When it comes to promoting your festival, organisers must remember that when you target everyone, you actually target no one.

In order to personalise your communications, it’s essential that you understand exactly who you’re talking too. This is where target personas come into play.

What are personas?

Personas are fictional characters who represent your ideal event attendees. Defining these personas from the outset allows you to create more tailored content for your potential attendees.

Personas help you to better understand the needs, challenges, and aspirations of your target audience, bringing a human element to your content and overall marketing initiatives.

As a music festival organiser, it’s likely that your event will serve many different segments or personas, but it helps to zero in on your most valuable fans – those you want to connect with most at your event.

Personas should be built upon two key components:

  • Buyer profile – relevant demographic and geographic details that describe your ideal attendee
  • Buyer intent – relevant psychographic and behavioural characteristics that shed light on the decision-making process of your ideal attendee

To help you get started, we’ve built out an example of an ideal music festival attendee (check out the typical community festival attendee and food and drink festival attendee, too):

Example Number 1 

Meet Super-fan Seán!

Superfan Sean

Personal Profile

Seán is doing very well professionally and works full time as an accountant. His job means he works very long hours, but is rewarded with a good salary.

Seán likes to make the most of his time off with his friends and isn’t afraid to spend money on having fun. He is more interested in experiences than material things.

Outside of work he’s a hardcore festival goer and attends 5-6 festivals a year. He uses long weekends and holidays to attend his favourite events and is willing to travel abroad.

Background
  • 31 years old
  • Single
  • Lives in Galway
  • Accountant
Finances
  • Earns approx €80K per year
  • After the essentials, he spends most income on going out with friends, holidays, and attending festivals
  • Willing to spend a lot to get the best experience
Online Behaviour
  • Finds all information online and primarily browses on his phone
  • Active on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube
  • Follows favourite festivals, artists and music publications on social channels
  • Subscribes to artist, venue, and ticketing emails to receive updates on latest albums and gigs
  • He doesn’t post very often, but when he does it’s usually photos with his friends or his favourite artists and gigs
  • Spends approx 1 hour every evening browsing while watching TV
  • Enjoys long-form written content, videos, and podcasts
Hopes and Dreams
  • Very ambitious professionally and values the lifestyle it brings him
  • Dreams of leaving the corporate world and owning his own business one day
  • Would like more time off to travel and tick off his bucket list
What influences him?
  • His friends
  • Favourite artists
  • Music publications, like HotPress and Mojo
  • Entrepreneurs
Worries and Frustrations
  • Would like a better work-life balance
  • Wants to continue succeeding professionally, but worries he’s getting sucked into the corporate world
  • Misses his carefree university lifestyle
What is he looking for from a festival?
  • Prefers smaller, niche festivals that cater to specific interests, rather than mainstream or corporate events
  • Looking for a feeling of escapism
  • Very loyal to his favourite festivals and has attended the same festivals several times
  • Values a sense of community
  • Even though he can afford it, he’s not interested in glamping as he feels removed from the crowd
  • Will bring a big group of friends and willing to spend a lot of money on faster entry, food, and alcohol.  Will spend up to £300 on a festival ticket
  • Favourite music genres: Rock, Indie, Alternative
What festivals will he attend this year?

Now you’ve met Super-fan Seán, go market to him! You know where he hangs out online, how much he is willing to spend on a ticket, and what he is really looking for in a music festival.

Never under-estimate the power of personas when it comes to mapping out your marketing strategy. Your most valuable attendees are the key drivers of your event’s success. Getting to know them can help you to make your content more customer-centric and ultimately lead to greater attendance, loyalty, and killer ROI.

For more tips on creating the perfect personas for your marketing strategy, check out our cheat-sheet on The Power of Personas.