San Francisco Frontiers - Branded pop-up events take center stage at Coachella

The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, or simply Coachella, has become the tone-setter for the US festival circuit.

Tickets for this edition -- now in its second weekend with pop stars Sabrina Carpenter, Justin Bieber and reggaeton artist Karol G at the top of the bill -- sold out last year within four days of going on sale.

With that, organizers were expecting around 250,000 people to come over two weekends at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, where dozens of special events with fashion, beauty, beverage, and lifestyle brands were spread out among the festival's nine stages.

"I love how big it's gotten. I love how more people are open to it," 24-year-old Luz Maura told AFP at an e.l.f. Beauty station.

The pastel-colored space offered lip glosses as souvenirs, slushies to ease the high desert temperatures, makeup artists to touch up glittery festival looks, and hosted multiple selfie corners.

The "e.l.f.scape to Balm Desert" campaign drew a "six-figure audience," said Patrick O'Keefe, the company's vice president of integrated marketing, to AFP.

Promoting a moisturizing lip balm was not just about seizing on the arid, dry desert's climate -- it was also backed by sales data.

"We know that 92 percent of daily makeup users incorporate lip products into their routines," he added.

Its donut-shaped chairs and branded mirrors also serve as irresistible selfie backdrops that in turn promote the brand.

- 'Analog experience' -

At the festival that's sometimes dubbed the "influencer olympics," Pinterest chose to swim against the tide with a "phone-free" installation.

Amid the debate over digital fatigue, "we made a willing decision to sacrifice that sort of immediate coverage in order to tell a story about what we believe in and who we are, and our hope is that, you know, long term that sinks in," Sarah Pollack, the company's vice president and global head of consumer marketing, told AFP.

With their phones locked away in a pouch, visitors to the Pinterest space had to resist the urge to feed their social networks with images of the colorful bar for designing custom accessories or the makeup room.

For California resident Liz Mendoza, the "analog experience" was "a lot of fun."

"Especially in an environment like this where social media is such a big thing and you want to take pictures and post as much as you can, I think it's super nice to have a few minutes off of your phone and just be in the moment," Mendoza added.

Pollack maintained that Coachella, where they are taking part for a third year, "is a great place for us to connect with Gen Z, and Gen Z is our fastest growing demographic."

She noted that 50 percent of Pinterest's audience was Gen Z.

- 'Cultural destination' -

In the Coachella Valley, where temperatures can climb past 86F (30C) this time of year, so-called "brand activations" also serve as oases of shade and, in some cases, air conditioning.

And the crowds those amenities attract are a gold mine for brands.

Absolut, a vodka brand, sets up Absolut Heat Haus each year. The space looks like a nightclub, with bars and a DJ in charge of the music -- a role that last year fell to Paris Hilton.

"Coachella is a standout moment for Absolut because it's more than a music festival -- it's a high-energy social occasion and a cultural destination," said the company's brand director, Bethan Hamilton.

Flor Ruiz, who was born the same year that Coachella began -- 1999 -- said the festival's extracurriculars are key to the experience.

"For me, there's no such thing as Coachella without this," she said, as she left one of the promo events. "It's not just about the music."

"For that, we'd just go to a concert."

Q.Nelson--SFF