Marketing Communication
alapati
WritingAssignment2_Group1.docxTomorrowland Around The World
Week Four | Market Research | July 19th – July 25th
Prepared by:
Bhargav Choudary Alaparthi
Jorge Bazoberry
Nneka Cullen
Date: July 25, 2021
Marketing Strategies - 202146 - CRN105
Professor: Sharon Styffe
Choose a company that has changed the way they deliver their products/services because of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Tomorrowland
URL: https://www.tomorrowland.com
Research a Company and Provide a YouTube Video That Depicts the Company’s Shift in Target Marketing due to the Pandemic (Bhargav, Nneka & Jorge).
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOeub7d44E4&t=2s
How Did the Company Employ e-commerce and the Use of Social Media Before and In Response to the Pandemic? (Jorge)
When the 2020 pandemic hit, majority of live music events got cancelled including big festivals like Tomorrowland. This particular festival held in Boom, Belgium hosts over 300 hundred artists yearly over two weekends and sells almost half a million tickets to people from every single country in the world. “As arguably the largest festival in the world, it is not a surprise that the tickets for the event sold out within a shocking five minutes this past weekend with approximately 400,000 tickets sold to electronic music fans around the globe.” (Tara, 2020)
Last year due to the horrible circumstances they faced two choices, to remain silent or to make a way to deliver their life-changing experience in a different way.
They announced a livestream like no other. We still remember all the quality streams all artists and promoters were putting up in the spring and summer of 2021, all of them for free. Tomorrowland as the market leader opted to do a ticketed event ($25 per ticket) and take the virtual concert experience to the next level. “2020 was an interesting year for live streaming, marked by its enormous expansion due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Live streaming moved beyond gaming, as music, cultural events, sports, and social commentary became much more popular streaming topics.” (Restream.io. n.d., 2021)
Was it Successful in Responding to the Impact Initially Experienced By the Pandemic? (Jorge)
As seen on the video above, Tomorrowland utilized vanguardist technology to transport the magic of their event to living rooms all around the world. And it paid off greatly. Last year they sold over 1 million tickets to fans all around the globe, some repeat customers and some people who never had access to the brick-and-mortar festival due to financial issues, visa issues or simply because their tickets sold out within minutes after the on-sale every single year due to the high demand (Routte-Note, 2020). “The show was huge, bringing in over 1 million people across the weekend, all of whom had to pay to attend. To “go” to Tomorrowland Around the World it costs €20 for the weekend or €12 for a day ticket. This means that not only was the festival huge in it’s attendance but that they’ve racked up a decent revenue from it too.” (Routte-Note, 2020)
This online event not only helped them to somewhat offset their marketing and operational costs but also to maintain their position as industry leaders, giving them a considerable level of brand equity. “Brand equity is determined by the consumer and is the culmination of the consumer’s assessment of the product, the company that manufactures and markets the product, and all other variables that impact on the product between manufacture and consumer consumption.” (Peter & Donnelly, 2014).
Will the Company Continue to Use This Strategy Post Pandemic? (Bhargav)
After the pandemic, the company will continue with the strategy. They announced that they'd continue to do it every year to reach the people who get left out due to financial or geographical reasons (Serchi, 2020). Buying the tickets was somehow hard, and attending the festival physically was a challenge due to geographical distance. Many people would try to purchase the tickets every year, but it would be difficult for them to attend because getting access was a big challenge. This strategy will sell the company in many nations because everybody will be eager to participate in the Tomorrowland events virtually.
The company will earn more revenues through Livestream because many of its live events will generate more audience (Serchi, 2020). After all, the videos will be accessible to a worldwide audience. To get a link to stream live, you must pay your tickets for such events, and this will earn the Tomorrowland company more revenues. The company will have no limitations on the number of audiences, which will gain more revenue than ever before. It will also be economical to plan for the events because only the artists will be required on the podium. The company will also be able to satisfy the curiosity of its fans worldwide because they will follow what is happening in the comfort of their homes. Streaming online will give the company an excellent fantastic point of differentiation. Not many companies operating in the same industry have the same idea, and so it will enable the company to have a tremendous competitive advantage and attract more customers worldwide (Serchi, 2020). Everybody will be willing to have a view of what happens at the Tomorrowland dance festival.
Do you Believe the Buyers Will Change Their Purchasing Patterns Post-Pandemic? Why or Why Not? (Nneka)
The music industry was one of the industries that was significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The global music industry is worth over $50 billion, with two major income streams, which comes from live music (make up 50 percent of total revenues and is gotten from mostly ticket sales to live performance) and recorded music (Hall, 2020). The COVID-19 pandemic led to music festivals, like Tomorrowland, to change the way they operate. This change occurred through becoming more creative and shifting gears to live streaming and virtual concerts, with the help of technology. There is no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic influenced a lot of consumers' purchasing patterns, as the buying behavior of consumers depends on several factors, therefore making it inconsistent. Understanding buying patterns and behavior of your target audience/consumers is the key to a successful marketing strategy (Hll, 2020).
However, despite the reopening and return of music festivals and concerts post-pandemic, we believe that virtual events are here to stay. Nevertheless, we do not believe it will ever replace music lovers' preference for in-person attendance, but it's most likely to remain a supplement for people’s entertainment (Faughnder, 2021). We believe that the merging of both virtual and live concert into a hybrid model is an added bonus for Tomorrowland. Post-pandemic, many music lovers are eager and desperate to return in-person for live concerts. Therefore, we strongly believe that this will affect consumers' purchasing patterns, as more people are wanting to go out and interact with people after months of being indoors. A lot of music festivals like Tomorrowland are trying to be safety conscious by operating at lower capacity (75 percent), therefore, having a hybrid festival will help attract bigger audiences and bring more revenue (Faughnder, 2021). In addition, psychological and social factors play a major role in influencing consumer buying behavior or patterns (Shethna, 2021). Young people are the major group of people that love to attend music concerts and festivals, and as we know, people in certain reference groups have common buying behavior that tends to influence each other (Shethna, 2021). Humans are social beings and we live around many people who influence our buying behavior. Moreover, humans need to interact with others which is why a lot of millennials and young people will be eager to attend live concerts and festivals post-pandemic, which will ultimately impact their purchasing patterns.
References
Faughnder, R. (2021, June 24). What is Zoom Fatigue? Pandemic Virtual
Concerts May Have Changed Live Music Forever. Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2021-06-24/what-zoom-fatigue-virtual-concerts-may-be-here-to-stay.
Hall , S. (2020, April 18). This is How COVID-19 is Affecting the Music Industry. World
Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/05/this-is-how-covid-19-is-affecting-the-music-industry/.
Peter, P. J., & Donnelly, J. (2014). A Preface to Marketing Management (14th ed.).
McGraw-Hill Education. Page 93
Restream Inc. (2021, May 21). 61 Stats for Your Live Streaming Strategy in 2021 –
Restream Blog. Ultimate Live Streaming Hub – Restream Blog. https://restream.io/blog/live-streaming-statistics/
Routte-Note, J. (2020, August 7). Over 1 million people went to Tomorrowland online
this year. RouteNote Blog. https://routenote.com/blog/over-1-million-people-went-to-tomorrowland-online-this-year/
Serchi, V. M. (2020). The Role of the Online Reviews in the New Economic Environment:
Tomorrowland Case Study.
Shethna, J. (2021, July 10). Consumer Behaviour: 4 Factors that Influence Consumer
Behaviour. EDUCBA. https://www.educba.com/4-factors-influencing-consumer-behaviour/.
Tara, T. (2020, February 4). Tomorrowland 2020 Sells Out Within Minutes. EDM Maniac.
https://edmmaniac.com/tomorrowland-2020-sells-out-within-minutes/.
Tomorrowland (2020, October 27). Never Stop the Music - The Creation of Tomorrowland
Around the World. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOeub7d44E4&t=2s.
