In recent years, it seems customers are seeking out experiences more than ever before, and the brands who can facilitate outstanding customer experiences will be the ones that will differentiate themselves.
But just what is experiential marketing, and how do you do it? In this vlog, we’ll take a look at what it is, uncover some of its advantages, and talk about what to consider if you’re planning on doing your own experiential marketing.
The time to create memorable experiences around your brand is now, so let’s get started.
Video Transcript
Si Muddell:
Right, recording. So this is the third episode of our new, but not so new, because we’ve done two already, but our new video blogs. We’re taking this opportunity just to talk to people within the team who are experts, and they specialise on certain subjects. And just by way of introduction, I’m Si, as you may already know from the two previous episodes. Or if you’re new to it, hi. I’m Si. And I’m the director of growth and client success at Woven. That guy.
Brad Crewe-Brown:
Hi, I’m Brad. I’m an account director here at Woven. And I am focusing on the experiential side. I come from a experiential background. Have worked in the space for about nine years, both in South Africa, and the UK. And bringing my experience to Woven.
Si Muddell:
Great. So as you would have guessed there, the subject, and the topic of this conversation is around experiential marketing. And I think a great place to start, Brad, would be, by definition, what is experiential marketing?
Brad Crewe-Brown:
Well, I think the technical explanation is, experiential marketing is a marketing technique that creates experiences between brands and consumers. However, I like to think of it much more than that, if done right. I like to think of it as a process that positively connects consumers to a brand, and leaves a lasting impression that isn’t achieved by standing in the subway, just throwing a bunch of samples to someone, and hopefully they’re going to engage with your brand.
Brad Crewe-Brown:
And it’s that moment of engaging with them positively that’s going to leave them wanting to talk about your brand, wanting to share it with friends organically, and hopefully again, if done right, change their buying behaviour. So I think a lot of people get it wrong, and they don’t really understand it. But for me, it’s not something that’s a billboard saying, “Buy, buy, buy.” It’s more that, “How am I going to make this person’s feelings change, and then in turn, become a brand advocate for my brand.” And not just now, but for the future.
Si Muddell:
Yeah, sure. And can you give us an example of a really awesome, successful experiential marketing campaign?
Brad Crewe-Brown:
Yeah. I was thinking of a few of these. And there’s a lot of brands have done it really well. A small example is, if you think of Apple, everyone loves … Well, most people love Apple. And a small example from their side is, small things, when you even open a box than an Apple product comes in, the box is so tightly made so that it’s that long moment of the device getting released.
Brad Crewe-Brown:
But I suppose one of my favourite campaigns, or favourite examples of a campaign that’s worked really well, and not one that I’ve worked on, but worked on me, was the stuff Nike did. I moved to the UK five years ago. Had my first job on Oxford Street. Was very excited to be working in one of the capitals of the world. And by chance, walked into Nike Town, and saw that they did a running club.
Brad Crewe-Brown:
So I wanted to meet new people. Signed up for the running club, wanted to stay fit. And was a little bit apprehensive on my first one. But then decided to go down and do it. And it was amazing, they had these friendly coaches that would take you on different runs around London every Tuesday. You could do a five, seven, or 10 K run. And they would put you in different … You could choose which paces you wanted to go. So it wasn’t a rush, or anything like that.
Brad Crewe-Brown:
And it was just great people doing this. And every run that I came to, I met new people, got to know the coaches more. I’d get a little stamp, and after I got 10 stamps, I’d be given a free shirt. And then we did things like, one night, they gave us all a Nike shirt. And you can imagine 100 people running down Oxford Street with a Nike shirt on. And you’re not paying any of us to do this.
Si Muddell:
Yeah.
Brad Crewe-Brown:
And then from there, it led onto, I then downloaded the running app, and started getting engaged on the running app. I then slowly started buying more and more of their products. But it was because I was having this genuinely good experience with them. None of it was forced, none of it was like, “Well, you can only be involved if you buy our products.” They just did it all organically, and it just felt like these were people that were genuinely interested that I wanted to become a better runner. But they were doing all of this in the background. I didn’t know that they were getting me onto the app, and everything like that. But it just felt so organic. And that’s what I really enjoyed about it.
Si Muddell:
And I think the biggest thing there is, they’re clever in the sense that they can then link into Strava, and there can be Strava badges. There’s the gamification side of it, there’s the social amplification and advocacy, the earned media comes from that type of thing. One thing that … And we spoke about this before we pressed record a little bit. Was I think when I … And I’m not an expert at all in the experiential marketing in any way.
Si Muddell:
But I think, I guess as a what’s worked on me the most is … And I guess reviewing that, and looking at that through the eyes of me as a consumer. But then me looking at it from my profession, thinking, “Wow, that was really clever.” Is when it works best is when it seems to be, either an offline or an online, but let’s just go with it’s an offline activation type event. And but actually, it really bridges the gap between what’s happening offline, and what could happen, and what does happen online.
Si Muddell:
And when those two are working cohesively, even though the activation, and the event might be on Shoreditch high street for example, launching a new craft beer, or Brew Dogs there. There might be a nominal amount of people that are engaged there and then. But actually, that’s not only a, if done well, a fantastic PR story, right, and it’s content that can be used again. But it’s also amplifying out across social media in a way that’s potentially getting people within the digital sphere to influence what’s happening in the offline sphere.
Si Muddell:
And I find that amazing. And like I say, when I’ve been part of that as a user I suppose, as a consumer, you really get bought into that, and you feel like you’re almost … Well, you are, you’re having the best, purest form of brand engagement, and brand experience, which makes me want to go buy the product, because I’m that way inclined.
Brad Crewe-Brown:
Well, I mean, I think, to my point earlier, why I … I mean, I got into experiential marketing by chance. But what I really love about it is, it’s the one form of marketing where you can really, me as a consumer, I can understand why it works so well, because if done right, you do something on the ground, whether it’s a brand activation for a sporting event, or whatever it is, and if done right, it lives in that digital space for months, years to come.
Brad Crewe-Brown:
I’m still talking about this Nike activation that I did that was three, four years ago. And I still tell my friends about it. And it’s something that I really enjoy doing. So to your point, if done right, it can live in that digital channel for such a long time. And at the time, I didn’t even know it was working on me, but it clearly had, because it’s given me something that’s benefited me, and them in the long run. But it’s benefited both of us really.
Si Muddell:
And I know that from your experience, you’ve got quite a bit of experience in FMCG sector. Can you chat through one, or a couple of your examples of experiential campaigns that you’ve been part of?
Brad Crewe-Brown:
Yeah. I mean, I’ve done a lot. Back in South Africa, I was part of the share a Coke campaign. So we distributed over half a million custom Coke cans with people’s names on it, which was a logistical challenge. But I love a challenge.
Brad Crewe-Brown:
And then I moved to the UK, and I did things like launch the Samsung S7 to a retail staff. We created a floating barge, and 100 different Negronis for Campari, which was enjoyable to taste test them.
Si Muddell:
I bet it was. Yeah. Not so enjoyable in the morning.
Brad Crewe-Brown:
No. No. And then through to things like delivering ice-cream on behalf of Wall’s in the worlds smallest ice-cream van. Launching Kinder ice-cream in the middle of Feb on the South Bank. And possibly my favourite campaign that I did, and luckily, I got to do it for three years, was deliver Unilever sponsorship of Goodwood. And it was probably one of my favorite events, because it’s a true sense of experiential marketing. But also event wise, it’s an event where you step back into the 1960s, but all the brands step back at the same time. So you see what brands looked like in the ’60s, everyone dresses up in the ’60s, there’s cars from the ’60s. So I think that’s probably my favorite execution that I’ve done, because it’s just on such a grand scale, and it just lives for such a long time.
Si Muddell:
Yeah, no. That sound good. And in your experience, where … I guess, where do brands go wrong when they … Where does this type of … I mean, I guess it’s like any marketing campaign, some are successful, some aren’t. What are the telltale signs of a experiential marketing campaign that’s working, versus an experiential marketing campaign that isn’t working? What are the traits here?
Brad Crewe-Brown:
Well, I think I like to think of it, when I go to an experience, have I left feeling like I want to tell my friends about that naturally? Or I want to tell my friends that I’ve just had the worst experience of my life? And it often happens where a brand will deliver a great experience, and then immediately afterwards, they’re like, “Sign up now. Free offer. Sign up before the end of today and get X, Y, Z.” And they’ve gone through this long process of getting you involved, and executing a great experience, and then just forcing that, “Now sign up so we can tell you about it for the next year of your life.”
Brad Crewe-Brown:
I like to think of it as, a great experiential plan is like a marathon runner. You see these guys running marathons. They go into it knowing what their plan is, and they’re not going to just see the finish line and then sprint for it. They’ve put in all of that effort, and they’re going to sustain that energy for the right amount of time so they can finish the race and achieve what they wan to achieve when they want to achieve it.
Brad Crewe-Brown:
And when I bring that back to a brand is, trust in that plan, do your experiential, and then plan what’s going to be six months after that so you don’t have to be forcing it down people’s throats, and go, “Okay, you’ve had our experience, now sign up to this, do this, do this, and do this.”
Brad Crewe-Brown:
So I think … And it’s easy to mess it up. But it’s just going in with that full plan and going, “This is what we’re going to do. This is what we want to achieve.” And just like any other strategy, work out what that full length of the campaign is, and where you’re going to implement all of those checkpoints to make sure that you’re not just trying to do it all in one moment.
Si Muddell:
And do you think there’s a lot more untapped opportunity for brands to be doing more, doing any, some experiential marketing. Because obviously there’s a lot of brands that are very active on your usual traditional offline, and online channels. There’s advertising campaigns that are BAU, and always on, and there’s campaigns triggered to times of the year, et cetera. But from what the experience that you’ve had of nine plus years in experiential marketing, and the view of brands generally, and their marketing activities, is it something that you look at going, “God, man, there’s a lot of opportunity here for these brands to be doing something to compliment all of that stuff, but something different.”?
Brad Crewe-Brown:
Yeah. These days, there’s so much going on. You switch on your phone as soon as you wake up, you check your social media, you go online. And there’s so much going on. And brands all have to compete for your attention. Whereas, experiential marketing, why I love it so much is that … And to your point, yes, I think all brands should be doing it, because it gives you that opportunity to engage with your consumer, you can find out what they really think about your product, competitors products.
Brad Crewe-Brown:
But it gives them that moment to actually feel, and touch your brand, and experience it. And that can be from anything from a chocolate bar to a sports car. Obviously the experiential outputs going to be different. But it’s so important, because traditional marketing forms don’t really give you that personalization, that I’m one on one with my consumer, or I’m one on one with the brand that I want to get involved with.
Brad Crewe-Brown:
So I definitely think that everyone should be doing it. And it’s not because I just love experiential. It’s because it gives you that space to talk to your consumers. Yes, you can do focus groups, and things like that. But there’s nowhere else where you can get face to face with your consumer and go, “Well, what do you like about our brand? What don’t you like about our brand? How can we improve?”
Brad Crewe-Brown:
Because at the end of the day, all brands should be wanting to do that. They want to improve, they want to be doing better for their clients, or their consumers. So why not?
Si Muddell:
I think that’s a great answer. And I think that again, I suppose the final question that I’ve got is, obviously with the way of the world right now, there are multiple challenges for brands, and humans quite frankly. And I think there’s some elements that are just not really possible, or viable from a physical experiential activation type campaign in the way that perhaps it would have been a year ago.
Si Muddell:
But I think what we’re seeing fundamentally in the way that we’re communicating now through digital means that it’s definitely opened up, and accelerated in some ways brands doing more digitally within a digital environment. And I think what I, and I’m sure you, would find quite exciting is how can brands that have traditionally worked with more … Particularly within a brand experience perspective, they’ve worked traditionally more buying a boat, or a luxury car, or a house, or all those big item valued products. Obviously if you can physically see it, and touch it, and smell it, and you’re there, that’s where you want to be when you’re buying those product.
Si Muddell:
But I suppose the challenge and the opportunity I would see with everything that’s happening is, how can we open up that experience of a brand, and of a product via digital means as well? And I think we’ve seen a lot more virtual events, and technology, augmented reality for example, virtual reality that’s again, bridging that gap a little bit more from what’s physical and offline versus what can be online. And that must be quite exciting in that sense to see that.
Brad Crewe-Brown:
Yeah, I think it’s really exciting. Experiential doesn’t have to just be physical space. I think it all comes down to, what is your personal touch? We’re doing a virtual event? Cool. Are we going to send beers out to everyone that’s going to join the event? Is there a moment where we do a lucky draw during that? Whatever it is, is how do we make it feel like all of our participants are getting that personal touch?
Brad Crewe-Brown:
I mean, I wouldn’t buy a boat on every experience that I do. But from the smaller products, I would. And as long as I’ve had that great experience with the brand, whether it’s online or offline, it will work. And then to a point of buying a boat, you can make that experiential, and tailored to that consumer with VR, and things like that. And you could also deliver a package to their house that it’s got a mini boat, and it’s got the finishes of what you would have, and everything like that. So I definitely think it’s just how you process it.
Si Muddell:
And I think as long as the content remains authentic, I think you can get a vibe from other people’s experiences and them showcasing and sharing their experience of that brand. You know what I mean? And if it’s authentic, and it comes across as genuine, again, it’s that social proof, isn’t it? That will drive a conversion. So it’s an exciting space.
Si Muddell:
And obviously at Woven, Brads fairly new, he’s been here a few months. And we’re really excited to have him on board, because it is a … It’s another string to our bow as a brand engagement agency. And I think that there’s just a hell of a lot of opportunity for brands to be working more within that experiential space, and bridging that offline, online gap, and bringing the product closer, and the brand experience closer to the consumer. Cool. All right, thanks, Brad.
Brad Crewe-Brown:
Cool.
Interested in learning more about experiential marketing? We’d love to hear from you.