The Bed Head Hotel: South Beach & Chicago

Lifestyle-based activations are the golden ticket for any company looking to connect with communities on a deeper level. However, the communities, cultures, and lifestyles they want to be associated with are nuanced and multi-layered, making it incredibly difficult for decision-makers to navigate effectively. This is particularly true for brands trying to tap into the culture of electronic music—a genre that prides itself on its underground roots and subconscious authenticity.

Bed Head Hotel game plan

strategize

Established brands at this level have strict style guides, giving us limited room for creativity with visuals and marketing assets. It would be tough to create an altruistic and organic experience that is still brand-forward. We had to find the sweet spot and knew the stakes were high.

align

Securing large partners and artists was essential in elevating the event to the next level, and there were plenty of DJs in Miami. However, we must be flexible and keep red tape from slowing down the party.

activate

Connecting digitally with attendees would be the way to make this more than another activation and turn it into the golden ticket to organic community building that Bed Head needs.

Overview

That’s the exact situation Bed Head faced when they wanted to host an activation in South Beach for attendees of Miami Music Week (MMW) and Ultra Music Festival and in Chicago during Lollapalooza. The haircare wanted to promote their lifestyle-forward experiences and new product lines in an organic, authentic way that they could own.

Experience-driven branded music events are our bread and butter. While every activation is unique, we knew we were uniquely qualified for this specific challenge. Let’s workshop our thought process, what we did along the way, and the lessons learned in this case study on live music events and brand activations.

Bed Head Hotel campaign results

A BRAND EXPERIENCE

This campaign for Bed Head had to stand out while also being subtle and organic. We knew the best way to make this campaign pop was to partner with a venue that was as lifestyle-focused as we needed this campaign to be. That’s how we conceived the Bed Head Hotel—a weekend-long brand experience during Ultra and Miami Music Week–at The Gale South Beach. This multi-day event was packed with A-list performances from artists like Diplo, Tommy Sunshine, and Audrey Napoleon, among others. We also hosted VIP and exclusive guests for pool parties and after shows that were woven into the fabric of the week’s events.

ACTIVATIONS

To ensure that the activation felt as organic as we needed it to be, we offered free haircuts and Bed Head products, provided by professional Tigi Haircare stylists, turning The Bed Head Hotel into a home base for all attendees where they could touch up their looks between events or stay for the amazing shows at our venue. This culture and lifestyle-driven value add was enough to bring over 3,000 attendees through the doors over the course of the weekend and cemented the activation into the minds and memories of all who came through our doors.

PARTNERSHIPS

To further drive the Bed Head Hotel brand experience outside the event itself, we partnered with COMO Mobile to create a custom augmented reality app where they could create custom Bed Head inspired avatars with the app also allowing guests to engage with the event’s community and everything from artist content to event logistics, creating a seamless experience that quickly became one of the hottest cultural events of the week. This entire activation was flexible and mobile enough to allow us to repeat all of its success later that year in Chicago during Lollapalooza.