Recently we have spent some time reading and digesting Event Magazine’s Brand Experience report, which has given us fascinating insight into what brand experiences will look like in 2015 and beyond.
Event Magazine has roped in some of the biggest names in the sector to share their predictions on future trends, along with their opinions on how the sector will continue to move and grow in the coming years.
What’s new on the experiential scene for 2015?
The report highlights the confidence the sector has and importantly clients have in the unique ability of the experiential sector to deliver commercial return. This clearly supports the likelihood of clients continuing to bolster their investment in experiential marketing.
The key and vocal message is the continuing and increasing need to further connect digital/social strategies with experiential marketing. Many of the commentators clearly indicate that social and digital channels will be important in driving experiential strategies moving forward rather than vice versa.
The good news is that the rise of the increased collaboration of digital and experiential strategies means that the industry further benefits from the metric rich reporting associated with digital and social, which will support the client investments.
What the experts had to say…
Sharon Richey, Chief Executive at Because was keen to raise that in order to benefit the most from an experiential model, brands need to create dialogue with consumers, rather than simply talk at them. She describes it as ‘dialogue vs. monologue’ and believes that emotional engagement is a key driving force of experientialism and is what the likes of Apple and other huge brands use to their advantage.
This ideology is something that was echoed by Guy Horner at TBA PLC and many of the other industry experts contributing to the report. Horner stated that an immersive experience within the experiential sector ‘comes down to creating engaging brand experiences that connect with consumers’ and that the area of growth lies in ‘engagement and immersion’ which both help to bring the brand to life.
Another key point highlighted in the report came from Emma Chalwin, Direct of Brand and Events at Adobe, who spoke of the need to utilise customers by turning them into brand advocates and influencers. Experiential events give brands the opportunities to identify and create brand advocates, who go onto strengthen the brand and provide customer endorsements.
This year we expect to see brands increasingly combining digital technology within their experiential campaigns.
Richard Vincent, Jack Morton and Vision Nine’s Sally Gill had a lot of interesting things to say on the rise of digital and social activity in the experiential strategy. Gill said that whilst pop-ups, cross-brand experiential collaborations and immersive experiences continued to rise, the biggest trends could be found within the digital sector.
This is something that Vincent and Morton wholeheartedly agreed with. However they did raise the point that technology needs to be invisible as part of the strategy so that the message becomes the focus, with the exception of new technologies like the Oculus Rift and Microsoft HoloLens, which are capable of creating stand-out brand experiences.
More interesting key comments came from Matt Margetson at Smyle, who highlighted the need to reduce lead times as a new norm in the experiential sector. These comments resonate with our own experiences with clients looking for superior quality hardware delivered with quality and affordability.
What we’ve taken from the report…
With this in mind, we have been investing across our product groups to provide availability of superior quality roadshow trucks, exhibition units and upcycled shipping containers for client projects.
We have recently expanded our exhibition unit fleet to offer a wider range of vehicle options that can be provided quickly, to meet the increasing demand for reduced lead times indicated in the Brand Experience report.
Furthermore, we have expanded our upcycled shipping container fleet to provide a number of shipping container hire options that can be taken immediately on short-term hire projects. We have noticed these are being targeted by agencies looking to develop experiential strategies, which are affordable and unique.
It’s the unique and targeted approach that is the last message we take from the brand experience report. Using budgets wisely with clear targeting is a common theme. Tracey Hudson at OneTouch describes it as using ‘marketing budget wisely in a way that allows [you] to target a wide number of relevant people at a one-on-one level.”
The targeting has to be extended to the type of environment you use for your experiential strategy. We start briefing by focussing on the consumers that the structure needs to engage with and environment that it will be placed.
To find out more about our roadshow trucks, upcycled shipping containers and mobile exhibition units or to talk about how our event structures can help you target consumers give us a call on 0161 821 1010.