A summer in New Orleans means a few sure things: good food, tubing trips, and of course music festivals. The city is known for celebrating their unique musical and cultural history all year around, but the festivals really pile on during the summer. With some careful planning and promotion, your business account will benefit from finding new clients / customers at these city events, and you might even have a little fun while doing it.
The top three festivals happening in the summer months in New Orleans are French Quarter Fest on April 10-13, Jazz and Heritage Festival on April 25-27 and May 1-4, Essence Festival 4th of July weekend and Satchmo SummerFest happening August 2-4. Yes, we’re counting April as Summer – it certainly feels like Summer already, doesn’t it?
1) Brand Awareness
At a lot of these festivals, companies will partner with the event coordinators to have their products or at least their logo on different surfaces, prizes, and other giveaways. If you can procure a tent at the festival grounds and offer food, drinks or shade, there is a high likeliness that people will come inside. Once there, show off your product through demonstrations. Or, if your product / service doesn’t lend itself to that, you can just get visitors to sign up for a newsletter or email subscription. Getting your word out there as a company that is offering something that the festival-goers would appreciate (they love free cold water) can allow you to benefit immensely from these festivals.
2) Be a Sponsor
When you sponsor a musician or the actual festival, your company logo is presented in various places, people will publicly thank you, and other good Press will be included. Furthermore, supporting your local community is a great way to help build customer bases and perform networking opportunities.
3) Name-Dropping
If you have a product or service that a musician or celebrity may enjoy, see if you can offer it to them at the festival. Then, all you need is a picture or a testimonial of that celebrity using and enjoying your product. After that it can practically sell itself. If it is a particularly great product, you may even gain a celebrity client.
4) Location Benefits
If you are a company whose location is in proximity to the festival, you will likely be seeing a great deal of foot traffic in your business. If not, offer things like discounts or coupons. These festivals, while celebrating New Orleans history and culture, bring people from all over the country into the city. These people are already spending money on hotels, transportation, plane tickets, and other expenses, so they are much more likely to go to a restaurant or business that is offering a nice discount. If you’re not exactly near the location, talk to hotels in the area and see if they will offer your coupons to guests. Self-promotion is never a bad thing in the business world.
Once you are done working for the day, see if you can get a chance to enjoy some of these festivals. New Orleans summers can be brutal but the fun doesn’t have to be. Remember, all work and no play is no way to live, especially in New Orleans.
This guest post was written by Morgan Bachemin in association with Hibernia Bank, located at hibbank.com. The views expressed herein are those of the author and not necessarily those of any financial institution or bank. This article is intended to provide those reading it with information about matters of current interest. It should not be construed as legal or financial advice concerning a specific topic and should not be acted upon without contacting the appropriate professionals.
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