When We Were Young is the name of the Alternative/Punk/Emo music festival that is being held in Las Vegas, Nevada for the 3rd time in history. There are twenty artists performing and the goal of this music festival campaign is to promote the festival in five stages of advertisement, including designing the experience to an adaptable system in print, digital, environmental, and merchandise while creating a seamless identity. I redesigned a full music festival, from the business system, social media ads, bus posters, mural, website, tickets, parking tickets, environmental features, map, swag merch, etc.
Some of the first designs for this project were a billboard, bus shelter poster and bus wrap. These things were specifically designed for creating awareness about the upcoming music festival. When someone waits for the bus and see the poster ad, when walking down the street, they see the mural, when on the freeway, they see the billboard. After a long day out, a lot of people, especially the targeted demographic will doom scroll at the end of the night for a couple of hours. These are all ways to build a subtle recognition for the brand identity of When We Were Young Music festival.
Soon after seeing ads of the upcoming music festival, the second stage of a design and marketing campaign begins. Planning for the campaign, people know the day, location and the artist. However, they need to know what they are allowed to bring, where to park, do they need special passes, how much the tickets will be, etc. From a design standpoint, designing a website for mobile and desktop allow for this information to be accessible to people.
The third stage of design and marketing is keeping people interested in the waiting period. If they order tickets in advance, they have all the necessary items bought what else do they need? Nothing, so the best way to keep them excited is by sending reminders for an event that is still weeks or months away. Designing for that experience, the music festival sends out the wristbands people bought the map and parking tickets. It's a simple reminder that the festival is an upcoming event for individuals and there's only a need to be excited.
The waiting is all done, all that is left is the experience itself. People see the signage; they get post cards. They enjoy the festival to their hearts content.
Does the experience end? No, from a marketing and design perspective, it does not. The final stage is known as the follow up. The goal of the music festival is attracting an equal amount of festival goers or more. The best way to this experience to be a reoccurring experience for users, if to have something people will remember even when it's over. Shirts, bags, buttons, stickers, and everything known as merch.