Consumer Engagement During Concerts : A Study on Using Mobile Interactive Technology to Enhance the Live Music Event Experience

Abstract: The emergence and development of mobile technology has changed traditional behavior during live music events and challenges concert etiquette. Artists have polarized reactions to the ubiquity of smartphones and companies have started realizing the potential to develop systems which allow the audience to interact more with both the performer and the light and sound show itself. Research has looked into how people traditionally behave and how consumer expectations have altered due to the digital revolution, but has not looked into differences between age groups, gender and concert genre to find out how different people express engagement. The research question is: How can interactive technology be used to enhance audience engagement? With the sub-questions: What engages individuals at concerts? How can engagement be measured? Findings within the study show that there are some differences between both age groups and between concert genres but engagement is expressed in similar ways regardless of gender. The differences that do exist between generations and genre preference are slight. People most commonly express engagement with a combination of voice and movement. Interactive technology designed for live music events settings needs to be based on existing patterns of behavior as people do not want too much focus to be on technology during concerts. The technology should enhance existing behavior and have a low learning curve as interactive technology risks becoming disengaging if it requires too much focus from the user.