“We're in a sea of liquor brands, Coca-Cola, and Toyota—and then there's us.” That’s how Adrian Santos, the director of field marketing at Just Egg, described the brand’s first foray into the world of music festivals. Just Egg is part of San Francisco-based Eat Just, which develops and markets plant-based alternatives to conventionally produced egg products and cultivated meat products.
To help accomplish the brand’s goal of getting “millions of eggs in as many mouths as possible in 2022,” Just Egg launched an ambitious festival activation roster this year that included stops at EDC, Bonnaroo, plus the upcoming Primavera Sound in Los Angeles.
Santos said the aim was to “show up where there's masses of people, masses of hungry people. And one of those areas is music festivals.” To tap into the “breakfast and brunch” market, Just Egg’s marketing team set its sights on camping festivals such as Bonnaroo and EDC—where attendees hunker down on-site for the multiday events.
“We're a mission-oriented company. We are disrupting the food landscape, and we wanted to align with festivals and event properties that have the same sustainability message in mind,” he explained.
Just Egg kicked off its festival tour in May in Washington, D.C., at Broccoli City Festival, where it fueled participants at the event’s annual Fit Fest, a 5K run at Anacostia State Park. “We felt like Just Egg aligned with our mission statement. They are trying to better the community, and so are we—so it was a perfect fit,” said Brandon McEachern, the founder of Broccoli City, a social enterprise organization.
Prior to this year, Just Egg hadn’t done any major, large-scale activations, but Santos was able to draw on his 15 years of experience—which includes activating for other brands at festivals like Coachella and Lollapalooza—to coordinate this summer-long campaign.
The “Just Egg Food Studio,” which was produced by the Bait Shoppe, featured a modern design with pulsating LED lights and a revolving conveyor belt serving up the sample sandwiches. And inside, festivalgoers could learn how the brand creates an egg from the mung bean plant. Of course, they could also score branded swag like tie-dye t-shirts, hoodies, bucket hats, fanny packs, and tote bags, as well as co-branded merch with festival partners.
“We're building a scalable hot food sampling program from the ground up… and we're getting better and faster as the weeks and the months go by. We're not like an individually wrapped energy bar that’s shelf stable,” Santos said. (This means the brand needs to operate mobile kitchens with culinary support on-site in order to offer up the tastiest product.)
“We learned throughout data that the biggest barrier to entry is taste,” Santos said. “And people can't understand that an egg from a plant tastes good.”
He noted that his team is building a data-first field marketing program by collaborating with AnyRoad, a platform that manages and measures live data and insights, to help understand consumers better. To do so, the brand has been conducting pre- and post-event surveys.
Based on survey feedback, Santos said festivalgoers are gobbling up the new eats, with folks saying, “‘I am so thankful you’re here. You’re a healthy oasis among all the junk food, and I ate at your booth every single day. I'm a vegan. There's no other vegan options except French fries."
He added that “food is a major component with festivals, but it seems like there needs to be healthier, plant-based, vegan/vegetarian options that are delicious, and we're helping prove that.” The brand also scored two retail points at EDC, where full-size Just Egg sandwiches were available for purchase, with 100% of the proceeds going to local Las Vegas charities.
While the brand has received an overall positive response across all of the festivals, Santos said that his team has noticed that eating habits differ with different music crowds. “Comparing EDC to Bonnaroo, the kids at EDC, they're more of a late-night food crowd, and so our booth was a little slow during the day, but then at night, that's when things would pick up, whereas at Bonnaroo, people are hungry all day.”
As for next season, Santos said his goal is to become a regular at festivals, although he plans to ultimately base the decision on data. “I have a soft spot for festivals, because this is where people come to discover both music, new fashion, and also food, and people are open to trying new things," he said. "This is where there's a large amount of people at one time to get in front of and make a big splash.”