Heineken House Returns to Coachella

If you haven’t heard the term experiential marketing, that’s ok. I guarantee you’ve been a part of it. Think about the last event you attended…Remember the free swag you collected, the free samples you tried, or even the beer you were sold? Whatever it was, that brand understands the perks of experiential marketing and the impact it can have on buyers. According to an article found on BestArticles.com, it is no easy campaign that can start reaping the benefits as soon as applied, but the benefits are real and permanent because of a formation of a real emotional connection between the brand and the consumer.

Heineken has been the official malt beverage sponsor of Coachella Valley Music and Arts

Festival for a whopping 14 years now! Each year, the experience gets bigger and better for festival goers. This year, Heineken traded in its signature dome for a new kind of house party, referred to as the Heineken House. Upon entry, consumers over the age of 21 can engage with Heineken through a high energy, nightclub-esque way with a weekend of performances from a lineup of top artists.

From a personal viewpoint, Heineken House was better than ever, booking legendary musical groups and DJs that performed right on the floor, rather than a stage far away from the thousands of pushing and shoving attendees. Lounge areas, featuring comfortable seating surrounded the dance floor, while A/C pumped throughout the room. When I noticed Treasure Fingers on the line-up, I freaked. Highlight of my weekend was dancing, Heineken Light in hand, by his side. The up close and personal experience with one of my favorite artists is one I’ll remember for a long time.

That’s exactly what the goal of experiential marketing is: Unforgettable moments with a particular brand. Heineken’s brand director for sponsorships and events said it best in an interview with Market Watch. “Heineken is dedicated to showcasing great talent and providing exciting, interactive opportunities for consumers to engage with live music. We’re thrilled to once again return to the festival to create this memorable experience.”

Check out my reveiw of Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival by clicking on the "Tips & Trends" tab on the homepage.

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Background Behind This Blog

I chose to write about Heineken's marketing and sponsoprship strategy at Coachella because I experienced it first hand. I saw how powerful a brand can look in the eye of a consumer when the brand successfuly positions itself at an event as big as Coachella. Their target market is clearly the 20-30 year old fun-loving market and they've truly delivered one unforgetable experience after another through the establishment of the Heineken House at Coachella.

Event professionals can recognize the power events have to connect brands to consumers through experiential marketing. If event professionals can create events that brands, such as Heineken, want to sponsor, they can increase revenue for the sponsors and for the event. Popular brands that sponsor events also make the event more desirable to the attendee and therefore can increase the value of the event as well.

Plan for Generating Traffic

For this blog post, I will be posting links to it on various social media sites that event lovers and experiential marketing professionals might use. I will also be posting it to pages where Coachella fans hangout in order to increase traffic. I will post on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram with the hashtag #coachella and #experientialmarketing. I will post sometime in the evening when people are viewing social media content the most. I will post a few times during the month after Coachella, when those tags are most popular and the article is most relevant.

Photo retreived from eventmarketer.com

Photo retreived from axs.com