Industry
Technology
Challenge
Sierra Nevada doesn’t have pouring rights at traditional venues, but at Outside Lands, they get on-site pouring rights baked into their sponsorship. Additionally, festivals in general have a TON of sponsorships and activations, so finding a way to drive traffic to their experiential footprint was important for Sierra Nevada.
Results
Sierra Nevada engaged music fans by partnering with an up and coming Outside Lands artist to promote Hazy Little Thing IPA. The partnership brought the hazy vibes to life through immersive content, sweepstakes promotion, and a can't-miss live moment at one of the year’s biggest festivals.
Objectives
Awareness, Engagement, Sales Lift
SET.Live
SET.Live turns live concerts into interactive digital environments, enabling mobile, audio, and visual brand touchpoints directly within the artist–fan experience.The Soundtrack of Summer: Hazy Little Things IPA
Sierra Nevada engaged music fans by partnering with an up and coming Outside Lands artist to promote Hazy Little Thing IPA in the NorCal region.
The partnership brought the hazy vibes to life through immersive content, sweepstakes promotion, and a can't-miss live moment at one of the year’s biggest festivals. From cracking open a Hazy Little Thing to hanging out with the band, fans got the ultimate taste of summer.
Existing Conditions
The primary reason for Sierra Nevada’s presence at festivals comes down to pouring rights.
Sierra Nevada doesn’t have pouring rights at traditional venues (meaning the bars inside those venues won’t serve their products), but at Outside Lands, they get on-site pouring rights baked into their sponsorship.
In addition to selling Sierra Nevada products at Sierra Nevada’s experiential footprint, the Hazy Little Hideaway, the beer is also sold at all premium bars throughout the festival grounds.
The Challenge:
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Limited Reach: impressions are limited to people at the festival, so anyone not at Outside Lands doesn't know Sierra Nevada is a sponsor
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Measuring ROI: festival sponsorships are expensive and it’s hard to quantify that investment
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Crowded Experiential Space: festivals in general have a TON of sponsorships and activations, so finding a way to drive traffic to their experiential footprint was important for Sierra Nevada
Objectives:
Brand Awareness, Liquid to Lips (product sales), Drive Traffic to Experiential Footprint
The Solution:
Disco Electronic Pop Group Midnight Generation
The goal was to maximize the ROI Sierra Nevada got from their Outside Lands sponsorship investment, which included IP and pouring rights.
Using our Artist Matching Engine™ and team of experts, MAX found an Outside Lands artist who was super on-brand for Sierra Nevada to help promote Hazy Little Thing IPA.
Midnight Generation is an electro-funk band from Mexico that fuses vintage disco, French house, and modern synth-pop into a signature sound that’s both nostalgic and fresh.
Pre-Festival: Paid Digital Sponsorship Amplification
For three weeks leading up to the festival, we ran media (dark posts) on both artist and brand channels, targeting the NorCal region.
Custom branded content promoted a sweeps giving away weekend passes to Outside Lands.
(Bonus: because we used existing image/video assets with the artist’s likeness, we didn’t have to do a full production shoot, saving costs for Sierra Nevada while still benefiting from the direct connection to the artist.)
Experiential Footprint at Outside Lands:
The Hazy Little Hideaway
A big part of Sierra Nevada’s Outside Lands sponsorship is their experiential footprint: the Hazy Little Hideaway, where fans can play games, win prizes, and drink Sierra Nevada.
Sierra Nevada had branded pull-up banners with a QR code for fans to enter to win a signed guitar and a VIP meet & greet with Midnight Generation.
Additionally, all of the festival bars where Sierra Nevada was being sold had printed cards so that while people were waiting in line, they could hit the QR code at the bar to enter the sweeps.
Live Experience at Outside Lands
Midnight Generation played on the last day of the festival in the middle of the afternoon—traditionally a time when audience attendance wouldn’t be huge.
But because Sierra Nevada had been promoting Midnight Generation for the past three weeks, the audience was packed—and hyped. 
Cheers to Sierra Nevada
About 25 minutes into their (absolutely incredible) set, everyone in Midnight Generation pulled out a can of Sierra Nevada and had a cheers moment with the audience. That “cheers” moment grabbed the audience’s attention as Midnight Generation reminded fans to go to SET.Live to enter to win the sweeps.
We used SET.Live to quickly pick a winner (who was ecstatic) for their VIP meet & greet and signed guitar. 
Afterwards, the Sierra Nevada team loaded the band up with beer buckets, and Midnight Generation went into the Hazy Little Hideaway to hang out with fans. Fans got a “chill hang” moment with the band that brought a huge crowd and an extra dose of cool factor to their experiential footprint.
Sierra Nevada seized the moment with an up-and-coming artist, becoming part of Midnight Generation’s success story.
The Results
Brand Awareness: Pre-show media allowed Sierra Nevada to amplify their Outside Lands sponsorship while showcasing their connection to Midnight Generation & introducing people to a new band.
Liquid to Lips: Throughout the weekend, Sierra Nevada field marketers invited people to enter the contest, captured leads, and sold beer at the Hazy Little Hideaway.
Experiential Traffic: The live activation brought the hazy vibes to life through immersive content, sweepstakes promotion, and a can't-miss live moment at one of the year’s biggest festivals.
Added Value with MAX
To help drive more awareness and hype for Midnight Generation’s activation experience at the Hazy Little Hideaway in Outside Lands, MAX created smaller print assets to be placed around their sold out Outside Land Night Show on August 9th at the Rickshaw Stop.
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