Experiential
marketing, brand experience, brand behaviour, live engagement, three-dimensional
marketing.…whatever you choose to call our discipline, I can’t help but feel
how far it’s come with the news that the LDA have given the green light to
develop a 50-acre ‘Brand Park’ in Silvertown Quays,
East London in 2016.
I’m
proudly going to show my age here. I
have been working in the experiential sector for just over 15 years. In that time there have been a number of game
changing trends that have affected the way marketers have used our discipline,
and it pleases me to say that this is still evolving as I write this blog. I’ll
approach this chronologically.
Media fragmentation:
Let’s
take a step back to the millennium when brand experience was used as a tactical
exercise to support a wider communications campaign. ATL first, activation second. It usually consisted of a sampling or roadshow
exercise for a food or drink NPD. OK, a
slight generalisation, but you get the picture.
It was only when the saturation and fragmentation
of conventional media took a proper grip in the mid ‘Noughties’ that marketers
began to see the real value in appealing to all the consumer senses.
And
it wasn’t just the traditional users either; the act of ‘bringing brands to life’ started to appeal to multiple
sectors. Broadcasters; consumer
electronics; automotive and even online brands benefitted from creating one to
one dialogue in a brand controlled environment.
The increasing size and sophistication of brand experiences enabled them
to sit comfortably at the heart of a communications strategy.
Experiential
agencies too saw our profile rise and we were increasingly being invited to
marketing’s top table, despite the scepticism about
the measurability of our work.
Emergence of digital:
And
then digital enlightenment began to take hold.
Social media; e-commerce and gaming all contribute(d) to a significant
shift in the traditional media model. The emphasis on earned rather than bought
media led to brands craving advocacy from an increasing online community. And I guess this is where experiential has
benefitted more than other media. Simply
put, creating real world experiences creates advocates (and content) that
migrate onto digital channels.
Of
course, in the consumer’s world, there is no real world and digital world, just
one world. That is the way that
experiential now has to think and act.
The truth is that the landscape remains ever changing; creative
technology and innovation is continuously keeping us on our toes.
Great
campaigns now require the fusion of these two disciplines but when it is done
seamlessly with one great idea, the results have proved more than worthwhile. This union has continued to throw up some
added advantage too. Consumer tracking
post their experience and their subsequent habits online are now helping us to
find answers to that evaluation question.
Brands as retailers:
So
where are things currently unfolding? We are beginning to see brands reclaiming
the retail space; this is not so much a new phenomenon as one that is slowly
gathering pace. Brands have indeed been
doing it for a while, just look at Apple, Nike and Sony. However, it is only now that the power of the
retailer is becoming so marginalised by the Internet that brands are looking to
wrestle back control.
The
recent pop-up shop craze is testament to this trend. Brands outside the ‘top 20’ are constructing
their own retail experiences, then using the buzz it generates to reach its
target audience.
This
is what leads us onto the rationale behind East London’s Brand Park. Brands are beginning to
seek flexible, large-scale and accessible spaces to develop high value brand experiences
for their audiences. The Brand Park will also allow global brands to influence
the online spending decisions of customers, which will be worth up to a total
value of £221bn by 2016, and ever increasing.
The brand experience will be central to global communication
campaigns and content generation. Experiencing a brand’s innovation could
become the hottest ticket in town.
Final
thought:
It would seem that we’ve come a long way in a short
period of time. Everything seems to have
shifted in one way or another. However,
I do take great comfort from the truth that one common thread still exists in
the shifting sands - the human interaction and its ability to capture the
imagination; to inspire and change
behaviour.
Author: Simon Couch, Director of Experiential, The
Network
‘brand park’ in Silvertown Quays - http://www.london.gov.uk/priorities/housing-land/land-assets/silvertown-quays
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