Managing Sponsor Promotional Teams on Music Festival Sites.

Sponsors are a key part of every music festival providing an essential revenue stream that contributes to their running costs. It is not unusual for sponsors to make demands on organisers as part of any deal, and this can include the use of promotional staff. How can they manage these promotional staff to balance sponsor demands with festival-goer experiences.

When a sponsor uses promotional staff on a festival site it can present challenges for organisers in managing their presence. Sponsors want brand visibility, audience engagement and lead generation but this needs to be balanced with organiser’s needs for operational control, safety and regulatory compliance. Both sponsors and organisers want promotional teams to enhance the festival-goer experience but if poorly managed they can create safety concerns, reputational risks and conflicts with operational staff and volunteers.

Sponsor Contracts and Deals.
It is not unusual for a sponsor to include festival site roaming promotional teams as part of any deal, and this will be included in any contract where the organiser’s obligations are specified. Equally a contract will include the sponsor's obligations with regards to safety, behaviour protocols and the need to ensure legal and regulatory compliance. When making a deal, both parties need to agree on a unified command structure and communication system for management of promotional teams. Contracts also specify the sponsor's obligations under data protection and privacy compliance when collecting personal festival-goer data in relation to lead generation, for example. In addition, sponsors will be expected to meet the festival's sustainability and environmental impact objectives and can relate specifically to the use of plastic sampling containers and waste management. Modern day sponsors are increasingly using influencers and content creators as part of their promotional activities, but organisers should place strict controls on what they can and cannot do to prevent unauthorised backstage access or using unsafe filming locations and potential breaches of intellectual property.

Site Safety.
A sponsor may employ dozens of promotional staff to roam a festival site who will be tasked with maximising exposure and lead generation. This can drive them towards crowded areas and potentially cause unsafe overcrowding. Unsafe crowd densities can build around popular giveaways, competitions, and interactive installations, for example. In addition to safety concerns about overcrowding, these situations can increase pickpocketing incidents plus friction between other sponsors and vendors. Organisers will want to see sponsor plans for promotional staff usage; this enables organisers to send dedicated staff or volunteers to manage crowds at pre-approved times and locations. Where possible promotional staff should be included in on-site safety related communications used by operational staff and volunteers, which ensures that any safety related incidents can be reported in a timely manner.

Behaviour Protocols and Training.
Sponsor promotional staff are not only the face of the company they are working for but also seen as part of the festival’s overall presentation and brand. It is therefore essential that they always behave appropriately when on a festival site. Aggressive sales tactics and poor festival-goer interactions can be problematic, and a lack of training can lead to poor safety or legal compliance awareness. Promotional staff often work for sponsors on a contract basis, and they should be obliged to undertake a mandatory festival induction which includes safety briefings, escalation and incident reporting procedures and emergency evacuation plans. In addition, organisers should brief promotional staff on the cultural and behavioural standards expected of them whilst on the festival site. Other protocols may include age verification checks for alcoholic drinks or vape sampling and allergen checks for food sampling. Promotional staff will be expected to integrate into the festival's unified command structure, working closely with operational staff and volunteers if critical safety issues arise.

Operational Management of Sponsor Staff.
Sponsors must supply details of all their contracted promotional staff to organisers before the event live dates so that the appropriate accreditation processes can be implemented. Most festival organisers now use a professional accreditation system like the one available in the Festival Pro event management software. Personal details of individuals and their access privileges can be logged and passes automatically generated for distribution prior to the event. These passes can be scanned as part of the organiser’s access control and ensure that promotional staff can access the zones necessary for them to do their job. Promotional staff should be involved in the pre-event briefings and training and for additional reference organisers also supply sponsors with documentation like site plans, access passes, site build schedules, safety rules, branding policies, emergency procedures and sustainability requirements.

For festival organisers planning their next event using a software management platform like Festival Pro gives them all the functionality they need manage every aspect of their event logistics. The guys who are responsible for this software have been in the front line of event management for many years and the features are built from that experience and are performance artists themselves. The Festival Pro platform is easy to use and has comprehensive features with specific modules for managing artists, contractors, venues/stages, vendors, volunteers, sponsors, guestlists, ticketing, site planning, cashless payments and contactless ordering.

Image by Nadia Abregu via Pexels

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