At Martin Creates, we cover live music events and concerts around the world. Videography and photography go hand in hand with music and dance performances as they're both categories of art and creative human expression. Visual and acoustic art forms are often celebrated together. Recently, Martin Creates was assigned to professionally photograph various branded sponsors at a music festival in London. The aim was to show visibility of all the brands that were sponsoring the music festival in the hands of all attendees.
Hundreds of millions of pounds - potentially even billions - are spent every year in the UK on sponsorships and a large portion of this goes towards music events. This includes iconic multi-day festivals such as Glastonbury to local nightclub concerts. The question is, who are these sponsors? Why do they allocate so much of their marketing budgets to these deals? And, how does photography come into it?
Krankbrothers put together a brilliant music festival which took place in Finsbury Park. Annie Mac was the main headliner.
We often fail to realise how impactful music can be for the masses. I captured a sea of bodies mesmerised by her set and it was pure joy to witness the moment.
Several brands sponsored the event because they want to be associated with the emotions at the festival.
Why?
Let's have a quick lesson in marketing:
Brand salience is a key measure of a brand's strength, and all it means is the brand occupies a person's mind more than a competitor's brand. If you think of your marketing efforts in terms of a funnel, "awareness" goes at the top of the funnel; the widest part. You need people to be aware of your brand before you expect them to make a purchase; the funnel starts to get narrower. That's why it's so important to establish passion points for your brand because you'll want to position your brand closely to them. Music and travel are common passion points because most Gen Z's and younger are driven by these. They value emotions and experiences whereas materialistic purchases lose novelty more quickly since there's an abundance of material items nowadays. Companies spend a large portion of their time and resources researching their target audience before investing in commercial decisions. So with this information in mind, the growing trend behind sponsorship deals becoming more and more valuable starts to make sense. The types of brands who do this are ones who well-resourced, launching new products and generally don't an interesting product so they compensate by "brand-building" e.g. vapes, energy drinks, alcohol brands, debit card providers, and more. They are orientating themselves around experience-led projects so that they can get closer to their target audience.
Common activities that sponsors do to get a return on investment include product sampling, collecting consumer data and even keynotes / panel discussions. Like with anything, it needs to be relevant for it to be effective and it's often easier said than done.
Professional photographers are important to capture the brand held in the consumer's hand or positioned in the midst of the action. Venues and festival organisers in this instance are desperate for amazing stills. Professional stills that bring the sponsors' attention to a lucrative opportunity, where their brand can become stronger if they invest in the sponsorship package "before a competitor does". Often there are exclusivity clauses where only one brand from a specific industry can be present for it to be fair and worthwhile. For example, Wireless Festival in London will only have one vaping brand present on the premises.
At Krankbrothers festival, Martin Creates captured Two Tribes beers in creative and captivating ways such as the example below which looks like the lady printed on the t-shirt is holding the beverage. Krankbrothers sponsorship team will add these professional images to their pitch decks as they come across in a candid light. They will be visual proof that the sponsorship has worked for other sponsors and the brand will be seen across the event.
We will only continue to see a rise in sponsorship deals. Capturing moments like this is what Martin Creates specialises in. Having a candid eye for these moments is imperative so it's natural and aspirational.
I am a professional freelance photographer and videographer based in London, UK. I started Martin Creates in order to help empower people and brands worldwide. One of the ways I do that is by publishing blogs with free information to help any creatives out there reading this. I welcome you to check out my work on this website as well as my newly launched site martincreatesweddings.com. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out.
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