Relix

Relix has been around since 1974. They've evolved and worked to stay on top of the jam scene. I really like the Phish cover from the June 2009 issue.

Over the last 10 years, online sites such as jambase.com have built strong and loyal followings. Their realtime updates, festivals schedules, and show reviews keep readers up to date on whats new in the music world.

Good idea?

You couldn't pay me enough to work at Garnier Fructis Bonnaroo Salon at Bonnaroo.


I think free hair washing, styling, and samples sound like a great way to get people engaged with your product.

Good way to engage even more people- showers brought to you by Garnier.

You are freaking out, man...

Nothing like the cold glass of water on a hot day.

I'll be hard pressed (I assume) to find a beverage company who botches their presence so badly that it outweighs the raw persuadable power of free bottled liquid during the hot days and nights of summer.

A pretty good example of the natural fit between constant sweating and free liquids- the sponsorship of The Silent Disco Tent by Vitaminwater.

"Live DJs spin late into the warm Bonnaroo nights, keeping it quiet for the tired and the volume turned up for all you night owls. The Silent Disco is a unique Bonnaroo experience, so don't forget to stop by and bust a move to the hottest dance beats - broadcast directly into your ears. And while you are dancing into the wee hours make sure to stay energized thanks to refreshing drinks courtesy of Vitaminwater."

The Silent Disco Tent has been a very popular part of Bonnaroo for several years. I look forward checking it out and grabbing a few free Vitaminwaters. Yoiink.

Beer Garden 3.0

"The Troo Music Lounge hosted by Budweiser is a hot place for adult concert goers at the 2009 festival to listen to some great up and coming live music while relaxing in the shade. You can also recharge your cell phone/PDA with the solar powered chargers, refresh in the cool jet courtyard complete with a misting station, and reconnect with friends using the Wi-Fi computer bank.

The Troo Music Lounge also has eco-friendly features like energy-saving LED lights, solar panels that power the recharge stations, recycled water at the misting station, and furniture from recycled materials. "

I don't even have anything smart to say about it. Im looking forward to seeing this space in person.

I'll let you know how long the line is...

Stiggity State Farm

State Farm Insurance is one of the Broo's brand 'partners' this year. It looks like they get a cool space in Centeroo to transform however they please.

According to their press release, they'll host the Scratch DJ Academy. Every two hours, they'll offer lessons from New York City's Scratch DJ Academy, and in between those showings, people can take turns playing on the turn tables - and burn their dj practice to a disc, and get their picture taken on the ones and twos.

I'll be curious to see how State Farm brands the space (to compliment the Scratch Academy dj's pictured to the left), what info they'll require from users, and how the traffic in their space will be.

I'll send live updates from Centeroo with pics and facts throughout the weekend.

Blanks & Postage...

If you get pissed when itunes wont click/buy because your credit card info needs to be updated or aggravated when you can’t find the charger to your mp3 player, you’ll probably want to skip this post.

About 10 years ago, I was part of an online community of music fans (rec.music.phish) and we traded music with one another through meeting on message boards. Rec.music.phish is how I came to know about this, but heads corresponded with one another through the mail, through community newspapers, and through classified ads for years before the ease of the internet brought more music to our ears than we could ever listen to.

Fans- often tapers, who spent tons of time and money to meticulously tape live shows, would offer copies of a show on a message board, and take the first 1 or 3 or 5 respondents.

For the cost of B&P or Blanks and Postage, I would snail mail the generous taper blank media.

They would wait for the packages in the mail (sometimes up to a week depending on what coast they were on) tape or burn the requested show, and return to the sender, usually with a little note about the show. Sometimes the tape covers were decorated, sometime the cdr’s had fancy labels, but regardless - new music was the most exciting part of the week.

Ten years later, I can listen to almost anything, at anytime for free. More often than not, I pick through my play list on itunes and rely on the buffering stream of dozens of stations, but every once in a while, I have a nostalgic urge for the muffled quality of an old fashioned cassette tape. Maxell cassettes, wooden cassette tape holder makers, those padded manila package people, and the USPS are all way sad to see cassette tapes go the way of the Laserdisc.

"In food we trust" photo essay for Roo Tix

Homegrown.org , who according to their website "is a place where we can learn from each other, share our questions, and show off how we dig in the dirt, grow our own food, work with our hands, and cook and share our meals - all things that we call HOMEGROWN," had a photo contest (a pair of Broo tix was the prize) asking members to document the fruits of their home grown labor by uploading pics to flickr.

The winner, offered a set of 6 photos, including the fish photo.

With only 41 photos entered in the online community building contest, I don't know if homegrown.org considers this a successful promotion. But, it's started this conversation.

What's interesting to me, is the fact that on Homegrown.org discussion boards, the most populated community is Urban Gardeners with 92 members, followed not so closely by Bread with 48 members.

Urban Gardeners? The board topics range from blog posts about illegally raising chickens in the city to mite mitigation.

If you haven't already- expand your definition of who you'd consider the average user of a website like homegrown.org to be -and you might be surprised at who rules the roost when it comes to online chatter about emerging trends and movements.

Maps...

US States names changed to the country with which their GDP most closely relates.

Depending on who you source, the Roo is the best or worst thing that ever happened to the economy of Coffee County, Tn.

The combination of rising ticket prices and a deteriorating economy in the last few years has kept some fans at home. For others, the $700-$1000* spent is a small price to pay for the highlight of their year. *I'm talking average fan, tent camping, within a 10 hour drive - not you fancy pants RV folks(...We'll offer a full segmentation in the next few days.)

In somewhat related news, (it's a map...)When was the last time you were so reliant on a piece of paper?

What's the last piece of paper you folded and unfolded, shoved, yanked and ripped(and held onto for 4 straight days) until it had the soft feel of felt. Yea, that's what I thought, nada.

Map study, under what appears to be the blue tinge of a sunlit tarp strung between cars. No batteries required.

Bro your audience...

Even with the lack of an ROI metric, as the popularity and visibility of the Roo has grown, brands have increased the number of opportunities for people to play with them, hands on.

In the past few years, Major League Baseball has offered batting cages, and Gibson guitars let's people rock to their own riff. With all the hands on, sweaty body contact of these activities, I think they missed an opportunity for a Purell tie in here.

Continued sponsorship by MLB this year and Gibson's replacement by KORG (makers of VOX, Marshall, and,Korg) could mean that MLB engagement at the Roo has been winning over more fans than one would assume.

We'll report on how KORG connects with people and what MLB's done to step up their game, live from the Roo this year. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, or Ireports.com.

Staples...

Some of the most relevant and iconic brands in this culture are still widely unknown outside of the lot.

If you've spent time at festivals, you've probably seen this brand. It's been a staple on the scene for over 10 years.

Their primary designs haven't changed in all that time. The biggest change is the fabric they use - they've phased out conventional cotton for hemp or organic cotton fabric.

The Roo is listed on the schedule of shows they'll be at, but for a previous show's dates. Outdated websites normally send me into a rage, but I enjoy the fact that their designs and presence are so classic on the lot, that updates are almost unnessecary. Even if I don't see them on the lot this year (and I hope I do), the Be Good brand will be repped wide and proud by festival folks .

M.R.E.A.M (Metrics rules everything around me)

I think it's interesting to have branded spaces- esp. if they provide something of value to the visitor- a/c, recharging for electronics, free samples, new products, wifi...

So how do these branded spaces define success, from a marketing perspective? 5,000 new emails? 10,000 people through the doors? 30,000 views of OnDemand videos after the show? 50,000 juice samples given away?

I'd love to hear from some of the brand manager, planners, or marketing folks that help sell in these sponsorships- seemingly expensive and immeasurable at $15/engagement (an estimate - if you can get us a closer number, or make a case- shout at me)-when the standard metric of the day is online acquisition of new customers- and that can often be measured in just a few dollars and cents...

Sometimes, the thing we want most can't be bought

It's palpable...

Plastic bottles suck...a step in the right direction

Stanley...the tool company? Epic brand extension in a time when housing (and I'd assume, new tool purchases) are in the toilet.

According to their press release...

"At Bonnaroo alone, more than 600,000 disposable bottles were recycled in 2008. With the "Less-Bottled Water Program," STANLEY and Bonnaroo hope to drastically minimize this waste in 2009."

How many people know about this ahead of time? Most people plan ahead and bring dozens of plastic bottles of water for the weekend.

How are they spreading the word aside from the Roo webshop?(I just purchased my ticket- and they offered me the water bottle as an add on - $22)

Partnership promoted by SpitFire Agengy - high volume of exposure for Stanley and a well intentioned step towards fixing the waste that plastic bottles bring. Can they sell enough before the show to truly impact the amount of plastic bottles that are used? We'll check the recycling numbers after the show and see what kind of impact the partnership had.

Brandaroo

"Never mind what they're selling, it's what you're buying ..."