Experiential marketing earned its stripes from edgy, young brands wanting to be seen as ‘different and unique’.
But over the last decade or so experiential has become mainstream, and is leading from the front in many campaigns.
Increased spend
Some 75% of marketers recently surveyed by Jack Morton Worldwide in the UK, Europe, the US, China and Australia say they will increase spending on experiential marketing in 2008.
And as more brands demand it, of course, the more it is supplied – agencies are fast jumping on this ‘brand- wagon’ and developing an experiential offer to add to their list of services, with which to challenge the specialists.
But are they really equipped to do so? By definition, offering experiential as an ‘add on’ is to show true ignorance of its very nature. To tack it on as an after-thought, either to an agency’s offering or to a campaign, is to miss the point.
Experiential marketing earned its stripes from edgy, young brands wanting to be seen as ‘different and unique’.
Mainstream
But experiential has become mainstream, and is leading from the front in many campaigns.
Its power to drive other awareness channels, for instance, needs to be planned in right from the beginning as an integral part of a campaign or it could be lost.
Carlsberg Experiential Marketing Campaign
Carlsberg demonstrated how well experiential can kick start other channels with its ‘money drop’ campaign last year.
The socially responsible guerrilla ‘we don’t do litter’ campaign saw £5000 worth of £20 and £10 notes, each bearing stickers with the campaign message, dropped randomly on to London pedestrians who literally clamoured to get involved.
It spawned a dynamite PR campaign that exploded across the world setting traditional and non-traditional media alight with talk of it. For £5000, it had ‘probably the best ROI in the world!’ – who says experiential is hard to measure?
Dorito’s Experiential Marketing Campaign
Doritos’ recent ‘You make it, we play it’ competition, which invited consumers to generate their own digital adverts for the chance to win £20,000, has enjoyed similar success.
Which goes to show: in experiential, budget size is not important – it’s how well you use it that matters.
If the creative and strategy is right, smaller brands can make as big a splash on a budget using experiential methods as those event sponsoring giants such as Virgin, Tennants and O2.
It’s almost made for helping niche brands grow awareness.
Superdrug’s Experiential Marketing Campaign
A campaign Wax Live did for Superdrug sun cream last year used four gorgeous ‘firemen’ to rub said cream on sun-soaked festival goers at T4 on The Beach, T in the Park and the 02 Wireless events.
The campaign allowed Superdrug to literally touch end users in a way that above the line advertising can only dream of.
It delivered added value, fun, and allowed the topless ‘brand ambassadors’ to interact with consumers on a one-to-one basis to talk about the product.
For many, those festivals will always smell of Superdrug sun cream and remind them of half naked ‘firemen’ – a powerful ‘feel-good’ association!
So clearly, experiential now consists of a lot more than just handing out samples from a pretty stand. When done well it can engage consumers and enhance brand equity in a way that no other medium can match.
But doing it well is no walk in the park.
Creating these live campaigns that work in the field presents a logistical minefield and depends on deep knowledge, hard-earned experience and well-trained staff to make them work in practice.
Staff must learn how to ‘live the brand’, locations must be just right, health and safety risks have to be covered … for when experiential goes wrong, it can create a nasty mess and ultimately do more damage than good to a brand.
Snapple
Snapple learned this the hard way. Their 25ft tall frozen treat melted and flooded Union Square, New York on the first day of summer, and left them fielding a barrage of complaints.
Remember, when you run an experiential campaign you are ultimately inviting customers to talk about the brand; the real job is making sure you create a positive buzz.
Which is why experiential must surely be the preserve of specialists. It’s worth noting experiential agencies tend to stick to their specialism; it requires real understanding, focus and the resource to deliver it.
Only those who know it inside and out, and who can make it work effectively in the field as an integral part of a campaign, can truly deliver a brand enhancing experience.
Anything less than a whole-hearted, integrated approach and experiential risks becoming a meaningless aside, token add-on, or worse, a potentially brand damaging event that people will talk about for a long time.
See our work at www.experientailessays.com
Lucy Pearce Experiential Director Wax Live
