2019 Highlight Fair Sponsors

The 129th annual OC Fair wrapped up successfully! Over the course of 23 days, the OC Fair welcomed 1,393,482 fairgoers for days and nights of food, fun, music, and more. The 2019 OC Fair located in Costa Mesa, California was rated a 4.6 out of 5 for overall enjoyment.

2019 was a year of firsts for the OC Fair. The OC Fair held its first-ever “Out at the Fair Day” welcoming hundreds of LGBTQ guests and friends to a day of family-friendly events and classic Fair fun. Also new was the “Love is in the Fair Contest” which was won by a local couple who were married at the Fair’s Millennium Barn on August 10th with friends and family, clowns, entertainers, fairgoers and farm animals at their side—including the magnificent American lineback ox, Patches.

This year, Tandem Partnerships was able to successfully renew and expand on major partnerships with OC Fair’s sponsors in addition to welcoming six (6) new sponsors. We are so grateful for the privilege to be the OC Fair & Event Center’s agency of record with more than a decade under our belts!

Every year brings new excitement, this year being no exception! Here are some sponsorship programs we loved and wanted to highlight:

New Sponsor – Norms:

Norms Restaurants came on board this year as the “Presenting Sponsor of We Care Wednesday” for the 2019 OC Fair. Through the We Care Wednesday program, volunteers collected 87,300 school supplies, 25.69 tons of food, 82,984 children’s books, and 31,069 clothing items for local charities.

Fairgoers could bring their donations to the Norms branded tents every Wednesday in exchange for free admission into the Fair. Lines typically started forming an hour prior to opening and remained busy for the duration of the program.

Norms ambassadors were on-site during each of these charity events, in branded clothing and with coupons in hand to thank guests for their donations. One of the goals for Norms was to drive back traffic to their local restaurants so this was a great way for them to directly interact with a large number of guests, who based on their desire to receive free admission, would generally be receptive to coupons.

Being that Norms offers several dining locations in the general proximity of the OC Fair and also seeks to align itself with community focused causes, this was truly an exceptional partnership for both brands.

Returning Sponsor – Toyota:

Toyota has been a long term sponsor of the OC Fair & Event Center. This year, Davis Elen Advertising, on behalf of the Southern California Toyota Dealers renewed their sponsorship for another year. Toyota’s onsite presence at the OC Fair was strong this year, as it is every year.

Activation space included a wide footprint (5,500 square feet) complete with multiple vehicles on display and an interactive guest lounge. Toyota was also the title sponsor of the 2019 Toyota Summer Concert Series which hosted 31 shows, including three pre-Fair shows and five post-Fair performances in the Pacific Amphitheater. There were 12 sold-out shows including both nights for Rebelution with Collie Buddz and Iya Terra, Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo with Melissa Etheridge, Styx, Brothers Osborne with Chase Bryant, Chicago, Dwight Yoakam with Midland, The B-52s with Dead Man’s Party, The Fab Four, “Weird Al” Yankovic, America with Poco and Firefall, and Jackson Browne.

The Pacific Amphitheater venue which is filled with Toyota signage throughout has been honored in the industry for everything from ticket sales to acoustics to its lobby design, so it’s been without question, a great way to position Toyota for growth in brand awareness.

Finally, social media plays a big role in Toyota’s sponsorship. Both the OC Fair and Toyota So Cal are very active across all platforms during fair time. Toyota So Cal did a great job at not only luring people to the fair, but also to their activation space inside the fair grounds. Via Instagram, Toyota promoted ticket giveaways and pop up performances in the lounge. A big success all around!

RETURNING SPONSOR, BRAND ENGAGEMENT – RAISING CANE'S

Raising Cane’s has been with the OC Fair for just four (4) years, going above and beyond to continuously evolve in its integration with the Fair in order to engage the family market increasingly year over year. When this partnership began, Raising Cane’s had lots of logo features including a branded skin tent for the Explorium, windmasters around the tent, logo inclusion on the stage backdrop and Fair’s band of sponsors, as well as social media mentions.

Since then, Tandem has facilitated growth in the partnership between Raising Cane’s and the OC Fair by adding a couple assets to the already robust agreement that have made a significant difference in engaging fairgoers directly.

Within the branded Explorium tent, there are now sponsor branded pails and shovels in the sand box as well as branded boat keys hidden in the sand at the sand box. The joy on these kids faces when they find a treasure is priceless!

A new promotion called “Hidden in Plain Sight” was also implemented which includes the Tandem team setting out to hang posters around the Fair property every morning. There are three (3) versions of artwork that get hidden [in plain sight] each day of the OC Fair. Fairgoers are instructed to take these posters and bring them into Raising Cane’s locations to redeem free Box Combo meals, Tailgate Packages, and Lemonade Jugs. Overall, it’s been a highly successful and fun way to drive traffic back to their restaurants.

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TANDEM PARTNERSHIPS AT THE FAIR 

Tandem is responsible for all sponsorship sales and fulfillment for the OC Fair & Event Center and is on-site for the duration of the event (and offices on the property year-round!). If you'd like to join us for acres of fun, please feel free to send us an email: info@tandempartnerships.com.

Sponsorship Sales and Services

Tandem Partnerships provide sponsorship sales and services that will serve you for the complete sponsorship lifecycle. We’ll work with you from asset valuation to strategy development until all sales are made and accounts are thoroughly serviced.

Check out other services we offer on our homepage.

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