Our goal at the iHeart House of Music Festival was to generate awareness and enthusiasm among our Music Lover audience of our newly-launched Ultra headphones and earbuds. We achieved this through a comprehensive 360-degree experiential activation in partnership with iHeart. The festival's timing in September, just before the winter holiday shopping season, provided an ideal opportunity to enhance visibility and excitement surrounding the new product line, which launched just before the event.
While Bose has deployed streaming and terrestrial audio strategies in the past, the iHeart House of Music Festival was a first for the brand in terms of pairing in person experiential with traditional audio elements, which are key in reaching our music lover audience. To maximize awareness and visibility of the event, we deployed a mix of in person and digital touchpoints, using the on the ground experience as a content capture opportunity. With the scale and targeting capabilities of iHeart radio, we could amplify our message to the music lover consumer whether they were experiencing the product for themselves in Las Vegas or watching a creator describe the experience from Boston.
The festivities kicked off with an exclusive Welcome Party at the Green Valley Ranch hotel, attended by 35-40 prominent podcasters including Lance Bass, Jenna Ushkuwitz, Kevin McHale, and Danielle Fishel. At the party, iHeart set up two listening stations featuring Bose's QCUH products, allowing guests to experience the new offerings firsthand.
Following the Welcome Party, Bose sponsored a Podcast Studio throughout the weekend where live podcast recordings took place using the Quietcomfort Ultra Headphones. Additionally, Bose aired a 30-second TV commercial on both nights of the festival, and the Bose logo was featured in various activations such as the House of Music logo loop and Arena LED ribbons.
To extend our presence, we also used the festival as an opportunity for content capture to run in paid media across social buys. Three iHeartRadio content creators were flown to Las Vegas to cover the festival, creating social videos documenting their experiences at the Bose activation. These videos were shared on the creators' Instagram Stories and TikTok accounts, as well as across iHeartRadio's network and supported in paid. Most importantly, they helped contextualize for the consumer how the power of sound can help enhance the overall experience of music fandom. This content capture approach was a key component of the festival as it allowed us to help consumers who aren’t on the ground feel like they are part of the activation and drive excitement at home.
Bose's sponsorship of the event drove significant success, increasing Bose purchase intent by 27% and a 14% increase in brand intent, effectively positioning Bose as a top-of-mind brand before the holiday shopping season.
An overwhelming 9 out of 10 interviewed attendees perceived Bose as a perfect fit for the iHeartRadio House of Music Festival. Interactive elements and on-site brand ambassadors were key drivers of brand recall, with 79% recalling Bose podcast/music engagement and 56% recalling product information from Bose brand ambassadors.
In terms of content capture, three creator videos and a recap video garnered 10.9M impressions and over 11K engagements, leveraging the credibility of these creators in the audio space to enhance Bose's brand equity.
