Alice Cabon

Student number: 12047707

LTP058N – Event Marketing

Individual Assignment

5. Critically analyse and evaluate an event case study and discuss what role public
relations play in marketing an event.
Word count: 3274 words

ROCK IN RIO

1
 Introduction and presentation of the event

In today’s increasingly competitive world, image is becoming more and more

important for organizations and Public Relations are becoming more critical, so
organizations are giving increasing attention to their communication strategy.
Indeed, as David Bernstein states: “Companies communicate whether they want
to or not” (1984, p.1) Public Relations are concerned about persuasively
communicating with people who have influence over the success or failure of an
organization. According to the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (2010),
Public Relations is about an organization or a brand’s reputation; it is the result of
what an organization say and do, and what other people say about it. Public
Relations rely on the link between an organization and its publics. It is about
building a two-way communication between an organization and its publics for a
mutually beneficial outcome.

2
 Public Relations is critical for events since the event would fail if its public
wasn’t aware of it, of its content, program and its underlying objectives. For
events, Public Relations is a tool of promotion and publicity, it can foster sales
and increase revenue, it guarantees an online presence of the brand, increases
awareness and enables to communicate a specific message to all publics (Lee
and Li, 2013).
Festivals have become the most current form of cultural events. According
to Leendhart-Salvan (2002), festivals originated in Germany, by the end of the
XVIIIth century with an important image of prestige, and progressively became
the medium to democratize culture for bigger publics, in the beginning of the
XXth century, when artists started to grab the opportunity to promote their art and
spread it to the population.
The biggest music festival in the world was created by the Brazilian
entrepreneur Roberto Medina, and had its first edition in 1985 in Rio de Janeiro.
The “Rock in Rio” was held in a site of 250 000 square metres (Hombach, 2012)
known as “Cidade do Rock”, “City of Rock” and had the biggest stadium built at
this time (G1, 2010), for a frequentation of more than 1,380 millions of people,
which correspond to 5 times the frequentation of Woodstock (Brandão, 2011).
The goal of this event is to promote music as a universal language, and has a
worldwide image of a vehicle for communication of emotions.
In 12 editions in Brazil, Portugal and Spain, the Rock in Rio has welcomed
6.511.300 spectators, to see 968 artists perform live in the city of rock for a total
of 980 hours of music, with a transmission to 1 billion people in 200 countries
through TV and the Internet (Approach, 2013). With such high reach, Rock in Rio
is an important image to handle, and need constant attention and
reconsideration.
In 2013, Rock in Rio is facing a new challenge as the event spent 10
years abroad with editions in Portugal and Spain before going back to its origin in
Rio de Janeiro in 2011. The public got used to the idea of the festival becoming
European, and when it came back, an important job awaited the public relations
for this event, as they needed to convince people again, that Rock in Rio was still

3
their festival, invented by Brazilians for Brazilians (of course the festival is
international but the principal target stays the locals). Two companies are
responsible of the Public Relations of the event, Approach and Artplan. The
strategy adopted to answer to this challenge relies on reminding the public about
the history of the event, and why it was such a success in the past.

Relationships and partners

The two PR companies responsible for Rock in Rio, Approach and Artplan, base
their strategy upon strong relationship with journalists, as they have respectively
17 (Approach, 2013) and 36 (Artplan, 2013) years of experience in working with
media. As they have many clients in all industries, they are a trusted source of
information and know most of the influencers in each area. This is a great
advantage for Rock in Rio, as the more companies focus on “managing
relationships with noncustomer publics” or “reputation management” as their
guiding communication philosophy, the more likely they are to have a strong
reputation (Hutton et al, 2001, p.255). From 2010, when the event returned to
Brazil, to 2012, the commercial value of the 11.069 articles generated about the
event in newspapers, magazines and TV in Brazil and the world was estimated at
around 200 000 pounds (R$ 487.779.638,85) (Approach, 2013).
Partnerships and sponsors are also an important part of the event’s
strategy. Rock in Rio provides a unique communication platform for their partners
to promote their brands. In addition to high national and international exposure,
and to a high reach to a dedicated audience, the Rock in Rio also provide direct
economic benefits to their partners. To cite only a few, in the 2011 edition of the
event, Heineken sold 700K litres of beer and Bob’s sold 79,112K hamburgers,
which hold the official world record of the most hamburgers sold in one day
according to Guinness World Record (Approach 2011b). Having a strong
relationship with partners, and being trusted because of proven results is a great
advantage for Rock in Rio. Indeed, as the traditional elements of the marketing

4
mix have become grandly expected and almost commoditized, the most valuable
assets companies have nowadays are their relationships with their customers
and other key stakeholders (Duncan and Moriarty, 1998).
The projects and actions a brand or an event support and associate their
name with is also part of the image the public will have of them. Twelve years
ago, the Rock in Rio assumed a more sensible image by taking the responsibility
of being a vehicle of communication for socio-environmental causes with the
creation of the project Por Um Mundo Melhor (For a better world). Among the
actions the Rock in Rio invested for are the plantation of more than 93K trees
(Rock in Rio, 2013a), the construction of a school in Tanzania and a health
centre in Maranhão in North East of Brazil, the installation of 760 solar panels in
public schools of Lisbon, the creation of 14 sensory classes in order to improve
the quality of life of thousands of disabled children in Portugal, the construction of
10 music rooms in public schools, and the formation in stringed instrument maker
for 40 young people in Rio de Janeiro (Approach, 2011a). In addition to that,
Rock in Rio enabled 3.2K young to have access to secondary education in Rio
and, since 2006 it engages itself to compensate 100% of its CO2 emissions
(Approach, 2011a). All these projects are very important for the image of the
event as it shows it as a committed event, that has many positive impacts on its
country and abroad, not only economically and in terms of entertainment, but
also in social and charitable terms. In fact, as the study of Hutton et al. (2001)
proves, “the greater an organization’s charitable-foundation giving, the stronger
its reputation tended to be” (p. 252).
Public Relations deals a lot with third-party endorsement, as it is not paid
and not of any profit for who is endorsing (in most cases), the public often find it
more credible and reliable that many other communication techniques. A good
example of third party endorsement for Rock in Rio happened during the past
edition of the Brazilian Carnival in February 2013, when Mocidade, one samba
school participating in the worldwide famous samba school parade, revealed
their entire 80 minutes parade exclusively around the Rock in Rio, celebrating the
event, narrating the story and development of the festival. The Mocidade parade

5
had 3600 components in 36 wards, divided into 7 sectors with 7 allegories (G1,
2013). This type of promotion of the event has a huge impact, as it showcase
how important the event is for the city and country, and it reaches a massive
local and international audience.
Rock in Rio strategy relies on a strong community of fans, with their
slogan “Rock in Rio Eu Vou” (Rock in Rio I’m going), which encourage the public
to spread the word about their decision to attend the event for each edition. They
thus encourage word-of-mouth and social buzz about the event. As Kemp (2008)
emphasizes, word-of-mouth is one of the most potent forms of spread for
information about musical events. Nevertheless, word-of-mouth should be use for
subjective type of information such as quality rather than subjective information
such as price for which it has negligible repercussions (Houston, 1979; Murdock,
1981a; 1981b). In the same line, the strategic development of novel and
interesting consumption experiences may also stimulate coincidental word-of-
mouth (Bone, 1992; 1995). In the light of enhancing even more the experience of
the Rock in Rio, they created a musical around the event. As a matter of fact, in
order to be heard over the crowd and to reach out to an audience in this over-
crowded entertainment market, companies need to tell a story to the public and
to involve them. Through this initiative, Rock in Rio tells a story to their audience,
keep them interested in the festival in-between editions and propose an
innovative promotional tool, which will help create a stronger fan base and
probably even reach new audiences. The musical is not geographically or
temporally located, and it tells a story of how music can change lives and
promote its transformative power. The musical follows different stories that
happen in the Rock in Rio and 20 music out of more than 1500 performed over
the four editions of Rock in Rio in Brazil are performed in front of the public.
During the event, Approach and Artplan are responsible for the press
management. They have a very important team, which takes care that every
need of the press is fulfilled, and that the press has access to pits and backstage
areas to write their story, record or take pictures. Indeed, it is important to invite
all the press that could be concerned by an event to attend, but not only, as it is

6
even more critical to then look after them with some kind of hospitality (Kemp,
2008). The two PR companies also provide all journalists with press packs with
releases, give-aways from partners such as pens and notebooks and USB sticks.
Through the press conferences held for the event, they want to keep in mind the
image of the event and provide an enjoyable moment for the press and partners
present. The press conference for the 2013 edition of the Rock in Rio was held at
a landmark of the city, the Christ the Redeemer, in order to emphasize one of the
Unique Selling Points of the event, which is the city in which it takes place.
One of the important aspects of PR is crisis management, as it is really
important for a company’s image to prove that they can be reactive and solve all
type of problem as soon as they arise. In the last edition of Rock in Rio, in 2011,
the event faced an important criticism from most of the public complaining about
the food service of the event as it was really expensive and the wait could be of
almost one hour to get a sandwich. As an answer to this problem, the event
released the information that the public was now allowed to bring food and non-
alcoholic beverage into the event, starting immediately, after the third day of the
event, thus effective for four more days (Pereira, 2011a). The result was effective
as the public admitted that the queues for food diminished considerably (Pereira,
2011b). By answering instantly to the need of their public, they prove their
capability to adapt and their dedication to their public. They show the public that
they are able to listen to them, and the reaction of the public was very positive.
Indeed, it is often said that, after a PR crisis or problem, if it is well handled and
an effective solution is found and put in place at the end, the image of the
company benefits even more than if there were no crisis at all. (Hardy, 2010).

Digital Public Relations

The Web is the first controlled public relations mass medium in that content
reaches a mass audience, but is not filtered through gatekeepers (White &
Raman, 1999). On the contrary to traditional medium, which are in the hand of

7
the public or the journalists, the Web allows company to send their own message
to their audience, and allow thus for a great deal of control. However, it is vital
and critical for online PR practitioners to make sure they are “part of a strategic,
multi-participant, multi-media approach” (Phillips and Young, 2009, p.180). Rock
in Rio strategy is based on a presence across multiplatform online reflecting the
same image and message about the event. The first of their communication
platforms is their website. Hill and White (2000) explain that the objective of a
company website, in terms of public relations is to “provide information to the
media, to demonstrate the organization’s competitiveness and to build
relationships with new and existing publics” (p.46). They add that a website
should be the reflection of the organization’s image. Rock in Rio’s official website
is interactive and has an innovative and stylish design. It has more than 5
millions of visitors. In the view of involving even more their public, the website
offer the “weekly poll” in which the public can vote on a different question related
to the festival every week, such as their favourite performance at Rock in Rio
(Rock in Rio, 2013b). Furthermore, the website offer a 360° interactive visit of the
“City of Rock”. Additionally, the website also propose a page called “things that
only happens at Rock in Rio” in which there are videos of random and original
happenings or performances at the event. It emphasizes their uniqueness,
enable the public to re-live exciting and meaningful moments of their experience,
and promote the unique selling points of the event.
Online, the event reached 4,5 millions of followers (Approach 2011a),
which turned it the most followed festival worldwide, surpassing other big
festivals in the world like Glastonbury (UK), Lollapalooza (USA) and Coachella
(USA). The Facebook page of the event reached 2.5 millions of “Likes” on April
30th, 2013 (Rock in Rio Facebook page 2013). This page is used to publish
news, information and videos about artists that performed or will performed at the
event, as well as news about the event and general information about the music
industry. Likewise, Rock in Rio use twitter to “tweet” news about artists, including
videos, new releases, new songs and new partnerships. In 2011, Rock in Rio
was the trending topic on Twitter in 13 countries (Approach, 2013). As a matter of

8
fact, one critical step for PR is to identify who is influential on the targeted
publics. Indeed, this is why journalists are considered that important to PR, as
they provide valuable third party endorsement (Heath 2005). Rock in Rio follows
online community for love of specific type of music such as pop, and also
communities of fans of some bands or artists such as muse for example. They
follow the artists that had or will perform at Rock in Rio and important journalists
and influencers in the sector.
Thanks to online media, the concept of reach has taken new meanings and offer
new opportunities. Indeed, as Theaker (2012) states, “blogs and social media
may generate greater awareness of a story and add valuable engagement
through comments and endorsement” (p. 420). Rock in Rio has its own blog in
which they tackle all subjects related to the event, from artists to music, with
games and contests. This blog is also often referred to by other bloggers, which
increase its impact and also enable it to reach new audiences. In fact, most
organizations nowadays realize the effectiveness of having a social media
strategy, as most participants of the study undertaken by Amiando (2012) could
identify improvements due to social media in relation to the goals they set. The
goals where social media prove to be the most successful are increasing the
awareness about events and brands. Rock in Rio also takes advantage of Flickr,
Google +, Instagram and Orkut. Rock in Rio has an official channel in Youtube in
which the public can find videos of performances at the event. The public can
thus subscribe to this channel in order to be aware of all new videos posted. One
interesting move they did on this channel is that they got many of the artists that
will perform at the next edition of the event in September 2013 to make a quick
video to announce the day and the time when tickets will be available to be
bought. It creates some type of personal communication and is a powerful way to
remind the fans of time to buy the tickets. Moreover, Rock in Rio uses some
online ticketing website to reach a broader audience, such as ingresso.com,
songkick and viagogo. As a way of strengthening their relationship with their
public, Rock in Rio has many contests and promotions to integrate the public. As
an illustration, the Salvation Arch contest enables the audience to win tickets for

9
the 2013 edition of the event through a quiz on Facebook and the Rock in Rio
Smartphone Application, which was developed in 2011 and the Pocket rock gets
participant to send their answer to the question “What would you do to attend an
exclusive show of your favourite artist?” The thirty best answers will win two
passes to one of two days of exclusive shows organized by Rock in Rio in
association with Mix radio.
As a consequence of their strong relationships with partners, sponsors,
the media and their public, as well as effective digital PR and successful crisis
management, the 2013 edition of the event sold out, for every day, in four hours.

Recommendations

However, few recommendations can still be made to improve the Public

Relations of the Rock in Rio. For instance, they could develop an online
community exclusive to Rock in Rio’s participants and fans, in which they will
have a live chat for the public to interact with each other, share experience and
ideas and generate more social buzz. With their videos “things that only happen
at Rock in Rio”, the event could try to break one of the Guinness World Record,
as many of these videos showcase a lot of people taking picture at the same time
or doing a choreography.
In addition, they could have a vote for the next edition, in which everyone
vote for which artist they would like to see at the Rock in Rio, and the most voted
artist will perform. This could be a first step for the Rock in Rio to adopt a two-
way symmetric PR model as described by Theaker (2012), which is an equal
type of communication, “where each party is willing to alter their behaviour to
accommodate the needs of the others” (p.36). As he explains, through this
reciprocal model, the power in the relationships is balanced and mutual benefits
are more easily attained.
Futhermore, they could ask their public for more direct feedback and
suggestion, through social media, by the medium of a contest or through their

10
website. As explained by Mangold et al (1999), organizations can use
satisfaction surveys of current customers, which would provide insight into
customers’ information gathering behaviour. In doing so the Rock in Rio could
know where their audience look for information and gain valuable insight about
their audience, and thus adapt their public relation strategy in order to reach the
right people and in the right way.

11
References

Amiando (2012) Social Media and Events Report 2012. Social Media and Events
Report. [report]

Approach (2013) Approach Comunicação Integrada [Online]. Available at:

http://www.approach.com.br/approach.php (Accessed: April 10th, 2013)

Approach (2011a) Rock in Rio: A historia do maio festival de musica do mundo.

[press release] August 12th, 2011.

Approach (2011b) Numeros surpreendem organizadores do Rock in Rio e seus

parceiros. [press release] October 4th, 2011.

Approach (2013) Rock in Rio: ingressos esgotados. [press release] April 4th,
2013.

Artplan (2013) A Agéncia [Online]. Available at:

http://www.artplan.com.br/new/artplan/agencia (Accessed: April 10th, 2013).

Bernstein, D. (1984) Company image and reality, London: Cassell.

Bone, P.F. (1992), Determinants of WOM communication during product

consumption, in Sherry, J.F., Sternthal, B. (Eds),Advances in Consumer
Research, Association for Consumer Research, Provo, UT, Vol. 19 pp.579-83.

Bone, P.F. (1995), Word-of-mouth effects on short-term and long-term product

judgments. Journal of Business Research, 32 (3), pp. 213-23.

Brandão, T (2011), Rock in Rio: Números que impressionam, Cidade Marekting, March
20th, [Online]. Available at:

12
http://www.cidademarketing.com.br/2009/n/5466/rock-in-rio-nmeros-que-
impressionam.html (Accessed: April, 13th, 2013).

Duncan, T. and Moriarty, S. (1998) A Communication-Based Marketing Model for

Managing Relationships, Jourmal of Marketing, Vol. 62, pp. 1-13.

G1 (2010), Comecam as obras no Parque Olímpico Cidade do Rock no Rio, G1 Globo,

December 9thth , [Online]. Available at: http://g1.globo.com/rock-in-
rio/2011/noticia/2010/12/comecam-obras-no-parque-olimpico-cidade-do-
rock-no-rio.html (Accessed: April, 13th, 2013).

G1 (2013), Mocidade celebra Rock in Rio com Serguei e Evandro Mesquita, G1 Globo,
February 2nd , [Online]. Available at: http://g1.globo.com/rio-de-
janeiro/carnaval/2013/noticia/2013/02/mocidade-celebra-rock-rio-com-
serguei-e-evandro-mesquita.html (Accessed: May 1st, 2013).

Hardy, J. (2010) Crisis Management [Lecture to Public Relations]. December,

14th, 2010.

Heath, R. L. (2005), Encyclopedia of public relations (volume 2), Sage.

Hill, L. and White, C. (2000) Public Relations Practitioners’ Perceptions of the

World Wide Web as a Communications Tool, Public Relations Review, 26 (1),
pp.31-51

Hombach, J.P. (2012) Amy Winehouse, 1st ed. London:Hombach

Houston, M.J. (1979), "Consumer evaluations of product information sources", in

Leigh, J.H., Martin, C.R. (Eds), Current Issues and Research in Advertising,
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.

13
Hutton, J., Goodman, M, Alexander, J and Genest, C. (2001) Reputation
Management: the new face of corporate public relations?, Public Relations
Review, 27 (2001), 247-261.

Kemp, C. (2008) Music Event – Management and Promotion, 3rd ed, Kings
Ripton: Elm Publications.

Lee, R. and Li, Y. (2013) Digital PR for events [Lecture to Event Marketing]
March, 12th, 2013.

Leendhart-Salvan M., 2002, Événements, tourisme et loisirs, Éd. Touristiques

européennes.

Mangold, W., Miller, F and Brockway, G. (1999) Word-of-mouth communication

in the service marketplace, Journal of Services Marketing, 13 (1), pp. 73-89.

Murdock, G.W. (1981a), "The impact of advertising on the image of lawyers - an

experiment", in Bernhardt, K (Eds),et al, The Changing Marketing Environment,
American Marketing Assn, Chicago, IL.

Murdock, G.W. (1981b), "The identification of determinant attributes used by

consumers of legal services", in Bernhardt, K. (Eds),The Changing Marketing
Environment, American Marketing Assn., Chicago, IL.

Pereira, J. (2011a), Público reclama de serviços e segurança na Cidade do Rock, G1

Guia da Semana, September 30th, 2011 , [Online]. Available at:
http://www.guiadasemana.com.br/shows/noticia/publico-reclama-de-
servicos-e-seguranca-na-cidade-do-rock (Accessed: April, 26th, 2013).

14
Pereira, J. (2011b), Bebidas e embalagens sofrem restrições no Rock in Rio, G1 Guia
da Semana, October 1st, 2011, [Online]. Available at:
http://www.guiadasemana.com.br/shows/noticia/bebidas-e-embalagem-
sofrem-restricoes-no-rock-in-rio (Accessed: April, 26th, 2013).

Phillips, D. and Young, P. (2009) Online public relations: a practical guide to

developing an online strategy in the world of social media, London: Kogan Page.

Rock in Rio (2013a) Por Um Mundo Melhor [Online]. Available at:

http://rockinrio.com/rio/porummundomelhor/edicoes-anteriores/ (Accessed: May,
4th, 2013).

Rock in Rio (2013b) Rock in Rio [Online]. Available at: http://rockinrio.com/rio/

(Accessed: May, 4th, 2013).

Rock in Rio (2013) Rock in Rio [Facebook] 30th April. Available at:
https://www.facebook.com/RockInRio?fref=ts [Accessed: April 30th].

Rodrigues, A. and Correia, L. (2006) Performing Art Marketing: A Case Study of

a Serious Music Festival in Portugal, in All-Knight J. and Chambers, D (eds)
Case Studies in Festival and Event Marketing and Cultural Tourism Eastbourne:
Leisure Studies Association, pp. 55-78.

The Chartered Institute of Public Relations (2010) About PR [Online]. Available

at: http://www.cipr.co.uk/content/about-us/about-pr (Accessed: April, 29th, 2013).

Theaker, A. (2012) The Public Relations Handbook, 4th ed. London: Routledge.

White, C. and Raman, N. (1999), The World Wide Web as a Public Relations
Medium: The Use of Research, Planning, and Evaluation in Web Site
Development, Public Relations Review, 25 (1999), pp. 405–419

15