Mobile Operators Switch Sponsorship To Music

Dow Jones: [by James Pearce] Mobile companies are switching their sponsorship from sports events to music festivals in the belief that it offers a better window into the youth market and a better way to differentiate themselves.
"There's more bang for your buck in the music arena. Because there is more opportunity to offer relevant products and services, there is more opportunity to drive revenue," said Paul Samuels, head of sponsorship at O2...O2's Samuels said sponsoring live music events enables it to target the key 16-34 year old audience but more generally, music offers sponsors access to a much broader spectrum of people than sports sponsorship".
"Virgin Mobile's Kydd explained that music is key to driving data usage amongst mobile phone users as it provides them with an obvious way to personalize their phone through ringtones, real-tones and other music content..."Music is the most personal thing you can play with on a phone. It also ties in with a consumer's desires. The impulse to buy the latest phone is the same as buying the latest music," Kydd said." Or buying the latest shirt of your team...I can see that music would appeal to a broader range of people, and possibly a younger demographic, but I think sports offers at least as much mobile content to sell as music...then again, are sports-based ringtones classified as music or sports? Or both?
Of course, one of the things about music festivals is that they tend to be counter-culture, so sponsors have to do a lot more than cover a place with their logo.
"You have to be smart. You can't just turn up and exploit the relationship between the fan and the band. The more-savvy music customer will accept corporate involvement as long as they benefit from it," said Julian Diment, head of commercial & brand partnerships at Orange.
Finally, the article quotes Vodafone Group's David Wheldon, global director of brand and customer experience, as saying that major sporting events give international awareness which is difficult to achieve with music.
"Wheldon said global sporting events provide a "gigantic global platform" for creating value, whereas music is more effective at the local level. He said Vodafone sponsors festivals in Holland and Portugal where it wants to promote its brand, but overall, looks for marketing opportunities which translate across borders."
I've noticed mobile companies sponsoring a lot of music festivals, but had assumed it was more to demonstrate how big they were in the hyped world of mobile music than as general advertising.
Related stories:
--Top 10 Ringtone Downloads At Glastonbury Festival
--Mobiles & Music Festivals — A Perfect Fit
--Orange Expands Mobile Music Services, Promotes At Music Festivals