Why ‘Brandchella’ still has staying power

Beliebers, Carpenters, EYEKONs, and other cleverly named artist fandoms reported to the desert for Coachella this year—and alongside the fans came the brands, just as they always do.

At this stage of Coachella’s cultural reputation, the brand and influencer pilgrimage to Indio, California, is expected. But every year, it’s still part of the reason one constant refrain echoes beyond the desert’s great expanse: Coachella is dead, the masses like to say, and the brands and influencers killed it.

But Coachella is not dead, if attendance figures are any indication: last year’s festival drew in about 250,000 total attendees, and ticket sales this year are projected to exceed $120 million. That in-person audience alone is enough to entice plenty of brands to activate onsite, not to mention via the official YouTube livestream or adjacent creator content.

While the average observer might think the increasingly commercialized experience has killed the festival, it’s the brands’ and influencers’ very presence that actually keeps it alive, according to Alex Rawitz, director of research and insights at the creator marketing tech platform CreatorIQ.

“By making it more of a branded experience and by having this narrative, it still shows that people are paying attention to Coachella, that creators are still going and that Coachella really has emerged as one of the most powerful engines for brand storytelling via creators all year,” Rawitz said.

Sponcon

It’s nearly impossible to open social media during April and not see swaths of influencers preparing for, indulging in, or recovering from Coachella. For brands looking to partner, picking the right creator is key, Rawitz said, and it should be done with an eye trained beyond short-term metrics.

“We found that brands are really emphasizing fit and authenticity over trying to get the biggest name,” he said..“That, I think, is kind of an understanding of the tenor that is sometimes attached to creators who seem a little more transactional and don’t have that passion for an event that they’re being activated for, or for the brand that is activating them.”

That’s not to say that fit and authenticity are always done right at Coachella. During the first weekend, creator Brandon Edelman, better known as @bran__flakezz on TikTok, accepted a Coachella partnership with Starbucks and was promptly criticized for working with the company despite its labor practices—igniting a larger conversation about the lengths that individual creators are willing to go to attend Coachella. While the partnership did result in views (2.3 million at the time of writing on Bran’s paid TikTok ad, and part of the $1.6 million in earned media value and 22.1 million total impressions that Starbucks saw over the first weekend, per CreatorIQ), some experts said that brand-creator misalignment can do more to harm than help.

“When brands choose partnerships based on this visibility instead of real fit, it doesn’t just fall flat, it can feel forced or feel opportunistic, and audiences…can pick up on that quickly,” Jessie Mash, partner and chief business officer at partnerships agency SonderCo, told Marketing Brew. “In big cultural moments like Coachella, when everything is so amplified, those missteps can travel super fast and it is hard to walk back.”

As an antidote, Rawitz advised working with more micro- and nano-influencers, which can “drive hyperlocalized engagement.” Especially when events like Coachella can be perceived as opulent, working with such creators can help viewers not necessarily “begrudge them that opportunity of having this very luxurious experience,” Rawitz said.

New brand, who dis?

As far as brand activations—or “Brandchella”—go, the usual beauty and fashion suspects were aplenty, alongside some expected and perhaps unexpected brands. Fashion retailer Revolve hosted its ninth annual Revolve Festival; Kendall Jenner’s 818 Tequila brought its annual 818 Outpost activation back to Indio; and Hailey Bieber’s Rhode took full advantage of Justin’s headlining set to show off Rhode World and a new Rhode x The Biebers collection of products. But attendees were also treated to popups from first-timers like pain reliever Motrin, flushable wipes brand Goodwipes, and Barbie.

It’s possible that some first-time brands are showing up now because some Coachella-goers have grown up, Rawitz surmised.

“Creators are people too, and they’re getting older,” he said. “You’re bringing in an audience that is not just the typical young influencer. Coachella is now a legacy event that has seen itself evolve in tandem with the creators themselves evolving and obviously entering a different stage in life.”

Regardless of their audience’s age, brands this year seemed focused on being useful. Motrin’s Recharge Lounge potentially aided in any dehydration headaches, while Coachella sponsor Neutrogena handed out sunscreen samples. Goodwipes, which also bought a Bieber-themed billboard for festival-goers to see on their way to Coachella, brought its peaches-and-cream scented Olipop collaboration to life with a Porta Palace experience at Revolve Festival that SVP of Marketing Meredith Diehn told us helped “bring something with utility” rather than relying on sampling alone.

“It’s an amazing restroom in a place where often the restrooms are pretty crappy, pun intended,” she said. “Even if we had had the budget to do a massive activation, I think our strategy is still like, bring something that’s top-notch to a smaller audience, rather than trying to sling thousands and thousands of wipes to people and not be able to have that interaction and brand conversation.”

Entertainment brands were not to be left out either. HBO screened the first episode of Euphoria Season 3 onsite. And Barbie brought Barbie World to life with a pink bar, photo ops, and a partnership with Love Island USA’s Olandria Carthen, who is also known as ’Bama Barbie. According to CreatorIQ, Barbie’s activation generated $3.35 million in earned media value via 156 posts made by 73 creators, which drove 4.2 million engagements.

“The opportunity with entertainment IP is that you can find ways to extend your story into the real world, and world-building is always a key to that, and these festivals are a world of their own,” Dani Calogera, founder and CEO of entertainment marketing agency What/If Co., told us. “I think the next progression of that is, I imagine that we’ll see more and more sponsors taking those [IP-based activations] as cultural spaces that they can be in.”

As Coachella ushers in music festival season, Rawitz expects the lessons brands learn in the desert will be applicable to other formats.

“Generally, a lot of the things[brands and creators are doing]...is all going to be relevant across festival season,” Rawitz said. “Coachella can serve as a bit of a testing ground as these brands figure out the rest of their strategy throughout the year.”