Technology / 12.02.19

Leveling Up Your Festival With a Mobile App

Natalie Sullivan, Patron Technology

Branded mobile apps have been on the rise in the live event industry, and it’s not hard to see why. They help simplify back-end operations for festival organizers and are integral to delivering a game-changing attendee-facing experience. With some insight from our product Greencopper, we’re breaking down four ways a mobile app can help take your festival to the next level.

Streamlined Content Management

With a custom mobile app for your event, you can forget about the days of paper flyers, pamphlets and sitemap handouts, plus the associated printing costs and large amounts of waste that go along with them. Used in tandem with an integrated event operations solution, you can publish your festival’s schedule, artist lineup, vendor list and all other pertinent attendee-facing details directly to your mobile app. And the best part? Your app content will never go out of date. Unlike paper materials that can’t be edited if anything changes, you can easily push updates on the fly, ensuring you’re providing attendees only the most accurate information at all times, right in the palm of their hand.

Enhanced Attendee Experience

Speaking of attendees, you can use a mobile app to give them a personalized event-day experience. For example, by allowing attendees the ability to “favorite” specific artists, speakers or vendors on your mobile app, they’ll be able to build out their own schedules based on personal preferences. Then, using that information, you can send tailored push notifications, ensuring they don’t miss any important lineup changes or announcements.

You can also use a mobile app to help attendees make the most of their time by avoiding long queues and helping them navigate their way around your festival site with features like mobile ordering and augmented-reality (AR) wayfinding. With mobile ordering, attendees can order food and beverages without having to stand in line, picking items up at their convenience. And with AR wayfinding, your sitemap can literally come to life, helping attendees locate the nearest stage, food, restrooms and sponsor booths.

Additional Sponsorship Value

We know most festivals are supported financially in part by sponsors, making those relationships invaluable. With an event-specific mobile app, you can deepen these partnerships by offering more creative spaces for your sponsors to reach attendees. Beyond simple “sponsored by” ad banners, you can get really creative and incorporate different sponsor activations through features like targeted push notifications, AR wayfinding and even an interactive photo hunt. By building a unique environment for your event partners to connect with festival attendees in a more meaningful way, they’ll be more likely to continue sponsoring your event for years to come.

Key Data Insights

Of course, a huge asset of having a completely customized mobile app for your festival is the unique data that comes along with it. You can track your users’ in-event attendance to optimize security and crowd management, ensuring that you’re providing a safe environment for attendees. You can also use this data post-event to measure results and track ROI. For example, with every feature and section of the mobile app being tracked, you can easily find out how many people checked out your lineups, favorited a specific artist, used a sponsor activation and more. With this data, you can intelligently plan your next event, curating a festival experience based on actual attendee preferences.

From streamlining back-end processes to curating unique audience experiences, it’s clear that a dedicated mobile app can be a great asset to your festival’s technology infrastructure.

This article was sponsored by Patron Technology.

Tags: Mobile , Venues , Sponsored Content