Green the Crowd. Communicating Sustainability through Open Air Music Festivals

Tesis de Máster , 2012 , 127 Páginas , Calificación: 1,0

Economía de las empresas - Marketing en línea y fuera de línea

“People come in their millions upon millions to our shows and we have the enviable position of a captive and receptive audience.
We are in a position to champion causes, highlight issues
and inspire changing behaviour.”

(Event Professional Meegan Jones 2010: vi)

What do you have in mind, when you hear music festival? Do you think on the first representatives, like Woodstock, as a movement of love and peace against the confrontational direction of the world leaders? Or, more likely, do you think of young adults hanging around without any political intentions? Festivals today are more popular than ever in Germany, but lack the revolutionary spirit of their meaningful ancestors.

But thereby is mankind confronted with the greatest challenges, which indeed are communicated by politicians and business leaders, but not satisfactorily tackled. Weather extremes all over the world remind menkind, with increasing frequency, of the strong dependence of human activities on climate conditions. Climate change has already begun and it looks like it will affect the living generation. These are self-made problems, because they concern those who emit more and more carbon dioxide and use so much of the natural resources that the available amount shrinks drama¬tically (see Sachs 2008: 19 et seq.).

With the rising public awareness for sustainability the companies’ interest to include the topic in their communications strategy has increased, which is also true for the Music Event Industry branch. But while many companies are concentrated rather on green washing than acting like that, some encouraged sustainability efforts do not become public after all, although marketing communication provides a valuable tool for the strategic positioning and is able to inspire people to modify their consumption behaviour (see Meiländer 2011: 52).

Hence, this master thesis attempts to explore, by taking the example of Open Air Music Festivals, how an applied target group specific Sustainability Communication (SC) concept needs to be designed to reach the customer and influence them towards a more sustainable behaviour.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

• List of Contents
• List of Abbreviations
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Introduction
• Sustainability Issues
  • Understanding Sustainability
  • Sustainability Challenges
  • Economic Roots of the Struggles
  • Strategies for a Sustainable Development
• Basis of Sustainability Communication
  • Communication and Marketing
  • Meaning
  • Bottlenecks
  • Strategies and Instruments
  • Businesses Challenge
• Music Festivals - Special Events for the Society and the Music Event Industry
  • Meaning of Events
  • Development of Music Festivals
  • Significance for Economy and Society
• Stop Dirty Dancing - Sustainability at Music Events
  • Environmental Impact of Music Festivals and the Demand for Transition
  • Sustainability Ambitions in the Music Festival Scene
• Realizing Sustainability Communication
  • Incentives for and Demands on the Festival Operators
  • Green message - Subtle or Slather
  • Communication with and Involvement of Staff and Corporation Partners
  • Communication with Attendees
    • In Advance Festival Communication
    • On-Festival Communication
    • Après- Festival Communication
• Empirical Study about the Expandability of Sustainability Communication through German Festivals
  • Research Demand
  • Research Design
  • Evaluation of the Survey
    • Return
    • Description of the Festival Fan Sample
    • Sustainability Measures in General
    • Tickets and Mobility
    • Framework Program
    • Sale of Goods
    • Waste
• Derived Sustainability Communication Concept
  • Types and Functions of Communication Concepts
  • Sustainability Communication Concept for Open Air Music Festivals
    • Analysis
    • Communication Challenge and Targets
    • Strategy
    • Realisation
• Conclusion
• BIBLIOGRAPHY
• Appendix
  • Appendix 1: Mail Openairguide.net
  • Appendix 2: The winners of the Greener Festival Award 2011
  • Appendix 3: Rock'n'Roll- Guide
  • Appendix 4: Facebook Festival Distribution of the Survey
  • Appendix 5: Survey Results
  • Appendix 6: Comments Q. 7 - General Ambitions
  • Appendix 7: General Comments Structured
  • Appendix 8: Comments Q. 10 - CO²- Compensation
  • Appendix 9: Comments Q. 8 & Q. 14 - Framework Program
  • Appendix 10: Comments Q. 15 and Q. 16 - Waste

Zielsetzung und Themenschwerpunkte

This master thesis examines the potential of open air music festivals to communicate sustainability messages to a large audience. The thesis aims to analyze the current state of sustainability communication in the music festival industry, identify key challenges and opportunities, and develop a comprehensive communication concept for promoting sustainable practices at these events. The research focuses on the German festival scene and explores the effectiveness of various communication strategies in engaging festival attendees.

• Sustainability communication in the music festival industry
• Environmental impact of music festivals
• Communication strategies for promoting sustainable practices
• Engagement of festival attendees
• Development of a comprehensive communication concept

Zusammenfassung der Kapitel

The introduction provides an overview of the research topic and outlines the structure of the thesis. It highlights the significance of sustainability communication in the context of music festivals and introduces the key research questions that will be addressed throughout the study.

Chapter 2 delves into the concept of sustainability, exploring its various dimensions and the challenges associated with achieving sustainable development. It examines the economic roots of environmental problems and discusses strategies for promoting sustainable practices.

Chapter 3 focuses on the theoretical framework of sustainability communication, analyzing its meaning, bottlenecks, and strategies. It explores the role of communication in promoting sustainable behaviors and discusses the challenges faced by businesses in implementing sustainability initiatives.

Chapter 4 examines the significance of music festivals as special events for society and the music event industry. It explores the historical development of music festivals and their economic and social impact.

Chapter 5 investigates the environmental impact of music festivals and the growing demand for sustainable practices in the industry. It examines the sustainability ambitions of various festival organizers and explores the challenges and opportunities associated with implementing sustainable initiatives.

Chapter 6 explores the practical aspects of realizing sustainability communication at music festivals. It examines the incentives and demands on festival operators, discusses different communication strategies, and analyzes the importance of engaging staff, partners, and attendees.

Chapter 7 presents an empirical study that investigates the expandability of sustainability communication through German festivals. It analyzes the results of a survey conducted among festival attendees and explores their perceptions of sustainability measures and their willingness to engage in sustainable practices.

Chapter 8 develops a comprehensive sustainability communication concept for open air music festivals based on the findings of the empirical study. It outlines the communication challenge and targets, defines the communication strategy, and proposes practical steps for implementation.

Schlüsselwörter

The keywords and focus themes of the text include sustainability communication, music festivals, environmental impact, communication strategies, audience engagement, sustainable practices, and the German festival scene. The thesis explores the potential of music festivals to promote sustainable behaviors among attendees and develops a comprehensive communication concept for achieving this goal.

• Universidad: Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg (Fakultät II: Informatik-, Wirtschafts- und Rechtswissenschaften)
• Curso: Sustainability, Economics and Management
• Calificación: 1,0
• Autor: Franziska Hillmer (Autor)
• Año de publicación: 2012
• Páginas: 127
• No. de catálogo: V276346
• ISBN (Ebook): 9783656704072
• ISBN (Libro): 9783656709749
• Idioma: Inglés
• Etiqueta: green, crowd, communicating, sustainability, open, music, festivals