Festivals Form Alliance

Three Swiss festivals have formed a strategic alliance in a bid to improve their marketing and sponsoring opportunities.

Although OpenAir St. Gallen, Openair Frauenfeld and Gurten Festival share a headline sponsor in the shape of national grocery chain Migros, as do several other Swiss fests, they’ve teamed to help each other develop other partnerships.

“One example is that some festivals don’t have a partner providing artist transportation,” Gurten Festival chief Philippe Cornu explained. “There are other areas where we might be able to attract the same partners, particularly as we have a combined audience in excess of 100,000.”

One area that’s high on their list is the creation of media platforms to create greater exposure on TV and radio.

All three festivals are in the German-speaking region of the country and their demographic target markets obviously overlap.

More than half their visitors are 18-25 years old, although Frauenfeld – Europe’s biggest hip-hop fest – attracts more foreign visitors.

St. Gallen attracts the most German visitors while Gurten tends to pull more of its foreign visitors from Austria and Liechtenstein.

The new alliance has grown from the festivals’ other longstanding cooperation, such as the timing of their various annual marketing campaigns.