Permission To Engage?

Consumers respond best to brands that they feel treat them with respect. Once trust is established, a closer relationship will ensue

Experiential content over the past 10 years has evolved to become a highly strategic, innovative and effective tool that should be firmly entrenched in the minds of senior marketers.

Our industry has proven that we can deliver effective ROI measurement and become a fundamental part of a bigger, integrated marketing programme. Consumers want respect, recognition and dialogue, and the best way for marketers to deliver this is through experiences that are personally relevant, memorable and meaningful.

Experiential marketing should be conducted where it is relevant to the target consumer and aimed at those who are most receptive to the brand message. The most successful locations are those that have traditionally been untouched by mass media.

Strong campaigns should also look to provide a clear benefit to the consumer. For example, a toothpaste brand such as Aquafresh Extreme Clean providing teeth–cleaning stations to festival campers; the provision of complimentary digital cameras, printers, ink and paper to guests at Fairmont Hotels, courtesy of HP; or the lifeline for parents with bored children in an airport lounge that can be offered by a video–games producer such as Electronic Arts.

These brands are facilitating a need and forging lasting relationships with their core audiences.

Perhaps even more notable is the fact that experiential allows consumers to be self–selective — participating only in the activities they want. A correctly designed experience can become the best kind of permission marketing, allowing consumers to choose their own journey and engage in the elements that matter to them.

When consumers self–select their experience, it informs the brand about the consumer’s preferences, and, having had a positive engagement, they are also much more likely to provide the brand with their personal details, giving an opportunity to continue that conversation after the event.

The most successful experiential brands do take advantage of this fact and integrate a customer relationship management programme into their activation. For example, on board the EA HUB, a truck that is touring the UK, consumers are encouraged to sign up for the EA HUB VIP Card.

The branded membership card uses a bar code that is scanned using Circle’s Livefeed PDA units. Consumer data is then collected and uploaded daily to our server which sends out a welcome email directing the consumer to a VIP microsite. From there, the consumer can again personalise their experience and take advantage of various discounts from retail and brand partners, register for exclusive events and participate in ‘money can’t buy’ competitions.

This ability to create an on–going dialogue with your target is crucial to ensuring maximised ROI for your programme. It also enables your brand to build credibility with its audience.

Electronic Arts has posted a 50% increase in open rates on emails sent to the EA HUB VIP database compared with regular CRM communication. This can be attributed only to the fact that those consumers are finding the personalised content meaningful.

Personalisation is paramount to EA’s business — whether it is designing your own character within one of its games or choosing the way in which you interact with the brand. Be it experiential or digital content, EA wants its consumers to feel that it understands their needs and can deliver content that is personal to them.

The future of marketing is in personalisation: consumers will have the power to opt in and out of engagement as they see fit. The most successful brands will use experiential to overcome this challenge and bridge the gap between mass media and their consumers.

Claire Stokes is the managing director of The Circle Agency

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