Experiential. So what?

So after almost a year of working in a new discipline (experiential if you hadn’t guessed it from the title), have a learnt anything new? I bloody well hope so.

I have personally come to define experiential as this…

“Live marketing that connects people with brands in the real world”. 

Yep that’s it. Simple, broad, but true.

One of the biggest mistakes when it comes to experiential marketing is thinking of it as a channel. It’s not. It’s a mindset. It’s all about experiencing the brand for real. When viewed as a mindset and not a channel, the opportunities really open up. There are no boundaries when it comes to experiential marketing, it can be or do anything – from product trial to brand building. Or with the likes of “experience brands” such as Nike and Red Bull, an essential part of your Brand DNA.

So is it expensive? I’m afraid so. Is it worth your while? Yes (done well). Even though experiential marketing can be a more expensive form of marketing per head, the real value (when you get it right) lies in the longer, deeper, real-life engagement with people. No other form of marketing can match.

Experiential is multi-sensory, which makes it more engaging, more emotional, more memorable. What better way for Thorntons to market chocolate than to touch all the senses – no other form of marketing would achieve the same sensory effect.

Experiential (often) requires active participation, and therefore there is a higher level of involvement with the brand. Nike Grid used experiential to shift perceptions of running among young people who felt running is lonely and boring – rather than just telling them, they created a real world game to prove it.

Experiential is personal. Consumers’ today are increasingly demanding a much more personal relationship with the brands they choose – experiential delivers a very personalised two-way dialogue with your target audience.  “Swap for swag” allowed Coca-Cola to engage in a genuine dialogue with 0.5M festival goers to to educate them as to benefits of recycling and incentivising them with rewards – made out of recycled products. Rather than preaching to them…

Experiential marketing is authentic. In a world dominated by virtual and hypothetical situations, authentic real live experiences count for so much more (whereas other forms of advertising can lack realness and credibility). T-Mobile’s Life’s For Sharing campaign driven by real world events-based  true experiences has sparked talkability and sharing, time and time again.

 

As awesome as experiential can be, it works best when it underpins other marketing efforts and vice versa (rather than in isolation), and when it adds value (rather than interrupt) to people’s lives, e.g. to entertain, to educate, to be of use.

A year on, I’m a little clearer. I hope you are too.

Little Holes of Happiness

As this dreary cold January comes to a close (finally), I came across these miniture gardens to brighten up our day. A beautiful blend of art and gardening.

The Pothole Gardener plants in potholes and weed-filled patches in East London (where else). A brilliantly simple way to add a little magic to something that is otherwise ordinary. Part art project, part labour of love, part experiment – it’s all designed to put smiles on our faces. And boy does it.

Enjoy little holes of happiness…

Orange Film To Go: a new film from iTunes, every Thursday, from Orange

I’m excited to say that Cake has launched an experiential campaign for Orange’s latest film innovation Film To Go – a game changing brand partnership with Apple. Film To Go rewards all Orange customers, regardless of handset (and inclusive of broadband customers), with an iTunes movie rental on Orange every week on a Thursday. Just text POPCORN to 85060 wherever you are to get your rental code.

To excite consumers about the innovative new offer and to encourage downloads, Cake is implementing a six week experiential tour across the nation, starting today in London’s Victoria Station, and heading to Manchester Piccadilly, London Liverpool Street, Glasgow, London Paddington, and Leeds over the following weeks. Trained staff will inform passers about the key steps to download, and also hand out branded popcorn.

Film To Go movie rentals can be enjoyed at home (on a laptop, PC, or TV via a cable), or even out and about on an Apple mobile device – to watch whenever wherever suits them.

The experiential activity is designed to connect with people in the real world to drive adoption of the exciting new weekly film offer. We know that Orange customers already love to watch movies with Orange Wednesdays, but can’t always get to the cinema. Film To Go compliments Orange’s growing film portfolio, and answers this genuine consumer need. We hope that customers who have never previously thought to download a movie or watch one on the go, will now enjoy a whole new film experience with Orange.

It’s a smart move from Orange who are constantly looking for new ways to reward their customers. You can get more Film To Go details on the website here.

Coca-Cola (Israel) have dunnit again

“FaceLook” uses (freaky as hell) facial recognition technology to enable people at the Coca-Cola Summer Love experience to automatically post comments and pictures to their Facebook wall – using only their faces as identification. Just look into the Facelook machine, and bobs your uncle (so to speak).

Another sign that the gap is closing between our online and offline experiences…

Any Sandwich is more exciting with Walkers (and we proved it)

When tasked with finding a way to tell the world that Walkers makes any sandwich better (and research suggests they really do!), we decided that just saying it wasn’t enough. So instead, we went that extra mile to really prove it. The town of Sandwich is a beautiful place, but a quiet one. So for three days, we transformed Sandwich into the most fun, enjoyable place in the whole country (to their complete surprise!).

We did this with some unbelievable live events. JLS played an impromptu gig for the sixth form students, Frank Lampard provided football coaching for the local team, Jenson Button picked up residents in the guise of local cabbie, Pamela Anderson poured pints down the pub, alongside quizmater Al Murray, and Marco Pierre White served up his very own special brand of gourmet sandwiches at the town market. All in the name of proving that Walkers can make any sandwich more exciting.

Here’s some of the best bits from our YouTube brand channel…

As passive forms of communication increasingly fail to cut-through with consumers, it’s no longer enough to just tell people stuff. You need people to really experience it. This campaign actively engaged people in a deeper and more meaningful way, and got them participating with the idea. Which is much more suited to today’s digital age. A phenomenoal team effort here at AMV in developing and crafting the campaign, including months of top secret planning.

As ever, I’d love to know what people think. Good, bad, ugly, comments welcome 🙂

“Digitalness” in the real-world

McDonald’s has launched a new interactive sign where passers-by can interact with content displayed on Piccadilly’s giant LED screen. A simple idea that gets people to engage and interact with the brand while they’re out and about. And a great opportunity for the content to spread as people video, MMS, tweet, and share their experiences.

I wonder how staged this video is, and who subsequently bought a fillet-o-fish(!), but it’s a nice idea. Bringing digital experiences to the real-world is something that excites me. Check out the posers in the clip…

13th Street Blood Bath

I’m not sure if this is ‘bloody’ brilliant or just plain creepy.

“To promote the exclusive thrillers and horror films on 13th Street, the toilet of a nightclub in Hamburg was specially prepared. Just after entering the room, the light suddenly goes out and the room is bathed in Black light. And now a bloody crime scene becomes visible on the floor and walls: “See what others don’t see. 13TH STREET. The Action and Suspense Channel.”

Certainly memorable but perhaps a little too invasive?!

Agency: Jung von Matt, Germany.

Found via Stuff that is relevant.

ARG entertainment for The Dark Knight: I love this shit

I love this shit! Warner Bros have gone all out with their ARG style campaign for the new Batman movie ‘Dark Knight’. The story travels across a bevy of sites including the The Gotham Times, this game, and the official Wiki amongst others. But there’s more! This story unfolds across a multitude of media platforms and travels into the real world. The cross media nature of this viral has catapulted ARG into the mainstream culture.

Players in the US were encouraged to visit 22 real world addresses to collect a treat under the name “Robin Banks”. Nice. The Joker had left cakes at bakeries with phone numbers written on them in icing. It gets better…when ringing the number the cake itself rang! In the cake was an evidence bag with a mobile phone and charger, a joker playing card, and a note with another number on it.

The note reads…

“Wow. You really took the cake! Now put the icing on it. Call [number] immediately from this phone and this phone only. Do not give this phone number to anyone else.

Let’s hope your fellow goons come through as well as you. Once all the layers are in place, you’ll all get your just desserts. I’m a man of my word.”

Text message reads…

“Good work, clown! Keep this phone charged and with you at all times. Don’t call me. I will call you … eventually.”

Brilliant huh?! More and more stories are travelling across multiple media platforms and offering a deeply engaging experience which is only possible in today’s media mix culture. But with so many layers, the consumer base becomes smaller as you are asking a lot of people’s time and imagination. For the casual consumer, are Warner Bros asking too much? And for the superfan, maybe they are asking too little? While this is probably too involved for most of us – those superfans get one hellova reward what with mobile phones, invitations to IMAX screenings, and ultimate bragging rights.

Having worked on two very similar campaigns – identifying the balance between meeting the fan community’s expectations and still remaining accessible to the casual consumer is very difficult. But if the objective is to create an entertaining experience for brand advocates who will spread the word, then it’s probably pretty successful. There may only be 22 key players, but how many more people are talking about it (as I am doing now)? How many are participating? And how many are listening? As with the Guinness Tipping ARG campaign, we are beginning to see fans group together in online knowledge cultures to gather information as well as wildly speculate. There are over 100 pages of speculation on this Guinness ARG forum, very interesting read!

The movie arrives in the US July 18th – let’s hope the movie is as much fun as this teaser…

More brilliant speculation here, here, and here…

 

The Sexy Interactive Innovative Storefront

If Elle MacPherson wasn’t enough to catch the attention of passers-by, this innovative interactive idea for ‘Elle MacPherson Intimates’ certainly stops people in their tracks. It uses a nifty bit of technology called Human Locator in the storefront that tracks full body movement in real-time. A brilliant use of technology.

What an exciting way to add meaning to the real-world through smart technology, but most importantly with consumer participation at the heart. I just love it when great digital work goes beyond the browser and into the real-world.

Enough said, watch people interacting with the storefront here…

 

A much BIGGER integration is upon us – the colliding of our digital and real-life worlds

Thanks to PSFK, originally at IF!, for posting this thought-provoking presentation by Tribal DDB (an ex agency of mine) on the new digital landscape blurring with the real world. There is a much BIGGER integration taking place, where technology is gradually disappearing from our view but also the real world is waking up. Although this is not an entirely new subject, it’s only recently that we are really seeing the reality of this with heightened consumer involvement and smart use of technology.

Take a look – it makes you take a step back, and look at the bigger picture of what’s going on around us!

Matt Dyke identifies the key trends that really emphasise this blur, and there are some really interesting examples of brands engaging in new and exciting ways. Though underlying all of this is the power of consumers. Here are some of my favourite examples, some taken from the video, and some of my own!

• Nintendo Wii – great example of real world interactions with digital objects

• Crowd gaming – brilliantly entertaining and deeper interaction (sort of group Wii experience), shows how people also share digital experiences in real-world communities

• Arcade reality – this mobile application overlays objects digitally on your real-life mobile view, shows how we can add value to the real-world through technology

• MINI talking billboards – simple smart technology, brilliant personalisation and shows how objects can talk to each other

• Orange spot the bull – simple idea using GPS which created a big buzz in the blogosphere, demonstrates the blurring of digital and real-world locations

Interesting stuff. But remember, the technology is just the enabler, it is the consumer’s participation in communications which is making this big big integration come to life. Brands need to think about the added role they can play and how they can be creative with smart technology.