Stagecoach 2024—how e.l.f. and other brands are activating at the growing country music festival

For years, Coachella has reigned as the biggest influencer marketing event of the music festival season. But this year, a growing number of brands are instead looking to Stagecoach, Coachella’s trendy but lesser-known cousin, to tap into the country music craze taking off on social media—and they’re bringing influencers along for the (bull) ride. See all of Ad Age’s 2024 Creativity Award winners here E.l.f. Beauty, bread brand Oroweat and Béis, a luggage brand founded by celebrity influencer Shay Mitchell, are among the brands heading to Stagecoach for the first time this weekend, each with a gaggle of influencers in tow. They’re joining several of the country music festival’s long-standing sponsors, including American Express, Anheuser Busch and Toyota, some of whom have been partnering with Stagecoach since the inaugural 2007 festival. But unlike those perennial brand partners, e.l.f., Oroweat and Béis are primarily interested in reaching Stagecoach’s increasingly young and female-dominated audience. Roughly 40% of Stagecoach attendees are between 18 and 34 years old, and brands that primarily target those consumers are capitalizing on their growing interest in the country genre. View this post on Instagram A post shared by BÉIS (@beis) And unlike Coachella, which struggled with slumping ticket sales this year, Stagecoach saw its tickets sell out faster than any previous year in the festival’s history, according to a spokesperson for AEG Presents, the parent company of Coachella and Stagecoach organizer Goldenvoice. “This year, specifically, we’ve seen many more first-time partners who haven’t yet come to life within the country space,” said Alex McArthur, VP of partnerships at AEG Presents, in an email. “We’re really excited for what they are bringing to the experience and how they are ‘countrifying’ their brands.” Between 2022 and 2024, Stagecoach has seen a 57% jump in the number of “pop culture driven or non-endemic partnership[s]” with brands, McArthur said. McArthur cited Béis and e.l.f. as examples of the music festival’s expansion into new brand partner categories, as well as T-Mobile, Amazon Music and Paramount’s western-inspired series “Yellowstone.” Amazon is also teaming up with Stagecoach to livestream the festival on Prime Video or Amazon Music’s Twitch channel. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Yellowstone (@yellowstone) Over 80,000 people are expected to attend each day of the festival in the California desert this weekend, the AEG spokesperson said. For comparison, Coachella draws an average of 125,000 daily attendees. “There’s just been so much attention and fanfare around country music lately—a lot due to Post Malone entering the space, Beyoncé entering the space [and] Lana Del Rey saying she has a country album coming,” said Stacy Vee, VP of festival talent at Goldenvoice. “But I think country music culture has also kind of caught up to [mainstream pop culture] … and more people and brands are just starting to understand it and are giving us a shot.” Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter” album is undoubtedly one of the largest contributors to the recent surge of interest in country music and western-inspired fashion. But even before that, the country genre and aesthetic were already on the rise among Gen Z and millennial consumers thanks to everything from Margot Robbie’s hot pink cowgirl outfit in the “Barbie” movie to the ascendance of country star Morgan Wallen, the third-most streamed artist on Spotify in 2023. Country music’s growing pop culture relevance, particularly among Gen Z and millennials, is driving brands such as e.l.f. and Béis to connect with younger audiences through the genre. For Béis, a country festival like Stagecoach offers the brand an opportunity to build brand awareness among young women who hail from regions of the U.S. the brand typically doesn’t target, such as the Midwest and South, said Liz Money, Béis’ senior VP of brand & creative. Béis initially planned to activate at both weekends of Coachella along with Stagecoach, but opted to instead funnel all of its efforts into Stagecoach, Money said. “Stagecoach is a little more up and coming than Coachella … and it felt like a better place to have us focus on from a strategic standpoint of growing that brand awareness in new communities,” she said. View this post on Instagram A post shared by BÉIS (@beis) The luggage brand partnered with vacation rental platform Vrbo and western wear brand Tecovas to bring a group of seven influencers to a luxury home near the festival grounds—Béis’ first brand trip, Money said. Tecovas will provide country essentials such as cowgirl boots to the creators, who include beauty and travel influencer Soo Youn Lee, “Love Island” winner Justine Ndiba and lifestyle influencer Courtney Cahoon, and the group will get to spend time with brand founder Shay Mitchell and other members of the Béis team throughout the weekend, she said. On top of the influencer house, Béis will also have a pit-stop-inspired activation at the center of the festival featuring a collection of its luggage products, t-shirts reading, “Save a horse, ride a roller” (a nod to the Big & Rich song “Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)”) and a motorcycle visitors can pose on for a picture, Money said. E.l.f., the festival’s first skincare sponsor, is also providing some of its cosmetics and skincare products for Stagecoach attendees in need of a touch-up at the Béis pop-up, she said. E.l.f. is similarly looking to Stagecoach as a chance to reach a new type of Gen Z consumer. But unlike Béis, which is primarily aiming to expand into new regions of the U.S., e.l.f. is leveraging the festival as part of its efforts to engage with Hispanic and Latino Gen Zers. In late 2023, the brand partnered with Colombian singer Manuel Turizo to put a Spanish twist on its “eyes. lips. face.” TikTok campaign, tasking Turizo with creating the song “ojos. labios. cara.” “It was really our way of entering and connecting with the Spanish community,” said Patrick O’Keefe, VP of integrated marketing communications at e.l.f. “And what we loved about Stagecoach and their audience is that they have a very strong Spanish-speaking audience.” AEG declined to share demographic data about the number of Hispanic attendees at Stagecoach but said the festival’s Hispanic audience has “grown rapidly over the past two years.” E.l.f.’s “Glow & Go Motel” activation at the music festival will highlight its sunscreen and new bronzing drop product, O’Keefe said. Though e.l.f. has had a presence at Coachella for the past five years, it was always in partnership with BDG Media or its subsidiary Nylon, he said. To help promote e.l.f.’s Stagecoach activation, the brand is teaming up with influencer Blake Healey, who will highlight some of her favorite outfits at the music festival and discuss her own look, including e.l.f.’s beauty and skincare products. The brand’s sunscreen will also be scattered across the festival grounds, including at activations from T-Mobile and American Express, O’Keefe added. View this post on Instagram A post shared by e.l.f. Cosmetics and Skincare (@elfcosmetics) “We don’t lead culture, we follow culture,” he said. “Beyoncé’s clearly had a lot to do with changing the conversations in the [country] space. When I was at Coachella, I definitely saw a lot of men and women wearing cowboy hats and really getting into the theme. And I think Stagecoach, for sure, will have a similar theme throughout. So, we want to be a part of that conversation.” Bread brand Oroweat is also activating at Stagecoach for the first time, extending its online relationship with “granfluencers” including Rethea Gray of creator group Retirement House, “TikTok Bubbie” S.J. Mendelson, Mama Char Leonard and Priscilla Valldejuli to the music festival. Oroweat’s Stagecoach activation will include a “Granwich” food truck serving sandwiches and grandma-themed activities such as an arts and crafts table and a quilt wall visitors can add messages to. Social-first brands including Shein and Tarte will also be at this year’s music festival, with Shein hosting its third “Shein Saloon” activation and launching a cowgirl-inspired festival clothing line, while Tarte is partnering with fashion brand Nuuds to bring creators such as Hannah Godwin to Stagecoach. @hannahg11 Yeeehaw see yall in the desert @nuuds @tarte cosmetics ♬ original sound - Hannah Godwin Stagecoach, like Coachella, offers brands the opportunity to leverage Gen Z's enormous interest in live music experiences such as concerts and music festivals. In mid-2023, 80% of 13- to 39-year-old consumers surveyed by youth market research firm YPulse said they were interested in attending an in-person event in the next six months, and 71% said they would rather put money toward an experience than a product. And 83% said brands should engage more with consumers through in-person experiences. “I would kind of venture to say that our generation is a little bit less materialistic, but also very focused on ‘how can I create a good experience for myself?’” said Kelechi Nwankwoala, research lead for NeuroLab at Mindshare, at Ad Age's Gen Z Roundtable last week. “And that’s where music festivals and concerts and all these things kind of come to play. We’re really willing to open our pockets for those kinds of things, because those are what seem worthwhile to us—rather than the fancy car or maybe the fancy house that feels almost impossible to get.”

Stagecoach 2024—how e.l.f. and other brands are activating at the growing country music festival

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