TOYOTA TAMWORTH COUNTRY MUSIC FESTIVAL 2019

in Entertainment

March 14, 2019

For the second year in a row, Toyota challenged Gemba to manage one of the biggest events on their sponsorship roster – and biggest country music festivals in the world – the Toyota Country Music Festival, Tamworth.

Gemba helped bring it to life for the tens of thousands of boot scooters who flock to the NSW town each January.  With planning beginning as soon as TCMF18 wrapped up, Gemba worked with Toyota and the Tamworth Regional Council on how best to deliver the iconic festival in 2019.

As all the ‘Tamworth Survival Guides’ will tell you, there’s a lot more to the festival than just music and that’s particularly true for all the sponsors. Over the 10-day event, Gemba project managed several bespoke activations to help drive awareness and consideration for the Toyota brand amongst country music fans. As the premier partner, Toyota talked to fans at various touchpoints across the festival landscape. Thousands of visitors enjoyed the free concerts in Toyota Park, threw coins into the guitar case of a busker competing in the Toyota LandCruiser Busking Competition and watched Kasey Chambers collect an award at the Toyota Golden Guitars.

 

The Toyota Hat Promotion
One of the more iconic elements of the festival is the Toyota Hat Promotion. For a $2 donation, festival-goers get to walk away with their own Toyota-branded cowboy hat. The hats were given away daily from the Toyota Zone at 10am, 12pm, 2pm and 4pm, and our promotional staff ran this activation like a well-oiled machine. You’ve never seen a queue until you’ve seen a Tamworth Hat queue! They’ve become collectors’ items over the past 46 years, and this year all money raised from the promotion was donated to Rural Aid. The drought-relief effort is something very close to Toyota’s heart, and a huge $32,465 was collected for the cause in 2019.

Hat-Giveaway

The Toyota Zone
When we weren’t running the hat giveaway, Toyota Zone played host to the Star Makers and Stars Pop-Up. Essentially, it’s a surprise concert for festival attendees where past Toyota Star Makers contestant and Star Maker hopefuls turn up for an intimate, acoustic performance. Gemba worked closely with talent managers to get some of the best names in country music down to the Toyota Zone, including Lee Kernaghan, The McClymonts, and The Wolfe Brothers.

The-Toyota-Zone

Off-Road Test Drive Track
Gemba and a team of specialists also designed an off-road drive track right next to Toyota Zone, allowing festival attendees to test out their skills and the range of Toyota commercial vehicles. With a special focus being placed on the new HiLux range, the track made sure to highlight all the benefits of the HiLux Rugged, Rugged X and Rogue. Over 80 people a day jumped into the front seat of a Toyota vehicle, cementing it as a real festival-crowd pleaser as well as a valuable lead-generation tool for Toyota dealers.

Off-Road-Test-Track-2

 

Toyota’s presence at TCMF19 was undeniable, and Gemba is very proud to have helped them achieve this. The planning for 2020 is about to get underway and we can’t wait to build on what we’ve already achieved in 2019!