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Fusion Pride at Coachella

Fusion Pride at Coachella

By, Aamir Syed, Account Coordinator, Fusion PR (@taacit)

So, I took a break from pitching, research and our good friends in the Microsoft Office folder and went out to the desert for the Coachella music festival on behalf of our client, Pantech. Music magazine URB rented out an Arabian horse ranch to have a party all weekend featuring some well-known DJs and accommodate many visiting artists and celebrities attending the show. Pantech, known for their sleek QWERTY phones on AT&T joined in on the phone contributing to the VIP Media Lounge.

Thus, to help staff the event, I drove down to Indio, CA on Friday morning only to be met with boxes of Pantech Slates and Matrix Pro’s as well as some marketing material from Microsoft, who also helped represent the booth this weekend.

Even with being in 110 degree weather from sun-up to sun-down for nearly three days, it was definitely refreshing to participate in a creative level of brand awareness and gifting VIP guests with handsets. Guests were also interviewed by iMeem and Onitsuka Tiger/Asics.
Plenty of cell phones were handed out, and some of my new friends love the handsets. Some of the artists, DJs and talent I met were Electric Touch, Ninja Sonik, Buraka Som Sistema (above) DJ Skeet Skeet, boom bip, Kid Cudi and Traci Bingham, all who took some Pantech phones home with them.

It was cool meeting people like Kid Cudi, hip hop DJ’s, A-Trak, Jus Ske and DJ Ruckus but being a part of this event as Fusion and Pantech, were definitely plus points for Pantech as a brand as well as Fusion. Pantech is quickly becoming recognized for great product reviews and lauded for designing for today’s multitude of lifestyles. From everyone stopping by to look at the handsets, people considered the phones hip, creative and cool.
Fusion, on the other hand was applauded by other vendors in our efforts to get our clients out in the mainstream media, but also by artists and guests who showed gratitude for the gifted handsets and helping them learn about new cell phones that aren’t an iPhone or BlackBerry.

Through it all, a client might have the idea of somebody being at Coachella for “work” is just fun and games, but truly it wasn’t. Over 25 hours of set-up
, tear-down and manning the Pantech booth, it was more of a full-on Pantech branding weekend. Everyone knows AT&T, and many people know Pantech makes phones…but they don’t know Pantech’s character. 

I can confidently say, coming away from this weekend, a lot more people – some influential in their own space – now know Pantech and its aim for creativity. 

If any client can fit into events similar to these, be it music, fashion or something simply not typical to us Fusionites (ie GDC, CTIA, CES, etc.), I really think we should consider spending time and energy at these events. because it gives us not only a new venue of branding, but also gives our clients a new level of exposure.  


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