Honda: Amplified at Austin City Limits Music Festival

The Austin City Limits Music Festival (ACL) is a popular music festival (we’re talking 70k daily attendees popular), held over two weekends in the Texas capital every October. Honda has a large presence at the festival; their sponsorship includes rich opportunities for Honda marketing and branding. An activation space, hospitality area, website and onsite branding and social media posts create the opportunity for a 360 brand moment for Honda.

To connect with the young audience and journalists in attendance, Honda wanted to leverage data collection, onsite activations and public relations opportunities to market rugged adventure and electric vehicles.

Honda turned to trusted experiential partner GPJ to make the most of this year’s festival, and we made sure that we explored each element of the sponsorship for maximum impact.

We brought in sister agencies Praytell and G7 Entertainment Marketing to help meet client objectives, and also worked with Honda marketing and PR to align messaging and amplify social media components.

The main activation included festival essentials such as shade, charging stations, a seating area and a water misting station providing relief from the Texas heat. A temporary tattoo station gave attendees a fun take-away with ACL-themed tattoos, while data collection gave Honda the opportunity to follow up with current and future owners. Social media influencers amplified the experience online.

Rounding out the activation area, the latest Honda vehicles were featured across an edgy and rugged theme, with 3 different options for attendees to explore, and a sweepstakes entry gave attendees a chance to win a 2023 HR-V Sport.

Invited guests were also treated to branded LED cowboy hats and access to Honda’s VIP area, which included backstage access to the Honda stage. The VIP area also hosted a special interview with the Honda Civic Tour featured band, The Future X.

Connecting the many dots that were presented within the event sponsorship, we created an exciting and fun experience for attendees, while enabling Honda to maximize their partnership and break through the sponsor noise across the Festival.