Since it started in 1999, the Coachella Music Festival has become a world-class event, creating legions of fans and a brand that extends way beyond its desert confines. Not only have the music and production values always been top-notch, but Coachella is also an excellent example of how brands can use social media to generate awareness and drive sales. Year after year, Coachella’s innovative social media tactics have helped the festival sell out of tickets.

 

 

Consumers have changed more in the past 13 years than Coachella has. In fact, in 1999, only a third of Americans had a cell phone and none of the phones were smart phones. Cell phone reception was limited in the desert, and text messaging hadn’t hit the mainstream.

This year, AT&T alone trucked in four temporary cell sites to service its customers’ needs. At the end of the first weekend, fans had sent more than 62 million texts on AT&T’s network. In 1999, few fans would have emailed photos of the festival to friends or discussed Coachella in AOL’s infamous chat rooms. Today, fans can share images and video via Facebook, Twitter and Instagram with a click or swipe. Because these platforms have simplified the sharing process, fans are more willing to share their experiences. At concerts today, 32% of attendees are use their phones to update their status and 53% use their smart phone as their primary camera.

Using social media to drive sales

Two years ago, the festival allowed each band to give away tickets via Twitter and Facebook. The brand generated millions of free, targeted impressions and sold out in record time. Last year was the first time Coachella streamed the entire event on YouTube, which exposed the brand to millions of people who couldn’t attend. This year, Coachella was able to add another weekend to the festival, and both weekends sold out within hours.

Using fans to create content

Coachella is on all requisite social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Instagram, etc.), but it lets its artists and fans provide most of its social content. It has also been smart about creating a couple of buzz-worthy events each year to light up the social sphere—helping Coachella’s fans to help Coachella. This year’s Tupac hologram is a good example; the spectacle generated millions of mentions.

Using multichannel marketing to generate excitement

Take a look at Gotye’s performance of “Somebody That I Used to Know.” The night before Gotye performed it at Coachella, he sang it on SNL. That same week it was covered on Glee. Before he performed it Sunday night, several DJs remixed his song in Coachella’s dance tents. By the time he hit the stage, fans packed his tent and used their cell phones to record the sing-along event of the festival.

 

With all that media exposure, “Somebody That I Used to Know” shot to number one the next week, and Gotye sold more digital singles in a single week than any other solo artist before him and created a cultural moment that will be remembered by those who saw him perform it live and on YouTube.

So what can brands without access to the Tupac hologram and laser shows learn from this? With all that content being created and consumed instantaneously via mobile devices, it appears that consumers are as concerned with recording and sharing content as they are with the experiences themselves. They are using the technology to enhance their experience by connecting with friends and then reliving the experiences digitally. Brands that facilitate this sharing will be rewarded.

If you don’t have a wealth of digital assets, that’s okay—your fans will produce it. You just need to give them guidance and then let them do the heavy lifting. With a little help, they will produce more content (videos, images, etc.) than most brands can afford to. Continue providing the best products and service possible, and you will ensure that they want to keep talking about you. And every now and then, give them a little extra something to talk about, leveraging your sponsorships and traditional media partners when needed.