JBL Fest created culture-making moments that brought its Dare To brand position to life. After a 2 year pandemic hiatus, JBL Fest returned to Las Vegas bigger and better in order to excite and engage its Gen Z audience. JBL Fest Dare To Vegas was designed and curated to propel culturally relevant storytelling through fan activation and story sharing (via onsite social uploads, influencers IG stories, celebrity attendees and JBL talent posts). JBL Fest drove press and social amplification and immersed critical B-to-B decisionmakers within a living demonstration of the JBL brand ethos, and through participation in active events as Gen Z expressed their own enthusiasm for JBL.
The overriding goal - live the brand purpose. Make JBL Fest an active, engaging, and socially responsive brand platform for JBL, fusing JBL into Gen Z music, pop culture, gaming, and the valued destination event for cultural encounters. JBL Fest success will be measured by earned media and social exposure. JBL Fest will activate JBL culture-making storytelling with massive earned media and social media responses, especially targeting Gen Z audiences. As important, JBL Fest will support B-to-B sell-in. Fest should immerse key B-to-B decisionmakers into the JBL brand ethos, and let decisionmakers witness JBL’s Gen Z enthusiasm so these critical partners deeply feel and experience Gen Z’s brand love for JBL.
Grow brand equity.
Grow brand awareness with Gen Z consumers (primary 18 – 24 target) and younger Millennials (secondary 25-34). (targeting a +5% consideration gain).
Exclusive performances from global stars drove Gen Z demand and JBL brand enthusiasm. JBL’s global brand ambassadors create a powerhouse of cultural storytelling through headline performances and talent exclusives from Doja Cat, Martin Garrix, Bebe Rexha, and newly announced global brand ambassador The Kid LaRoi. JBL Fest offered 3 days and nights of compelling social sharable moments with JBL brand activations, immersive experiences, and content for dozens of social influencers.
JBL Fest created immersive showcase events for JBL’s cultural thematic pillars in music, gaming, entertainment, and pop culture – and centered Fest as the participatory embodiment of JBL’s new Dare To campaign.
Talent-led marketing and outreach featured JBL Fest as the immersive destination offering Gen Z fans three days of music, events, and culture making storytelling that celebrates the passions, interests, and expressions of Gen Z – focused on music, gaming, and pop culture.
JBL story content brought the brand to life. Headline superstars, world famous brand ambassadors, and celebrity influencers collectively participated to anchor stories for earned media and social amplification. A deep roster of influencers and celebrity attendees activated social media audiences and leveraged JBL Fest content to build engagement and JBL brand love.
Seeing and feeling the brand was created over 72 hours of high energy brand experiences. JBL Fest include immersive brand installations, 3 nights of headliner concerts, and press exclusives – all wrapped within JBL brand activations.
Thousands of fans Dared To Vegas with JBL, with more than 3,600 immersing themselves in the JBL Fest experience. JBL Fest social content amplified their enthusiasm as JBL Fest gained 300M social impressions and Gen Z shared their reactions from 13M engagements. High profile influencers joined the fun with 800 posts that added 22M targeted impressions with $7M in estimated media value. Real JBL conversations grew 69% Year over Year.
This content and story-centered event drove massive media and social coverage. JBL Fest generated 129 media stories resulting in 4.1B total PR earned impressions ($5M in Advertising Value Equivalence).
Creating a significant pop culture event for JBL’s Gen Z audience also generated substantial business to business benefits. JBL’s key B-to-B decisionmakers participated in JBL’s thought leadership events during JBL Fest, including the Harman Tech Forum, the Extreme Growth Challenge events, and at the JBL Growth Summit. 500 key customer VIPs participated in three days of JBL brand activations and consumer events: Let’s Go Places JBL X Toyota: IG content, brand activations, 22 creators joined for day-long JBL X Toyota road trip.
