At Lollapalooza this year, fashion and beauty brands are taking a more physical approach to showing up at the festival.
Neutrogena will be the inaugural official skin-care partner at Lollapalooza in Chicago when the festival starts on July 30. While Neutrogena will have campaigns and advertising adjacent to the festival, like out-of-home advertisements around the city of Chicago leading up to and during the event, the brand is also investing in numerous on-the-ground activations.
Neutrogena will host six free sunscreen stations around the festival grounds, giving out over 180 gallons of free sunscreen, along with air-conditioned cooling stations for attendees to take a break from the heat. The brand is also hosting a welcome party for 120 influencers on the first night, sponsoring creator posts throughout the weekend and seeding over 4,000 samples of its Hydro Boost Water Gel product throughout the festival.
Kevin Shapiro, U.S. head of brand growth for Neutrogena, told Glossy that Neutrogena identified an organic brand synergy with summer music festivals: the need to beat the heat.
“Lollapalooza brings together hundreds of thousands of people during the peak summer season, when UV levels are often at their highest,” Shapiro said. “Festivalgoers spend long hours outdoors in the sun, making sunscreen essential. By showing up where consumers need sun protection most, Neutrogena can help people stay protected from immediate concerns like sunburn while also promoting the importance of daily sun safety and reducing the long-term risks associated with UV exposure.”
Hollister is coming back to Lollapalooza for a second time, after hosting three smaller-scale “aftershow” concerts with emerging artists last year. This year, Hollister, too, will be on the ground. In addition to selling an exclusive capsule collection at the festival, Hollister is hosting the “Feel Good House,” a branded building on the festival grounds that will house DJ sets, limited-time product drops and meet-ups with creators.
Like Neutrogena, Hollister will also have Lollapalooza-related efforts outside of the festival itself. Some, but not all, of the seven-piece collection will be made available online. The product is inspired by vintage Y2K concert T-shirts, playing on Gen Z’s nostalgia for the late ‘90s and early 2000s.
For Kelly Hall, head of merchandising and design at Hollister, being physically present at the festival is important for reaching Hollister’s target teen demographic. It’s also consistent with Hollister’s recent focus on music, like a denim campaign the brand launched earlier this month featuring rising pop star Freya Skye. While it hasn’t partnered with any music festivals other than Lollapalooza this year, Hollister does have an ongoing sponsorship with Longhorn City Limits, a concert series held at the University of Texas during home football games.
“Music and festival culture have been an important part of the Hollister brand, and working alongside Lollapalooza, we wanted to create moments that feel immersive, memorable and unmistakably Hollister, from the product to the programming to the way customers and fans engage with the brand in real time,” Hall said in a statement.
Lollapalooza’s typical audience skews younger than other music festivals, with an average age of 18 to 24. Coachella attendees, for example, have an average age of 28.
Music festivals are an increasingly popular venue for branded activations, particularly for brands looking to connect with a younger audience. Among young people, both attendance and spending at music festivals are growing. Live Nation reported that global music festival attendance had increased by 14% to 44 million attendees in the second quarter of last year. Onsite merchandise sales are driving 62% of growth at music festivals, with other growth factors being rising sponsorship revenue and increased youth presence. Boston Consulting Group found in October that consumers under the age of 28 are projected to account for 40% of global fashion revenue in the next decade.
Neutrogena was also the official skin-care sponsor of Coachella earlier this year, with a similar approach of offering “sunscreen towers” around the festival grounds. It’s part of the brand’s recently announced brand mission, “Break the Rules,” which puts education front and center in its marketing.
“Beyond the practical need for sun protection, Lollapalooza represents a cultural moment that resonates across generations,” Shapiro said. “For Neutrogena, it is an opportunity to connect with consumers through an experience they love while bringing our Break the Rules platform to life. Lollapalooza is a cultural space where consumers already discover and engage with beauty, making it a natural place to bring the platform to life.”
