On a recent sweat-soaked Sunday night at Coachella, Lupe Fiasco was headlining a raucous Heineken House show, proving there’s plenty of appetite for rap at the festival best known for pop, indie and crossover genres.
The hip-hop artist, after wading in on various high-profile public beefs, surprised the capacity crowd by inviting his friend Tyler, the Creator to join him for an impromptu collaboration on Fiasco’s 2008 hit, “Paris, Tokyo.”
Heineken execs were just as stunned—and thrilled—as anyone.
“We knew about an hour before that Tyler wanted to come watch Lupe because his team called to ask if it was okay,” Frank Amorese, the brand’s vice president of media and partnerships, told ADWEEK. “We had no way of knowing he’d get on stage.”
The guest appearance, a demo-spanning bit of kismet, capped the festival’s first weekend. Heading into the second weekend, which starts today, the beer giant’s lineup will again include Lupe, T-Pain, BIA and Fat Joe, among others, in Heineken’s 22nd year of sponsoring the seminal event.
Gen Z’s Super Bowl
The brand’s physical footprint has changed dramatically over time, though its strategy has remained constant: build a welcoming space for one-on-one interactions with consumers while gathering data, quenching thirsts and rocking out.
Heineken, along with other official festival backers, is aiming for quality time with the young Hollywood-heavy, influential crowds that flock to the two-weekend concert near Los Angeles.
Amid slower-than-normal ticket sales—due to inflation or shark jumping, depending on the analyst—Coachella has so far retained a singular place as a pop culture touchstone and brand marketing magnet (the roster include American Express, Dunkin, Google Pixel, Coca-Cola and Pinterest).
“Coachella is an anomaly—it falls more into the category of the Super Bowl or the Oscars because it’s such a major moment on the calendar,” according to Tomos Evans, a branded activations veteran and co-founder of experiential agency We Are Swell that works with festival sponsor Aperol Spritz. “There are other huge festivals in the U.S., but none cut through culturally like this one.”
