OCTOBER | COVER FEATURE
Words: Tom Hall
Deep cuts
Cuts in any area can lead to customer dissatisfaction, but which cuts cost the most?
A
t the risk of fanning planner
paranoia, your event could be one
amateur paparazzo post from
pandemonium.
While social media can frame your
festival’s high points in sumptuous sepia
tones, going viral can also be a virus for your
carefully curated event brand.
Monstrous Festival, an event aimed
at children, was a recent victim of this,
garnering attention across social media
channels when visitor complaints got
trending. The underwhelmed sentiments
were made all the more vivid after a
grainy, portrait-mode capture of a horse
masquerading as a unicorn was posted
on Twitter. The once noble stallion looked
embarrassed to be there, stood awkwardly
with an unconvincing strap-on horn and
a backdrop showing the event’s minimal
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production values.
The possibilities for consumer complaints
are perhaps never more abundant than at an
event. Underwhelming visuals, bad toilets,
a lack of creativity, queues are vent-worthy
fodder. However, knowing an audiences’
pinch points can help organisers minimise
damage and maximise audience ‘feels’.
Recent research by tappit has drawn
insight into what is vexing consumers.
Indeed Jason Thomas, Global CEO at tappit
says festival goers are expecting more from
their chosen festivals than ever before.
“Visiting a festival, whether a food and
drink event, a music extravaganza or a low-
key gathering should be a time for people to
enjoy the moment and experience new sights
and sounds,” he says.
Despite this, tappit’s report found that
84% of all respondents worry about theft at
a festival.
“73% of festival goers of all ages prefer
to use cashless payments. Credit/debit
cards remain the most popular method of
payment, with a majority preferring the
speed of contactless transactions. Tokens
or wristbands are the preferred choice of
almost 10% of our respondents, meaning this
method is used by millions each year. There
is huge potential for cashless.
“These results reflect the fact that cashless
systems are not yet widespread at festivals.
However, these statistics clearly prove that
people dislike using cash. Couple this with
the added benefits that a cashless system
provides to organiser and customer - and the
transition to cashless should be an easy one
to make,” he adds.
The fear of theft is real, but contextual,
according to FOIA requests, which ranked