As experience savvy generation y-ers become the account execs of today, and cut-budgets mean achieving cut-through is a meaner feat than ever before- the marketing landscape is changing.
Experiential marketing communications agency is the process of identifying and satisfying customer needs and aspirations, profitably, engaging them through two-way communications that bring brand personalities to life and add value to the target audience.
Experience has become the preferred currency utilised by brands who create meaningful platforms for engagement with their target audiences and innovative campaigns that stand out from the crowd. Live brand experiences are generating brand advocacy, word of mouth, and in some cases, every marketers dream; brand evangelism. Live brand experiences are simply two-way interactions between a brand and its target audiences - that can be equally successful across events as well as many interactive technologies and platforms - that facilitate communication between consumers and brands in real time.
Experiential Marketing is the integrated methodology that seamlessly weaves the traditional channels to amplify the reach and impact of these live brand experiences (placed at the core of the campaign creative).
PR amplification, the use of video and photos from the experience to produce ad creative, social media, specially set up microsite’s with customised applications, and user generated content can all play instrumental roles in expanding the reach of the live brand activation experience, and when carefully planned; work hand in hand to form the integrated experiential marketing campaign.
Well designed experiences are not simply extensions of the product and retail environment brought into the customers world, but are actually added value interactions that are relevant and meaningful to the people with whom they wish to engage. These creative branded activities strategically combine different aspects that communicate the brands unique personality and values.
BETTER is a unique brainstorming model, developed to ensure that the content behind the experiential marketing campaign is right for the brand and the participants.
By following through the several prescribed steps in each of the models’ stages one can be confident that the creative ideas are relevantly inspired and tick the necessary boxes.
Generating the right ideas for your brands live brand experience is crucial! Often where agencies go wrong is they propose product led experiences that don’t bring to life the brand personality. Creating the sensation that you are bringing the target audience members closer to their aspirational lifestyle is a crucial aim for many brands live brand experiences. The book I wrote, Experiential Marketing is structured around tried-and-tested planning models, one of the best of which is the ‘BETTER model’, a creative brainstorming technique designed to generate brand and target audience relevant topline ideas for integrated experiential marketing campaigns.
The total BETTER brainstorm process should be completed in the following way: Begin by collecting any existing research and having it handy. Start with the B stage (thinking of the brand personality, which you identify from the three main brand values / human-like characteristics, then you think of how to create an emotional connection; (multi-sensory), then take into consideration the target audience (their likes, their lifestyle). Combine the first three steps to create the two-way interaction. Then build in exponential elements to ensure that you have triggers designed to generate word of mouth, and then think of how to maximise the reach (taking into consideration the amplification channels, the initial interactions from the live brand experience, and the word of mouth reach).
A sample topline idea for a make-up brand whose target audience is females aged 20-35.
The brand would hire an experiential marketing agency who would firstly run ‘pre-activity’: sending out ‘brand scouts’ with Polaroid cameras around relevant shopping areas such as Westfield London, have target audience members snapped, with a sticker placed on the Polaroid’s directing the participants to the make-up brands specially setup microsite. Once on the microsite, they give their email address in return for a download of an invitation to the make-over experience (with a forward to a friend link) ensuring that the right demographic are encouraged to attend. Additionally, digital ads displayed on fashion oriented websites would promote the live brand experience, raising awareness and encouraging those interested to apply for an invitation on a specially set-up micro-site. The make-up brand would also email its database to give them the opportunity to apply for invitations. Second step would be to create a mini outdoor make-over stage, complete with branding, lights and mirrors, designed to reflect the look and feel of the backstage areas of catwalk shows. Hiring space in the central atriums of high footfall shopping centres, showcasing the brands latest collection, some of the Polaroid’s of the people which were originally snapped would be projected onto the backdrop of the catwalk, contrasted by pictures of people who had been made-over by the brands make-up artists, as part of the visual representation, bringing the target audience members closer to the brand. On the opening day of the live brand experience, a female celebrity attends to have her makeup done in time to attend a high profile event that evening, encouraging press coverage by doubling this appearance as a photo call opportunity, where photographers would be present to send out the photographs with captions to the press. The agency would film the entire make-over experience, edit it including commentary by a well known make-up artist to explain the role of each item of make-up and discuss the techniques with which it had been applied onto the participant. The content would double as a‘ makeup tutorial’ to either broadcast on a targeted TV channel, i.e. UKTV Style, or place on the brands website, on YouTube, and to play on retail screens. The events progress will be ‘twittered’ live. The participant data captured on the microsite would be collated and asked if they’d like to enter into a competition to win a NYC shopping holiday ‘with friends’ where an applicant would need to enter in the contact data of the friends that they’d take if they were to win.
Here is how this topline sample idea designed for a fashion themed make-up brand was created using the BETTER model:
Brand personality
Glamorous, Fashionable, Expert
Two or Three brand values that sum up the brands human-like characteristics
Emotional connection
We will engage the following senses: Touch, Sight, Sound
Multi-sensory and/or: authentic, positively connected and personally meaningful
Target audience
Lifestyle: Loves shopping on weekends. Follows fashion, reads Vogue, Grazia, style /celeb websites, and blogs. Works in an office, go’s out for drinks or a meal with friends in the evenings, takes pride in her appearance and in following trends, wears high-street but with dashes of vintage and designer to complement the more readily available items. Watches TV programmes such as ‘Britain’s Next Top Model’, ‘The City’, ’10 Years Younger’ etc. Looks forward to her next holiday with her friends.
Aspires to hang out in celeb haunts, go to fashion shows, look fabulous and be on TV.
What they like, their day lifestyle, their aspirations, the time they have available; this analysis identifies when and where to engage.
Two-way interaction
Shopping, Fashion-Shows, Catwalks, Lights/Camera/Action, Celebs, TV, Fame, Style, Holidays.
All keywords that inspired the two way interaction as described above
A live brand experience [face-to-face/remote] that combines the above B, E, & T
Exponential element
The word of mouth aspect triggers are: the Polaroid photos, microsite with invite, holiday with friends competition, chance to see the make-up videos aired on TV / online.
A trigger mechanism that encourages participants to pass on their experience
Reach
The amplification channels are Broadcast (TV), Digital (YouTube + Twitter), and Press (sending the photos + captions), designed to expand the reach of the campaign. Word of mouth triggers also aim to increase the word of mouth reach. Also, by choosing a high footfall location such as Westfield London, it optimises the number of participants in the live brand experience itself, pre-activity also maximises attendance of the right target audience members.
Two-way interaction reach, WOM reach, and amplification channels reach
As demonstrated by the example above for a make-up brand, the BETTER model is an acronym using the words that provide a brainstorming framework, outlining the stages one should follow when innovating creative ideas. When using the BETTER brainstorming model to come up with topline concepts for experiential marketing campaigns, you first complete the B,E, and T stages, and then combine the results as components for the second T; the two-way interaction. After which point you build in E; an exponential element, and then the R, trying to achieve the best possible reach (a combination of the initial reach of the live brand experiences, the word of mouth reach, and the reach of the amplification channels). The forthcoming workshop organised by the London Metropolitan Business School to be held at the interactive, technologically revolutionary venue 24 London will be formatted around, and educate participants on the BETTER model (details on http://www.emklondon.com/).
In an era where competition is stiff, it is brands that place an experiential marketing methodology at the heart of their marketing communications strategy who differentiate themselves, spend less and sell more, while still escaping price wars. There are companies who have been dedicating significant resource into such an approach for some time, these include; ITV (Britannia High Dance-Off and The Colour of Money Gameshow Tour as organised by Blazinstar), Red Bull (aerobatic flying, air race, BMX, consumer generated art exhibitions and more), Fiat (sponsoring Legoland driving school, setting up DJ lounges and more), Nike (Rockstar Workout Dance event, and international running events), and not forgetting Nokia (skateboarding events, and pop-up shops for ‘Comes with music’ amongst other initiatives).
Companies are realising that to secure the lifetime value of their brands customers by gaining true customer loyalty, they must create a positive experience and give back, thus, relationships between brands and their target audiences are being revolutionised. The new marketing era, the experiential marketing era, focuses on providing target audiences with immersive branded experiences that add value to their lives, and ultimately generate brand advocacy and positive word of mouth. Experiential marketing is a methodology that is fast revolutionising the face of marketing as we know it.
Shaz Smilansky is Marketing Director and Co-Founder of award winning agency; Blazinstar Experiential which is best known for creating live brand experiences amplified through traditional channels, for brands such as Universal, T-Mobile, ITV1 and more. Shaz is also a regular speaker at international conferences and author of the recent internationally released book; Experiential Marketing, a Practical Guide to Live Brand Experiences.
| Brand personality | Glamorous, Fashionable, Expert Two or Three brand values that sum up the brands human-like characteristics |
| Emotional connection | We will engage the following senses: Touch, Sight, Sound Multi-sensory and/or: authentic, positively connected and personally meaningful |
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