Marketing failure or misunderstanding: Exploring the depth of Australia’s festival issue
More than 25 music festivals across Australia have been cancelled since 2022 as punters deal with the cost of living crisis and the industry grapples with climbing overheads and insufficient ticket sales. Backpocket founder, Luke Trickett, argues its because of a disconnect between marketers, organisers, and ticket buyers.
Australia’s festival industry has taken a hit with big names like Splendour in the Grass and Groovin The Moo joining the growing list of cancelled events. But the issue isn’t the music – it’s a disconnect between marketers, organisers, and ticket buyers.
Many event organisers have been faced with spiralling costs, higher ticket prices and subsequently fewer ticket sales, yet genre-specific festivals like SouledOut, Ultra and Bluesfest continue to pull in crowds at record-breaking volumes. With 80% of young Australians expressing a willingness to attend live music events at least once a year, it begs the question – why isn’t the momentum experienced by these communities replicated cross-genre?
While the problem is multi-faceted, it stems from a systemic lack of understanding of who festival-goers are, and what they expect from their purchasing journey. The good news is, Australia’s festival fiasco is solvable.
Connecting with a changing demographic
Mainstream, multi-genre festivals by nature attract bigger numbers and, as a result, a younger demographic. Unfortunately, this cohort is being disproportionately impacted by the cost of living crisis. Young Aussies have learnt to be savvy with their dollars, so they notice when organiser costs are passed onto them. In fact, 73% of event-goers already feel tickets are more expensive than last year, and around one in five identified ‘value for money’ as an obstacle to attending concerts and festivals.
But in order to connect with this audience of music lovers, marketers need to be cognisant of both the barriers that prevent and the motivations that drive their purchasing decisions. For example, the biggest driving factor for young Australians is FOMO, with nearly half of Aussies citing a fear of missing out as the core reason for purchasing tickets last year.
Splendour in the Grass 2023. Pic by Charlie Hardy
So whether it’s the group parent who doubles as the default ticket purchaser, the maid of honour who buys in bulk out of a sense of duty, or a friend who happens to be on lunch during presale, the aforementioned research shows they all want the same things – to make memories, affordably. Now it’s up to marketers and event organisers to harness these insights to meet these archetypes, where they are. From there, ticket booth success will follow.
Lowering the financial hurdle
Ultimately, for many young Aussies, their desire to go to festivals with friends is being overshadowed by financial responsibility. The problem with major festivals is that they’re generally group events, often seeing one person take responsibility for the entire booking. Even if the token group parent can rally the troops and get everyone on board, they’ll be faced with an often unaffordable bill of +$1,000 at checkout for everyone’s tickets. With 4.9 million people having experienced a friend failing to pay back a debt in the last 12 months, this is a checkout deal breaker for most in the current economy.
In a shortsighted attempt to solve this, event organisers are leaning on Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) as an option, but it’s not a catch-all solution. BNPL options may make tickets more financially accessible, but they still leave one person financially responsible for their friends. The unethical nature of BNPL is increasingly obvious in a tight economy and is evidenced by the jump in late fees from 5% to 20% in the past four years. Instead, marketers and organisers need to support patrons by taking a patron-friendly approach to ticket sales. Take Backpocket’s group booking solution for example, it’s currently the only payment method in the world that enables someone to instantly split a group purchase with friends at checkout, removing social and financial stress.
The festival industry isn’t failing, but rather the appeal and ‘value for money’ of mainstream festivals is failing to outweigh the financial stress young Aussies are feeling. The industry is currently stuck in a stalemate with young Aussies wanting to attend with friends but unable to shoulder group booking costs. So, by taking the time to deeply understand the customer journey, pain points and passions of Australia’s new festival-goer, marketers will not only reap the rewards at the check-out, but they’ll also be safe in the knowledge that they did their bit to breathe life back into Australia’s once thriving music scene.
Luke Trickett is the founder of Backpocket.
Subscribe to the daily newsletter
Whilst many of the commentary points have some validity, one major element which has not been raised and is particularly relevant [and not – publicly – acknowledged or addressed by festival operators, many of whom have lobbed their begging bowls at governments’ doors] is that of massive-impact ‘foreign imports’: witness people willing to spend significant amounts, whether in cash or on credit [which must needs be repaid in cash] in the thousands on Taylor Swift. Bkink 182, Pink, et al. With associated travel costs and meals for most, as well as not-inexpensive accomodation for many, it’s perfectly logical that there’s little left to be committed to local entertainment enterprises; and it’s surely the case that many fans would willingly sacrifice other personal pleasures in order to attend a ‘Twift’ or other high-standing performance
It’s not unlike the reverse-twist of there supposedly being a national, domestic belt-tightening because households – according to ‘expert’ commentators – are reeling under cost-of-living pressure not felt since the late 90s, against a background of 2023’s highest-ever [1,216,780 units delivered] new vehicle sales, the majority of which are diesels, which are more-expensive to service than petrol ones and require more-frequent servicing, as well as, in their latest higher-performance iterations, generally significant negative outcomes in terms of engine and component failures
User ID not verified.
Whilst many of the commentary points have some validity, one major element which has not been raised and is particularly relevant [and not – publicly – acknowledged or addressed by festival operators, many of whom have lobbed their begging bowls at governments’ doors] is that of massive-impact ‘foreign imports’: witness people willing to spend significant amounts, whether in cash or on credit [which must needs be repaid in cash] in the thousands on Taylor Swift. Blink 182, Pink, et al. With associated travel costs and meals for most, as well as not-inexpensive accomodation for many, it’s perfectly logical that there’s little left to be committed to local entertainment enterprises; and it’s surely the case that many fans would willingly sacrifice other personal pleasures in order to attend a ‘Twift’ or other high-standing performance
It’s not unlike the reverse-twist of there supposedly being a national, domestic belt-tightening because households – according to ‘expert’ commentators – are reeling under cost-of-living pressure not felt since the late 90s, against a background of 2023’s highest-ever [1,216,780 units delivered] new vehicle sales, the majority of which are diesels, which are more-expensive to service than petrol ones and require more-frequent servicing, as well as, in their latest higher-performance iterations, generally significant negative outcomes in terms of engine and component failures
User ID not verified.
Try increasing costs across the board, especially in NSW for health, police and waste management. Also add increased cost for staging, fencing, staff etc and especially insurance, then add the agents who don’t care and put acts into an endless blind auction to be snapped up by festivals who pay too much and then go broke. Then add the sad sight of governments pledging support to help the industry and then go straight to billion dollar multi national giants and forget the local independents.
User ID not verified.
Music festivals almost used to be a right of passage in this country, however there are so few lineups worth paying the high price for to live like a pig for three days.
It’s just not something people are into any more.
User ID not verified.
You’ve missed the key and imo, the only point that matters in NSW. Police increased their costs by over 500% YoY and this is simply not sustainable for promotors.
They’re literally the fun police and know that such dramatic increases will force the closure for the majority of festivals.
NSW police are corrupt and don’t want music festivals in the state.
User ID not verified.