01/07/2015

‘Be A Headliner’ Sees Hunter Ambush Glastonbury (& NHSBT Campaign)

While Glastonbury’s officially designated ‘Campaign Of The Year was its partnership with the NHS Blood And Transplant (NHSBT) on a blood donor recruitment drive called ‘Be This Year’s Headline Act’, the festival and the campaign were somewhat ambushed by trendy boot brand Hunter and its ‘Be A Headliner’ campaign.

 

While the NHSBT initiative was promoted via the official programme and newsletter, activated at an specially-constructed on-site stage where festivalgoers were invited to perform (as well as at a Green Futures Field registration stall  and social activation via the hashtag #HeadlineAct), Hunter’s ambush spanned festival survival kits, new limited editions,, short films, social work and  a celebrity ambassador programme.

 

Hunter’s #BeAHeadliner initially aimed to capitalise on pre-festival excitement and launched on 12 June through a set of four 16-second short online films – posted on Vine and YouTube featuring models dancing in new Glasto-inspired Hunter ponchos and jackets while being blasted by rain and sunny confetti.

 

The idea was to try and capture a moment of Glastonbury’s unique euphoria and the films consisted of ‘Bud + Aidan’,

 

 

‘Claire’,

 

 

‘Nina & Joseph’,

 

 

and ‘Raad’,

 

 

The brand also used the same creative style and tone to activate the campaign heavily on social media through the festival itself (24 – 28 June) – with Vines and tweets promoting its range from its signature Hunter boots (a long-standing festival staple) to its latest outerwear range.

 

 

It’s on-site, in-event activity was promoted across its social media channels and ranged from branded vans to its festival survival kits,

 

 

from its ponchos,

 

 

and its foil blankets,

 


 

to its more familiar boots,

 

 

And, as has been the crucial tactic for Hunter in recent years, it also heavily amplified its set of Glastonbury Glitterati (Glastorati) endorser relationships across its social platforms.

 

A parade of entertainment and fashion industry ambassadors and influencers paraded around Glastonbury in Hunter products (less nature walk, more catwalk) and the brand tweeted photos and films of these influencers at play.

 

Personalised Hunter boots were a big endorser deal for Glastonbury 2015 and Hunter tweeted pictures of them being worn by its exclusive set of celeb endorsers such as model Poppy Delevinge,

 

 

model Suki Waterhouse and designer Stella McCartney,

 

 

plus fashion writer Alexa Chung,

 

 

and even actor Alexander Skarsgård.

 

 

This endorser customisation marketing strand, thee first time in its 159-year history, saw Hunter create one-off, unique festival designs and then sew the star’s name into its red logo.

 

The brand was also quick to post and tweet about which famous stars – from Bradley Cooper and Nick Grimshaw to James Bay and Daisy Lowe – were wearing its products backstage.

 

It’s social media activity also included more straightforward and sales-led Glastonbury ambush ads, such as for its Original Tall boot, our iconic design for the #festival season,

 

 

 

while on its website Hunter also ran a Glastonbury headlines blog.

 

Comment

 

For several years now the historic royal Hunter has been repositioning itself amongst the cool, celebrity set and style influencers through its engagement around festivals across the globe.

 

It was as long ago as 2008 that Hunter really began to seriously activate around Glastonbury and that year it launched a festival range and developed a charity partnership with one of the three core Glastonbury causes – Water Aid.

 

It continues this music festival focused marketing approach with further joint initiatives – such as its relationship with Kate Moss and her Glasto-chic set and a 2010 partnership with Blur member (and now Cotswold cheese-maker and farmer) Alex James.

 

What Hunter truly understands is that perhaps the best route to Glastonbury success is to avoid traditional marketing channels, and to know who and where the influencers and the ‘Glaristocracy’ are, to build brand-relevant backstage style relationships with them and then amplify those partnerships through snippet style content.

 

After all, for entertainment, music and fashion businesses, the Glastonbury trend setting elite can make or break a brand with a single tweet.

 

‘Be A Headliner’ provides a textbook case study of how to plan and execute this tactic.

 

But, come on, try not to ambush the festival’s official cause of the year initiative by choosing almost exactly the same name for your campaign.

 

Links:

 

Hunter Twitter:

https://twitter.com/HunterBoots

@HunterBoots

 

Hunter Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/HunterBoots

 

Hunter Blog:

http://www.hunterboots.com/discover/events-hunter-headlines-glastonbury/

 

Hunter YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/user/TheHunterBoots

 

Hunter Pinterest:

https://www.pinterest.com/hunterboots/

 

Hunter Instagram:

https://instagram.com/hunterboots/

 

Hunter Website:

www.hunterboots.com

 

Hunter Google+:

https://plus.google.com/+hunterboots/posts

 

Glastonbury Website:

http://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/

 

Glastonbury Twitter:

https://twitter.com/glastofest

@GlastoFest

 

Glastonbury YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/user/GlastonburyOfficial

 

Glastonbury Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/glastonburyofficial?_rdr=p

 

Glastonbury Google+:

https://plus.google.com/+GlastonburyOfficial/posts

 

Glastonbury Instagram:

https://instagram.com/glastoofficial/



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