ARE YOU EXPERIENCED?
By Bobby Markowitz
“Despite the fact that experiences will be the essence of life in the New Economy, “… most companies trying to pull this ‘experience thing’ off will fail miserably. They won’t get it … This ‘experience thing’ is … extremist. Not a dab of ‘delight’ here. Nor a pinch of ‘amusement’ there. But … An Entirely Different Way of Life.”
Tom Peters from his book Re-Imagine!
We see it every day. I read about one today in which a wedding themed magazine required brides-to-be to race up a giant cake covered in 50lbs of frosting to win a honeymoon. Here at EarthQuake, we’ve helped clients like PartyPoker & Vitamin Water capture college consumers at Spring Break by bringing their products to life. While the PartyPoker Poker Tent on the beach was an obvious way to allow engagement with the product, the Vitamin Water Sandcastle Destruction was more creative in its design & execution. Check out the video evidence here. Both programs achieved the stated goal of allowing the consumers to interact with the products in a memorable situation leading to a desired action.
With emerging media making a growing impact in the marketplace, vying for consumers’ attention becomes increasingly difficult. In the past ten years, experiential marketing has become a hot topic in the branding world. Some of the most prominent brands such as Levi’s, Nokia, Harley-Davidson, Wells Fargo and Volkswagen have implemented successful experiential programs to reach their target. Toyota’s Scion marketing team is particularly adept at engaging their customers as hands on evangelists.
So then, what makes for a good experiential idea? Experts say experiential marketing is the difference between telling people about features or benefits within the confines of a traditional ad versus letting them experience it and achieve their own “a-ha!” moment. By focusing on creating fresh connections between brands and consumers, marketers can create experiences that are personally relevant, memorable, interactive and emotional. Connections that lead to increased sales and brand loyalty are the main goals. Experiential marketing can also be applied creatively to deliver greater impact while reducing costs and to weave in market research or customer insight research in ways that could not be done before.
At the end of the day, experiential marketing is another piece of arsenal in your marketing toolbox. Using this tool correctly allows direct interaction with consumers in person and brings your brand alive, but it’s important to point out that simply creating a live encounter between a consumer and a brand does not mean you’ve succeeded at being an experiential marketer. Two potential marketing potholes to be aware of include not having a defined goal which may lead to a connection, but ends up with unintended results or secondly, creating experiences that cause disconnect between what is happening and the brand.
Great ideas require creativity, focus and integration of the brand identity. Great experiences take time, money, research and clear objectives. Great results come from proper execution of your plan and trusting that your product or service can excite your customer as much as it excites you.
Need a great experiential idea or just some feedback on yours? Give us a call at (212) 204-9213, we’re here for you.