THE OPPORTUNITY
Having launched and operated successful mid-scale events worldwide, Red Frog Events was ready to re-invest into building a new, mega-scale event.
Multi-day, multi-genre music festivals like Lollapalooza, Coachella, and Bonnaroo had taken hold as cultural institutions, drawing huge crowds at steadily increasing ticket prices every year as the experience economy
gained momentum.
Curiously, the most densely-populated area of the country, the Mid-Atlantic corridor into the Northeast United States, had no such festival to call its own. The few viable comparable events were either niche genres (folk and electronic), or different formats altogether (CMJ).
Before you can be Something for Everybody,
Be Everything for Somebody
We made an important early branding decision to build our festival around the market we knew best: urban young professionals. This was a strategic move for three reasons:
1) we knew how to reach to them: this market made up a substantial portion of our Warrior Dash and Great Urban Race databases.
2) we knew how to talk to them: and we had lots of practice.
3) they had disposable income: as compared to a younger, traditional festival-going audience, they were easier targets as early adopters.
We set out to build the music festival this group wanted:
everything centered around the experience, with an emphasis placed on elevated comfort.
We wanted to be accessible to all general experience-seekers, and devoid of the barriers that might have kept them from festivals in the past: perceptions of being too hippy, with music too niche, on sites that were too grungy, and too far away.
Finding our Site
With our market opportunity identified, we scoured the East Coast looking for venues where we could build our vision.
We quickly identified horse racing tracks as a target: not only were they designed in an upscale manner suitable to our target market, but they were typically located in close proximity to major cities, with built-in infrastructure and institutional knowledge to handle large crowds.
We set up a multi-day East Coast tour of several horse racing venues, and with a half day open in our schedule decided to fit in Dover International Speedway, which was primarily a NASCAR track but also hosted some horse racing.
See the rest ->
EARLY BRANDING
In the beginning, all we had to sell was an idea.
Firefly's early branding centered around idealized illustrations of the world we wished to create: music surrounded by serene natural beauty, ubiquitous greenery with an unspoken magical quality, a musical secret garden. In future years, imagery from our site would tell this story, but for now The Woodlands only existed in our imaginations.
The Firefly logo didn't show a firefly at all, only a non-distinct glowing light in a mason jar: a magic that couldn't be owned, but maybe could be captured and held onto for a fleeting moment.
The slogan "The East Coast's Premier Experience" became our internal rallying cry and our external brand statement to the world: this would not be a concert, but an experience. It would not be great, it would be the greatest.
THE EXPERIENCE
Every decision we made early on had to lead with the weekend experience.
Not just food and drink, but a dedicated craft brewery and vineyard.
Not just fun diversions from the loud concert stages, but Hot Air Balloon rides, an air-conditioned free arcade,
and a Coffee House with acoustic acts.
Not just surrounded by nature, but in nature, with undercut wooded areas filled with hammocks and
dramatically lit wooded passageways connecting the festival.
Not just a day-trip, but with options to stay on-site in a glamping tent outfitted with hotel amenities.
Early attendees became brand evangelists, returning in year 2 with another friend and helping Firefly become
one of the fastest-growing festivals in U.S. history.
THE MAKING OF FIREFLY
Watch the full mini-doc above
In the years that followed Firefly's launch, early branding decisions and investments paid off many times over.
Firefly grew from 30,000 inaugural attendees, to 60,000 in year two, ultimately peaking with 90,000 daily attendees as one of the largest music festivals in the world by 2015.
To this day, through every brand evolution and as Firefly approaches its 10th festival, one element continues to set the event apart: this is not just a big concert... this is the East Coast's Premier Music Experience.
