Defining Experiential Marketing

For many months now 'Experiential' has increasingly been THE buzz word in professional marketing circles. With so much net chatter and seemingly everyone being an 'expert' in what is probably the most dynamic and rewarding area of the marketing to present itself for a long time.So, what is Experiential marketing? What is all the fuss about? Does it really have any true value in these tough economic times?

After scouring the net, a multitude of blogs and too many industry forums; I have written my own. The challenge with anything exciting and new, is that words become jargon and misappropriated to describe activity which Experiential Marketing really is not; such as sampling or Brand Theatre - both of which can take place as part of Experiential Marketing activity, but on their own are simply what they are.

Taking a good look across the Marketing service providers and full service agencies, there are actually only a handful of true Experiential Marketing specialists (niche professionals) and only a similar amount of full service agencies with true experiential departments or skilled providers within them.

Definition: 

Experiential Marketing is a directed, engaging, creative interaction between a product or service and consumer. With the purpose of enhancing, driving or directing the perception of the product or service and the objective of increasing sales or adding perceptible value to the product or service.

Maintaining creative edge in the full service agency environment, especially during recession induced budget contractions, becomes key to both the survival and development of market share, not just for the clients but for the agencies themselves. Some, but not all of the key London agencies have responded over the last few years by developing their Experiential divisions, with now the most sought after creative talents, in recruitment terms for full service agencies being Experiential.

Understanding Experiential marketing, and acquiring those skills for the successful agencies of the future will be key success factors in the coming months and years. Our clients have always wanted differential but now they need it more than ever, the absolute need to maintain or develop market share is the key driver today. The direct creative interaction between their product or service and there customer is what will drive their success and in turn, the successful Agencies. They need experiential marketing.

Delivering Experiential marketing activity, balancing the correct skill sets, combining: Creative, Production, Event Management and of course have the ability to pitch and sell experiential to clients is a challenge in itself, but possible for those agencies who look closely and choose wisely.

So when someone is buzzing the word Experiential, look and listen closely to what they are saying, because it will always be the doing that will matter, Experiential after all needs to be felt to be understood.

The ART of measuring Experiential

How do we measure Experiential activity? How do we judge its success in meaningful ways? And what are the metrics we can employ and how best do we interpret them?

When a marketing strategy for a brand is decided, and an Experiential activity is agreed as the solution, in part or whole to a marketing challenge; then a clear objective for the activity must be set. Without one, it is activity for activities sake, and will offer little more than ambient placement, or be simply 'Brand Theatre'.

The objective, or series of goals set out for the activity at the outset will be inform the metrics for measuring success or Return On Investment ( ROI) for the activity.

The Key Step Metrics (KSM) I use for measuring experiential activity are:

ACTIVITY - How did it engage?
RELEVANT - Why did the activity connect with the audience, was it in the way planned?
TARGET - Who were your audience, was it the target audience for the activity?

Experiential is an ART, and the science of it and understanding best how to measure it will come from understanding firstly why you chose to pursue an Experiential activity in the first instance - over more traditional Marketing. What is it you want to achieve?

CASE STUDY:
A leading detergent brand is looking to launch a new format for its leading brand, and the Brand team have decided the best way to demonstrate the brands effectiveness is to engage with their audience through experiential activity.

So, the team would work as follows

ACTIVITY: High street and Major shopping centre, washing machines set up and customers invited to dirty garments and witness these items being cleaned, with data collection and sampling.

RELEVANT: To connect with target groups, for them to experience the brand, and witness the power and effectiveness of the brand in action in the new easy to use format

TARGET: 5000 Young Mums and Single people 18-35 who are short on time and looking for fast wash results.

At the close of the activity - again look at the ART of the activity and from that you will be able to measure the success

I am sure you will agree, Experiential Marketing is an ART.

All you need is LOVE!

Love is one of the strongest human emotions, it ‘conquers all’, is all encompassing, its irrational and cannot be completely described or replicated artificially. How do we love? We love through experience, by having an experience or series of experiences, which develop into love, or are just love. Love is a feeling, a perception, a positive energy.

In marketing terms, we dream of being able to develop the kind of Brand Loyalty that ‘Product’ Love would bring, field marketing, Direct Marketing, Print, TV, New Media, all these routes have their pluses, but none engenders love, for that you need to have experience.

Experiential Marketing is about the customer, it is about how they feel - their reactions and having their own unique experience to your product or brand, on for that you need to engage your customer with a platform, which allows the customer to feel.

A bottle of Rum is a bottle of Rum, but made as a cocktail, served in a unique environment, with music and a situation (created with your brand values in mind), will give the customer not just Rum, but an experience, which they attach your brand. When they want the same feeling, to extend the experience they will reach for that Rum – try to re-create the same experience or more broadly -make their own experience from it.

Bacardi Martini (UK) celebrate 12 years of the B-Bar this year , their hugely successful festival and club B-Bar experience and latterly B-Live. BACARDI took their bottle of Rum (Bacardi) and made it an experience, and 10 years on we still LOVE IT!

I worked on many early B-Bar events, providing everything from Event Management, Bar Mixologists to Event Production, back in the late 90’s and early part of the Millennium - and I still love the brand.

Experiential diversity - broad strokes for lots of folks...

Getting to grips with your clients Brand Ambitions is essential for you to produce successful and meaningful results for your clients brand. Here is a selection of just some of the diverse range of experiential activity I have been proud to devise, produce and deliver - a big thank you to the various teams who have helped me deliver Northern Tzar's vision for the huge range of clients...

The importance of Brand Collateral...

In the world of events its essential to present as much Brand collateral to the brands involved with the event. If you present a broad and dynamic purse of material to your brands you will enhance not only your reputation with those brands, but you will mark yourself out as someone worth taking seriously.

In today's climate, budgets are tight, and the funding for events and experiential activity is at a premium. However, if you are smart enough to attract the funding, make sure you give a quality return on their investment.

A few hundred pounds spent on a video of the event, will be a sound investment - and offer your brand partners a solid piece of material with which to judge you, your event and the success of the investment. When your brand partners are looking for opportunities in the future , they will be more interested in what you have to offer, and will have a better picture of your capabilities.

Check out the video's here for NARC Magazine's 3rd Birthday event in April 2009, with (MOLSON COORS) Carling and Global Brands' Goldschlager headlining support; And to contrast, check out the Beverage Brand's WKD Halloween Street Party I produced in winter 2007 ...

Looking for Diamonds in a Sponsorship Minefield

Its mid afternoon on a dull Thursday in the wild northern City of Newcastle. Just a week away from the NARC Magazine 3rd birthday event. Nearly a dozen of the North East's top Live acts will play to celebrate three years of the North East's serious music press.

Carling & Goldschlager amongst others such as King of Shaves, have all been brought to the table as sponsors (me) and the production looks set to be a turning point in the City as far as 'cool' Magazine events go ( fingers crossed!).

The challenge with any event, in this case Music driven, is finding willing sponsors and partners to support the grassroots/emergent and aspirational end of the event scene. Combine a regional Music title, with the North East ( an all too often neglected region of the UK) and your setting yourself up for a tall order - when looking for those sponsor dollars. However, if you have developed your 'Diamond Dozen' then like me you should be able to attract those important sponsor dollars.

The 'Diamond Dozen' are your key relationships, the contacts whose products and product strategies you most understand and that you have developed 'empathy' with. My particular strength over the last few years has been working with the Drinks industry - so my dozen are made up of key decision makers, Brand Ambassadors, Regional Marketing and Marketing Director level 'Diamonds', who I know, understand and respect - and most importantly they respect me and the work I produce.

Networking is something you either can do naturally as a skill or something you learn. But much like 'active listening ' skills, they need to be honed, and you can always learn something new. Being genuine is the key, getting a business card from a potential contact is easy, but generating a 'Diamond' for your 'Diamond Dozen' is something which takes time, a lot of listening and a lot of 'relationship chatter'.

Understanding the industry sector of your 'Diamonds' is essential, know what their brands are doing, know what their close competitors are doing, and be prepared to compliment, critique and support your 'Diamonds' throughout any industry chatter. Remember to call them, talk about their brand, what they are up to , do coffee, lunch really engage your potential 'Diamonds'. The effort and investment will pay off.

Do your 'Diamond' a favour, what are their interests? Invite them to your events, and make sure you give them as much hospitality at the event as is available. They will remember!

Ok, so now its time to 'mine' the 'Diamond Dozen' - But how and with what?

If you understand your 'Diamond Dozen' you will know what their brands are doing this season ( and next), and you will also understand what 'properties' will be of interest. They key is to get a short presentation and some key breakdowns, demographics and a short overview of the 'property' to your 'Diamond dozen' as soon as you have the property to market. Make sure your email is personal, includes something that links their brand aspirations to the property. Then text them to say you have emailed them something really interesting and would appreciate their feedback.

Now, in these 'difficult economic times' , you might only get one of you Dozen to bite. But once you have one, its always easier to get support from your wider contact base. No one wants to be the first to put themselves on the line, but people are always happy to share the responsibility, consciously or unconsciously.

Finally, remember your 'Diamond Dozen' might also be someone else's, what makes them truly yours is regular contact, a developed relationship and success. Your 'Diamonds' want success just as much as you, share success and your 'Diamond dozen' will be yours!