Dreamland
Designing an Experiential Event Experience
Across the country, Veterans United puts an emphasis on supporting the communities in which their clients and employees live.
And their headquarter’s hometown had the perfect opportunity to support both during its annual Roots ‘N Blues Festival. As the title sponsor of the event, Veterans United was challenged with creating a cohesive experience for their employees, as well as community members, to share throughout the weekend.
In six weeks, the Hoot team brought that vision to life.
Dreamland: Head in the clouds, heart in the stars.
Not only did Roots N Blues, a 25,000 person, three-day music and food festival, have to bounce back from a non-existent year in 2020, but many of the weekend logistics were put on hold as Covid raged into 2021. With a tight timeline and a lofty client goal, we executed across all mediums: digital, print, large scale, and experiential.
Our team concepted two interactive experiences that were executed by Puzzle Productions. These experiences captivated young and old and garnered hundreds of shares on social media.
A major initiative of the VU sponsorship was to show support for a community event staple and raise the bar for title sponsorship branding. The challenge with event sponsorship is to remain cohesive with the event brand while also remaining memorable for participants. VU accomplished both with a progressive concept focused on providing the best experience possible for festival-goers.
Building the Anticipation
Prior to the festival weekend, the Dreamland concept was slowly released. This tactic helped drive anticipation and ticket sales.
Larger Than Life
To create a truly unique experience, VU invested in large-scale, interactive art installations. Seamlessly woven into the concept of Dreamland, we concepted a Dreaming Tree and Kaleidoscope where guests’ behaviors controlled the artistic displays.
Employee Love
VU is well known for going above and beyond to show appreciation for their staff of over 5,000 employees. To make sure VU employees were well taken care of at the festival, a dreamy, private employee tent concept was designed to provide a comfortable and centralized location to gather and recharge.
