Team behind Lost Paradise festival launches B2B offering
The team behind Finely Tuned, a live music experience agency responsible for festivals including Lost Paradise, is targeting brands with a new offering called Layers.
Described as a “B2B version” of Finely Tuned, Layers will offer a full-service model across creative, strategy, production, content, and campaign delivery for brands looking to be “culturally relevant, creatively ambitious, and strategically sharp”.
Since 2006, Finely Tuned, a B2C creative music, events, and touring agency, has engaged directly with customers through live music experiences. With Layers, it is moving to work with brands as well.
Andrew Boon, creative and marketing director of Layers, told Mumbrella: “We’re taking essentially the same skillset, building spaces, creating interesting and engaging events, but now we’re packaging them up and bringing brands into the mix.”
“I think they’re [Finely Tuned and Layers] really two sides of the same coin, however Layers is more aimed at creating something great for a brand that will bring customers into its ecosystem authentically.”
Boon, a former marketing lead at music labels Anjunadeep and Sweat It Out, will lead Layers alongside Finely Tuned’s founder Simon Beckingham, and former founder and director of Rizer, Simon Hayward.
The trio have characterised Layers as a new agency, one they intend will create “the best brand experiences”.
“More and more, we’re finding brands are really struggling to connect, especially with a Gen Z audience,” Hayward told Mumbrella.
He said traditional above and below-the-line campaigns are past their prime, causing this growing disconnect between brands.
“That was a formula that we knew would work for years, but that’s gone out the window.”
Instead, the pair stressed the important of authenticity when brands are trying to reach Gen Z, because the younger generation is very conscious of when it is being marketed to.
“Gen Z aren’t getting their news from newspapers or traditional channels, they’re getting it through Tiktok, through Snapchat. If a brand message doesn’t resonate with them, they’re just going to scroll past,” Hayward said.
“Instead, these kind of cultural events like festivals are authentic and they have legs, and we’ve got a loyal fanbase from the work of Finely Tuned to now be bringing brands and activations into that. We’re sitting in quite a unique position and it makes a lot of sense.”
The Layers team. (L-R): Simon Beckingham, Andrew Boon, Simon Hayward
Boon added that Gen Z, the most digitally native generation, can spot from a mile away “where they feel like they’re being sold to”.
The team said they have turned down brands in the past because of inauthenticity.
“For past festivals, we’ve knocked back a number of brands that have come to us that we know don’t speak to our audience, don’t resonate,” Hayward said. While it doesn’t mark the “end of the conversation” entirely, the pair know when a brand activation will work, and when it won’t.
“That’s where Layers is going to come in. The idea from a brand might feel right on paper, but we might know it’s not going to translate the way they want it to. So with Layers, we’re hoping to offer alternative ideas that will speak to the goal a brand wants to achieve,” Boon said.
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Lauren McNamara is the associate editor at Mumbrella, covering the creative and PR beat. She joined in November 2022 as editorial assistant, after completing a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) at UTS.
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Andrew Boon
Brand activation
culture
Finely Tuned
Layers
Marketing
music
Simon Beckingham
Simon Hayward
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