Last month saw the sleepy town of Kilkee in Ireland transformed into a buzzing party capital thanks to the annual Cois Fharraige, the surf and music festival, which was supported for the second year running by major mobile phone manufacturer Sony Ericsson.

Some 5,000 people attended the event, which showcases the cream of the UK’s surfing talent, alongside performances from a host of top and upcoming bands.

Taking place form 5-7 September, during the day Cois Fharraige featured the Sony Ericsson Cold Water Clash, a professional surfing competition. Meanwhile, at night, festival-goers were entertained by established music acts, such as The Coral, Travis, Supergrass and The Zutons, as well as some of the latest new bands.




Surf's up: Sony Ericsson rides the waves at Irish festival


The experiential arm of London-based integrated agency iris played a key role in organising Sony Ericsson’s sponsorship of the event, with the aim of raising awareness for the brand and its association with music and surfing.

Iris managed the negotiation with all rights holders, as well as the running of The Sony Ericsson Cold Water Clash and design and production of all promotional items for the music festival. This also included all on-site activation – branding, giveaways, Bluetooth content distribution and after-party activity. 

The main focus of this years’ activity was around the Sony Ericsson Music Monster, a platform the company is using to engage with the Irish market around the launch of the C905 Cyber-shot, which features an 8 megapixel camera.  

This was reflect in strong Music Monster branding across the whole festival site, as well as 12 pubs off site in Kilkee itself, where visitors could win tickets to the Cois Fharraige VIP party, Sony Ericsson handsets and T-shirts – all for finding a ‘lucky plectrum’ inside a packet of nuts.

Iris promotional staff also looked after Bluetooth promotions around the town, distributing content to all visitors, which included music line-up details for the weekend and phone calendar inserts giving reminders when bands were going on stage.

There was also plenty of branding activity during the Cold Water Clash surfing competition, with the chance to win prizes totalling £10,000.

Early signs show that reaction to the sponsorship was positive, but official statistics have yet to be released.