Brand JOY: London's Mighty Hoopla

The Mighty Hoopla prides itself on its progressive message: freedom, expressionism and fun, and considers itself the UK's "most-inclusive and fabulous festival". The festival takes place in Brockwell Park, near Brixton in South London over the first weekend in June, and features an eclectic and genre-ambivalent lineup.

Hoopla also boasts a roster of brand sponsorships who help the magic happen, and are encouraged to run brand activations on-site over the festival weekend. These range from FMCG brands like Brewdog, Costa Coffee and Moët & Chandon, networks like Hayu and Vodafone, to charities like Medecins Sans Frontieres and Safer Spaces.

Our motivation for investigating this particular festival was just this, their diverse range of brand sponsors which we examined in order to understand their impact on festival goers. We sought to understand how the feeling of joy was being sewed into the fabric of the festival goers’ Hoopla experience by these brands. Thematically, three core modes for harnessing joy were noticeable: play, value, and moment capturing.

PLAY

The NYX Cosmetics brand activation was impossible to miss. NYX is a value forward and high quality (though not luxury) makeup brand. The two main stages showed screens plastered with dripping, gooey glosses with bubble writing and promises of the shiniest glow imaginable, while house music pulsed encouragingly in the background. The staff and booths had a maximalist 80s aerobics-core aesthetic, with neon coloured headbands, bum bags and leg warmers, and a fluorescent pink plastic limbo stick held medium-low to tempt passers-by into a limbo competition in whose participation won a free Nyx product.

“This morning we didn’t really know how to get people going,” explained one of their workers. She has a performing arts background and we spotted her hula hooping a few hours before, the very picture of joy. “I was trying to hand out products– not samples, full sized products! And it was like people couldn’t get far away enough from me. They just avoided me like the plague.”

I asked her what changed, gesturing to the crowd that gathered around the cosmetics booth. “Well, we got out the limbo stick and people wanted to give it a try. They still get the product at the end, but you know, people cheer for them, they can get their friends to join in. It’s like a reward for taking part, something to remember us by!”

Interesting. Very few passersby wanted the products for free, for nothing. We can speculate as to why (maybe it felt too consumerist? Too “branded”?) but all we really know is that when they unfurled the limbo stick and started jumping around, a crowd gathered. Getting the products for free wasn’t satisfying, but winning them by playing a game with others feels satisfying in a tangible way.

MOTH: Bar, a canned cocktail brand with a premium ARTD offering also manifested in the play and value spaces. Their play was more tongue in cheek, a carnival style game to guess the number of cocktail cans in a vending machine with the tagline “Guess, the MOTHS: win the lot”. This higher stakes, reward driven type of play is more closely aligned with glamorous play, like casinos and gambling, so the messaging of the MOTH: brand works perfectly to drive this sophisticated message.

VALUE

MOTH:, despite their relatively high price point (compared to the festival’s official bars) also used a value proposition to attract customers. Their labelling emphasised the alcohol content per volume, combined with the sleek, modern and cosmopolitan product execution. The MOTH: cocktail thus assured customers that despite paying more, they were getting a better deal at their bar than at any of the others at the event. 

The value offering is key for many passersby: they comment on the democracy of it, the approachableness, that it's for everyone and therefore inclusive. “It’s good to see affordable brands here. It’s so strange when luxury products and brands exist in spaces like this. Gayness, queerness is a maligned thing, young gay people often don’t have much money – so seeing brands that actually understand that is great” Says Florin, 26. He’s pointing at the Lidl brand activation, which is an electric blue and shaped like a bouncy castle. Inside they offer a slushie and fruit skewer for less than £3, and handed out branded tote bags. There is a definite sense of joy from the queuing festival goers outside, who are happy for a snack and photo opportunity, as well as a space to get some water and sit on the grass.

CAPTURING THE MOMENT 

At any music festival, but perhaps especially at this music festival, cameras, pictures and phones play a huge role. The air is frenetic and bright, with a giddy, optimistic atmosphere that you can sense the crowd trying to bottle up and save. The outfits, hair and makeup are done to such a high standard, in a concerted effort to look and feel a certain part and be memorable. It’s clear that the brand booths have taken this into account, and several offer photo opportunities as part of the activation experience. For instance, Lidl have a 360* camera booth with an array of props to take fun, unique and high quality pictures with your friends. It was a hit too, with queues long enough that passersby would come over and investigate.

Ultimately, the three themes of play, value and capturing the moment work well together in this democratic, optimistic and earnest setting of Hoopla. This is not a space for the elitism or exclusion associated with luxury brands, but should rather be unabashed, cheap and cheerful.

Words: Vickie Landell Mills, Photography: Matt Baker