Investigating an e-cigarette brand’s use of music festivals for social media campaigns and experiential marketing

Geek Bar is an e-cigarette brand that has seen a substantial rise in sales in the past year. During this time, the brand has utilized an extensive experiential marketing campaign targeting music and arts festivals, especially electronic dance music (EDM) events. This campaign utilizes both festival attendance and social media to create associations between the brand and EDM culture. To analyze this campaign, we downloaded and coded 18 months of Instagram posts by Geek Bar for the festivals mentioned and relevant themes. During the last six months of data collection, 39% of all Instagram posts by Geek Bar were about festivals. The account regularly drew connections between the brand and EDM culture, showing artists/DJs performing alongside young, attractive e-cigarette users. Such attempts to create ties between the brand and EDM culture are concerning given the younger age of EDM fans. These techniques will likely continue due to the lack of regulations and enforcement on e-cigarettes and experiential marketing.