Burning Man - Billie L.
Burning Man is an annual weeklong music and arts festival held in Black Rock Desert, Nevada. The festival has been an example of the anti-brand since it started in 1986 and has been described by many as an experiment in community, art, radical expression and self-reliance. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_Man) The brand associations people make with Burning Man are as follows: freedom, community, experimentation, self-expression, self-reliance, sustainability, etc. On the Burning Man website it states that, “There are no rules about how one must express oneself at this event; rather it is up to the participant how they will contribute and what they will give to this community” (http://www.burningman.com/whatisburningman) People ultimately define their own Burning Man experience. Its brand essence or core essential defining quality thereby could thereby be boiled down to “free”.
This freedom is what ultimately sets Burning Man apart from all other festivals; it differentiates itself by allowing the individual participant to define his or her experience, not the brand. Unlike other music and arts festivals, Burning Man allows the attendee to physically and mentally escape from the branding and marketing that surrounds him or her in everyday life.
Burning Man follows an “anti-trend / anti-establishment” trend and functions as a counterculture-like vessel for people to escape the monotony of every day branded life. The festival relies on decommodification; there are no commercial sponsorships, no advertising and no cash transactions. Instead of using cash at the festival, people are encouraged to rely on a “gift economy”; one of the main festival rules is to “resist the substitution of consumption for participatory experience”. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_Man) Burning Man is one of the last anti-trend trends. Essentially all music festivals today have some sort of sponsor or advertising campaign or, in some cases, are started by sponsors or brands themselves (ex. Budweiser Made in America Festival) Burning Man truly sets itself apart through by rejecting brands, advertising and even cash.
Because Burning Man is so anti-brand, one would assume its touch point to be solely its attendees, and its ticket sales to be driven mainly by word of mouth. However, in the current social media centric world, Burning Man had to succumb to two super brands to connect with fans: FaceBook and Twitter. Burning Man now has an extremely prominent online social media presence. These touch points, along with the Burning Man website, have now become integral parts of the previously brand free Burning Man fan experience.
















