Each of the 17 beer tents at Munich’s Oktoberfest has its own character. But which ones are the most popular? Media agency Planus found out for 2022 by analyzing smartphone GPS data.
The Munich Oktoberfest has started this Saturday, and more than 6 million visitors are expected again. That means the 17 big beer tents on Munich Theresienwiese will be almost constantly full.
While regular visitors to the Wiesn, as Munich locals call their annual festival, are likely to return to their favorite tent that serves their favorite beer each year, first time goers are faced with the difficult question: Where to go to have the best time? They may also try out different ones until they find their favorite.
Which tent is indeed the most popular, is difficult to find out because they’re not all equal in size. But two years ago, outdoor advertising agency Planus Media had an idea how to determine the exact average dwell time for each tent.
For Oktoberfest 2022, they partnered with Placense,an analytics provider specializing in visitor frequencies, to analyze mobility data in the form of GPS signals from smartphones. This allowed them to identify the tents with the longest average stay.
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5th place: Pschorr-Festzelt Bräurosl
With a ridge height of 15 meters, the traditional Bräurosl is the highest of all Wiesn tents and had been given a new look in 2022: A redesigned interior entirely in green to tie in with the tradition of earlier tents. Visitors to the Bräurosl spend around 127 minutes here.
4th place: Fischer-Vroni
With an average stay of 129 minutes per person, this Wiesn tent is in fourth place on the popularity scale.
3rd place: Paulaner Festzelt
The festival tent has been an integral part of the Wiesn since 1895 and the spinning beer mug at the top of the Paulaner Tower is one of the most popular photo motifs for Wiesn visitors. The average time spent here is 134 minutes.
2nd place: Armbrustschützenzelt
With its 7,460 seats, the Armbrustschützenzelt is one of the largest Wiesn tents and is in second place in the top 5 list with an average stay of 139 minutes per person.
1st place: Schottenhamel & Ochsenbraterei
The Schottenhamel tent and the Ochsenbraterei are tied for first place. Visitors spent an average of 148 minutes in the two tents.
Total length of stay
Despite lower visitor numbers in 2022, the average dwell time at Oktoberfest had increased from an average of 137 minutes in 2019 to 155 minutes.
Mobile Data Relevant to Digital Out of Home (DooH)
Planus Media’s analysis of Wiesn 2022 not only produced interesting facts but also demonstrated how analytics and creativity can be combined to evaluate mobile data and generate useful insights.
“Length of stay, the number of visits and the place of origin can all be collected in compliance with the GDPR and used to manage DooH campaigns,” Holger Walsch, Managing Director at Planus Media, explained to invidis. And a special analysis such as that of the Oktoberfest tents also makes sense. “Along with time control, using relevant motifs is essential for effectively reaching target groups.”
