Site Design– A Festival Guide

It is expected that the Web will eventually come closer to fulfilling its potential and promise as the ultimate medium for market segmentation at the individual consumer level – that is, for targeting unique individual surfers with individually-designed promotions, content, products and services on the Web (Dreze, 1997)

As seen from our previous posts it is essential to engage with the customer on not only a visually stimulating level but also to have a website design that it navigated through at ease and possesses a variety of useful consumer resources.

However, when a consumer already has the definite intent to buy a product does the seller of that product fall flat performance wise in their digital site??

For example; music festivals like Electric Picnic and Life have such a high demand that there are shortages in the ticket sale. These promotional companies in hindsight do actually not need to do an awful lot of advertising or marketing because their product speaks for itself! These festivals offer lifetime memories and experiences not just a once off material purchase.

With this in mind do the promoters fall short of providing an aesthetically appealing, fully informative, engaging website?

ELECTRIC PICNIC 2015.

EP successfully manage to provide a clean, sophisticated approach to their website. Incorporated on the right hand side are four different links to their social media accounts which shows that they are fully aware how beneficial going mobile is. They have digitally mastered what makes an effective site; the colours although neutral follow a certain theme throughout, all the important information consumers want (line-up, dates, times, photos) are clearly visible and the top navigational panel holds numerous extra points of information and help. They manage to capture the finesse and excitement of attending their festival through digital means.

LIFE FESTIVAL 2015

 LF have undergone a serious revamp over the past year or two. They have re-marketed their brand and changed their target audience to aim towards a younger crowd. This is visibly evident through the bright floral colours and portrayal of vast number of young people in their advertising and online photos. Digitally speaking,  they have successfully included links to their social media sites, there are various helpful and links to many extra informative resources. Through their website they have positively hit the nail on the head for an effective site design!

In conclusion, although ticketed events such as music festivals need not fight for sale or consumer attention as much as a clothing retailer or insurance company would, both festivals which were aforementioned have still managed to engage digitally in producing an excellent site design.

-Jessica Cusack

References:

• http://www.life-festival.com/
• http://www.electricpicnic.ie/
• Dreze, Xavier, and Fred Zufryden. “Testing web site design and promotional content.” Journal of Advertising Research 37.2 (1997): 77-91.