I must admit I was a little skeptical about Barclaycard’s new music sponsorship vehicle ‘Unwind’. Not only due to the lack of trust that the UK public – particularly a ‘festival’ going audience – has with financial institutions – but also O2 would always be a hard act to follow. Indeed the Wireless moniker for Live Nation’s annual summer live music spectacular in Hyde Park was inspired by the telecom sponsorship. They must have been welcomed with open arms after the years of battling with Carling…

The amount of investment and exploitation the telecoms giant ploughed into the naming rights deal was significant and branding powerfully consistent. It acted as a giant statement of intent along with their other properties in the music sponsorship arena. It was a huge stepping stone for the brand on their way to spectacular success with AEG and the Dome.

Barclaycard’s presence at Wireless was inspired in some ways and clumsy and naive in others. Great activity behind the stage. Inconsistent delivery to consumers on site.

Indeed backstage activity and it’s impact has been impressive. The Rankin photoshoot images are everywhere. PR exploitation in London seemed impressive with a great presence in Metro and a quick google scan shows some good traction online. The Lounge in the artist area looked great and hit just the right note in what must be a relationship building exercise with the music industry. Softly softly does it…the right way to dip a toe in the water. Then again – is headline sponsorship of a two day music event really dipping a toe in the water?!

Hats off to either Live Nation or Barclaycard / their agency for coming up with the Rankin idea. What artist would refuse a shoot/ publicity excercise with one of the world’s greatest photographers? The door to the onsite studio never stopped revolving and they clamoured to get in front of the lens. And what media outlet with an entertainment remit could resist such great content? The trick was to ensure the Barclaycard brand was communicated and they seem to have achieved that in some coverage at least.

But I’m afraid out front with the punters was a different story. First of all the billing of the brand as ‘Wireless sponsored by Barclaycard’ carried across all promo materials and stage scrims demonstrated a reluctance to become more integrated into the fabric of Wireless. ‘Sponsored by indicates ‘arms length’. It’s the sort of positioning that may work in sports sponsorship but really doesn’t work in music.

Other on site presence was limited to a rather forelorn ‘Unwind’ garden at the far end of the site – tucked away behind the Global Cool bus. Either it had been abandoned by the promo team or it was not intended to be manned – but it just seemed to be a rather random installation plonked at the back of the arena with no communications function with the surrounding audience.

The touchless payment was only promoted through a couple of tatty ‘A boards’ in the entrance to the onsite bar areas. Its a great concept that should have been pushed much harder than the TV ads simply being broadcast on the jumbotrons between acts. It’s a great differentiating function that the brand possesses and a welcome incremental benefit to the audience and event in general – they really missed a trick in pushing it harder.

And digitally how did Barclaycard leverage their presence? No website. Nothing visible on the Barclaycard home page. A rather forelorn twitter feed. Another real opportunity missed here.

So overall a fair first effort from the brand but some easy wins have been definitely missed which is a shame. Hopefully these will be ironed out for 2010 should they decide to make a return to the event. Which they should consider. Only consistent presence and imaginative exploitation will create the cut through that the brand are looking for.

One final point. Was it a coincidence that there was no O2 coverage in the park all weekend? In any case it was really frustrating for those trying to use the network and surely not sour grapes from a departed sponsor?