Abstract
The growing significance of festivals as territorial marketing vectors often positions them as communication tools for partner brands. A natural question arises: can the festival itself be considered as a brand in its own right? This inquiry serves as the guiding thread throughout this thesis, spanning from the literature review to field studies, exploring the festival from various perspectives, including as a stakeholder system, a subject of marketing research, and ultimately, as a brand. The central research question is formulated as follows: given the diversity of its audiences and the influence they exert on the organizers, to what extent can the festival bemanaged as a territorialized brand? To address this question, a qualitative approach was chosen, employing the method of comparative study. The two festival sites studied are the Alexandria Short Film Festival in Egypt and the Avignon Festival, France. This approach aims to enhance the understanding of the dimensions of festival brand value while offering practical insights toovercome challenges faced by festival organizers, particularly in Egypt. The findings reveal that, even if implicitly or unconsciously, festival managers develop a territorialized brand strategy. Furthermore, the observed influence of stakeholders is evident in the strength of associations linked to the brand. Finally, the brand emerges as a management tool particularly well-suited to the festival context, especially in terms of risk management.