In his case study, “Sónar: the International Festival of Advanced Music and Multimedia Art in Barcelona”, Bernárdez holds up Sónar as a model for large-scale music festivals. The study looks at how Sónar has handled concepts such as brand positioning and promotional strategies, the development of musical programming within product strategy, economic analysis and expansion strategies in other geographic markets and segments.

In his study, Bernárdez comments that, with the crisis and the disappearance of some music festivals in recent years, “only festivals like Sónar that have managed to develop a strong connection between the artistic content of the festival (the product) and their audience (loyal and global) have managed to build a brand that stands up to the test of external factors that have destabilized the rest of the industry, such as lack of demand and the increase in VAT”.

The Catalan Accounting and Management Association (ACCID) gives the award for best case study to those people who submit a preferably real case study dealing with accounting or management. The award is given for the study’s importance, originality, implications and contributions. The awards ceremony took place during the fifth Catalan Accounting and Management Conference, which was held at the UIC and brought together almost 900 business professionals.

Jorge Bernárdez is a full professor of Management of Performing Arts in the Master’s Degree Programme in Cultural Management in the UIC Faculty of Humanities. Bernárdez has a Master’s degree in Business Administration with a specialization in cultural organizations. He studied in Barcelona (Master’s degree in Cultural Management from the Universitat de Barcelona), London (Music Management at City University London) and Montreal (Cultural Marketing at HEC Montréal Business School). He has over fifteen years’ experience in cultural organizations (symphonic orchestras, contemporary dance companies, museum and heritage projects, ticket sales agencies and cultural events). He was the President of the Catalan Association of Cultural Management Professionals (APGCC) and a visiting professor in several postgraduate programmes in cultural management (ESEC Business School, the Universitat de Barcelona, ??Universitat Pompeu Fabra and the Universidad de La Laguna).