While Beyonce’s epic performance solidified Coachella’s cool status on the national stage, it’s not the only show in town. Other regional summer music festivals like EDC, Bonnaroo and Firefly take place this month and next, and they attract quite the lineup of brand sponsors, including the who’s who of alcohol brands, protein bars, hotel chains, cars, beauty retailers and even household cleaning products.

This makes me wonder: with brand sponsorship spending on music tours, festivals and venues topping $1.54 billion, is this investment really worth it? With more than 60 brands vying for a slice of visibility among the mostly younger folks attending Coachella, EDC, Bonnaroo and Firefly, you have to ask whether music festival sponsorship moves the needle in awareness, influence and future sales.

I’m not present at these brands’ planning and budgeting sessions, so I cannot claim to understand their strategies and goals. But what I do know is that event-based location data should inform their decision-making processes. Why? Because from this kind of data (when aggregated and anonymized) we can learn a lot about where different types of people go, what they do there and the kinds of behaviors that signal purchase intent.