More than just a music festival, the Sunburn brand has nurtured the electronic music culture in India and 2016 will witness a boost in the global fan footprint with devout fanatics pouring in from more than 50 countries worldwide with an estimated footfall of over 4 lakhs of visitors boosting tourism by 20 per cent. This year Sunburn is set to go cashless, and in an exclusive conversation with Techtree, Karan Singh, CEO, Sunburn Global talks about the festival in detail.

The unique feature this year is that Sunburn is all set to go cashless. What lead to Sunburn to go cashless? Please tell us about how visitors can use the smart bands at the venue.

The introduction of the Cashless facility was an obvious progression for us given that it’s a growing trend among the millennial generation. While the technology will ensure a hassle-free and interactive experience for the fans, it also manner it brings with itself a host of possibilities which made it an ideal fit for the Sunburn fans. The bands will be key in making the fans journey right from entry, which will be much faster to his interaction at various touch points within the festival site. It will also allow brands to enable customized offerings including offers, discounts and information on various engagement led activities that they may be conducting from time to time. In addition to providing a one tap top-up (refill) functionality, the band will also give us insights on consumption patterns of the fans in turn helping us make their experience much more enjoyable while keeping it secure. The Sunburn Smart Band are home delivered when fans book the tickets.

Could you also enlighten us about the back-end work which was required to produce Sunburn Smart Band?

We’ve worked with our partners in India as well as overseas right from procurement of the bands to the final packaging and customization. The entire process from procurement to end dispatch has been made keeping in mind the Sunburn Brand philosophy and our on ground requirement leading up to post event insights that will help us better the festival experience with every passing year.

Sunburn has been associated with brands like Renault, Gionee, Micromax, Ola, Airtel, and SpiceJet. How does these brands help promote Sunburn’s brand image? How does Sunburn help these brands?

We’ve seen a steady increase in the number of brands that have associated with us year on year. Apart from obvious monetary considerations, Sunburn makes available to Brands an opportunity to engage with their TG on various levels. The yearlong activities hinge on both; exposure as well as the experience. . While our live events lower the barriers between brands and fans creating real and memorable experiences, it also ensures a higher recall of the brand with the festival as a whole. Brand Sunburn makes available various touch points and opportunities to partnering brands including category sponsorship, sampling, tickets & hospitality, high impact activations and brand showcases. One of the most important element in this association is the ability of the Brand to make people feel something about them through various activations both online and offline, rather than being told what they should think.

Of our experience with the partnering brands since inception, the integration often is executed with a healthy mix of digital as well as on ground activations. While the mother though of their campaigns are the same, the execution often differs depending on the medium and are cross promoted by both Sunburn and the partnering brand. Given that Sunburn has emerged to become one of the largest youth connecting platform in the country, it provides a perfect setting to brands to have a direct line of engagement with them.

Some of brands that have actively participated in cross promotional activities with us over the years include Renault, Gionee, Hero, Ray Ban, Kingfisher, FBB, Smirnoff, Airtel, Ola among others. We hope to see a higher level of engagement with more brands in our coming seasons.

Sunburn is a worldwide acclaimed event on par with Tomorrowland and Ultra Miami. Over the past decade how has Sunburn evolved in terms of business?

Sunburn introduced the concept of Dance Music to India and we are a brand that has been given birth locally and we have now gone global. A true global brand always happens when you foremost follow the mantra of “for the fans, by the fans, of the fans’’! Dance music is inclusive without barriers and it reaches out to all. It makes absolute sense for India to adopt it and participate. We are sure that we will see our fans enjoying more and more of our concerts with various global top artists. We believe why it has become so popular is because it’s very uncomplicated. After all what can be simpler than ‘live love dance’! Sunburn started as one small event in 2007 on the beaches of Goa and it has grown to an year around phenomenon year on year because of the excellence that we strive for in all the areas. But it’s also because we speak to our fans, we stay in touch with them trying to figure out what they want, cutting across the age and the language barriers uniting people across cities and countries, reaching out to create a social platform for people to interact on. Dance music has a bright future in India  as well as globally for years to come! Apart from the main festival we have sub-brands and product lines as Arenas, Reloads, Campus and club events. Tier II in the Indian market has been exploding and we have been now focusing on Tier II and III markets to lead the brand journey. This helps us in growing the audience base and the dance music culture in the country as well. We have witnessed 100 per cent growth YOY in digital audience and we today stand at 1.7 million on Facebook, Google plus is at 1.1 million, Instagram followers are 163k, Twitter is 341k followers, Our Youtube channel has 8 million plus video views and 62k subscribers.Even our on-ground attendance numbers have seen 40 per cent growth from season 8 to season 9.

Sunburn is listed as one of the top 3 music festivals globally. We have recently been voted as one of the top 100 brands in the country as well by Pitch brand survey, the leading advertising and marketing magazine. We also enjoy great global fan following  and global market equity. We have already done shows in Dubai, Colombo and Oman and tasted great success with them and will continue to do so. We are already exploring the other markets with the International partners and will be focusing on Eastern Europe and South east Asia. As brand Sunburn has seen a steady growth over the years, the business has seen an equivalent growth.

Apart from nurturing electronic music and native talents, Sunburn is credited for boosting tourism in the country. Sunburn has set a benchmark in the sheer entertainment value and safety standards. How does Sunburn manage to raise the bar every year?

A dance festival is successful when the fans own it. When it’s for the fans, by the fans and of the fans, the experience, production and content needs to be seamless and contemporary as well as innovative so that the fans leave with a sentiment encountering something iconic. We stay in constant touch with our fans, and study their music preferences across the globe. This helps us in understanding them and ensuring that we deliver a wow experience.

Tags : Micromax, Gionee, Facebook, YouTube, Sunburn