• Embed Doc
  • Copy Link
  • Readcast
  • Collections
Download
 
May 2004 . www.marketingmag.co.nz
11
Cover Story: Experiential Marketing
E
Eight
months on from our last experiential mar-
 
keting feature and enthusiasm for the disciplinecontinues to grow worldwide. So much so that inMarch a group of experiential marketing agenciesin the UK formed a breakaway industry body calledthe Brand Experience Association.Counting among its numbers agencies such asProximity iD, Arc Field Marketing and Cunning,the group is developing research and measurementtools to help marketers judge the effectiveness of their experiential programmes.Back in New Zealand, some of our more progres-sive companies have given experiential a go – moreon one of those later – while others have hung backto see what happens.In planning this feature we decided to help wait-and-see marketers stop sitting on the fence and getinto some experiential marketing of their own.Once again we approached marketing engineer-ing firm Chisel with a concise brief: tell us howto do it.Chisel’s team of Jake Pearce and Roger Slaterwere up for the challenge, and in the followingpages present a comprehensive ‘how to’ guide forexperiential marketing. They’re applying theirtechniques to Sir Edmund Hillary and The AllBlacks and then to two iconic Kiwi brands, TheWarehouse and Air New Zealand.
Marketing Magazine
is also stepping up to theplate, presenting a 15 minute do-it-yourself ex-periential marketing challenge on page 15 witha prize sure to motivate any marketer with anintact ego.
 
www.marketingmag.co.nz . May 2004
12
Cover Story: Experiential Marketing
What It Is
To recap. Experiential marketing is abouttaking a brand’s essence and amplifying itinto a set of tangible, physical, interactiveexperiences which reinforce the brand.Rather than ‘seeing’ your brand throughtraditional communications like tvcs,print or billboards, consumers ‘feel’ it bybeing in it.Experiential marketing is about abrand creating its own media as a way of expressing itself.In the UK the Chartered Institute of Marketing predicts that the key issue inthe future for marketing is an impendingwar – a war between consumers and mar-keters over intrusion into their lives.The ultimate winners of this war willbe the companies that understand how tooffer brand experiences that pull ratherthan push. We’re all drawn towards ex-periences we want to have.These brands will be in the business of creating completely original consumerentertainment and experiences.Think Red Bull, which from its launchhas worked hard to develop innovativeways to communicate its ‘energy’ essence.All Red Bull marketing is built aroundamplifying ‘enhanced ability’.The company has founded numer-ous ongoing events related to extremesports like rock climbing, para-flying andaerobatics.It also recruits ‘mobile energy teams’ toseek out people in need of energy at sportsevents, night clubs, offices and bars – andtakes Red Bull to them, making the drinkhighly relevant to its consumers whereverthey shop, work or play.Staying with the beverage market,although Coca-Cola has for decadesspent up big time on traditional media,COO Steve Heyer recently famouslystated “the days of mass, homogenousmarketing are behind us”. The compa-ny’s heading in a new direction.Coca-Cola red lounges are part of thatnew path. An experience-based innova-tion targeting teens in shopping malls,they offer music, games and movie pro-gramming.Coke hopes the kids will settle in andchill with their friends on custom-builtCoke furniture, essentially choosing tobe immersed in Coke, rather than beingintruded on (pushed) by traditional brandadvertising.
What It’s Not
Get with the play if you think expe-riential marketing is all about one-off events, sponsorships, product sampling,bar or nightclub promotions, or streetmerchandising teams.A common mistake: thinking EM issome kind of quick fix tactic. As the sci-ence of marketing evolves, experientialmarketing will become the dominantmarketing tool of the future.Other media will increasingly playsupport roles.
Feel The Kiwi
Like the Wright Brothers and NelsonMandela, Sir Ed’s brand essence is allabout redefining human potential. Hispersonal life has been closely identi-fied with a never-give-up attitude and asearch for excellence.So far so simple. Now for the mindstretch.We’re going to amplify the Sir Ed es-sence experientially by creating a HillaryCentre. A place where any New Zea-lander could go to find the thing withinthem at which they truly excel.Staff the centre with experts from a rangeof different fields – sports people, academ-ics, spiritual leaders and business peoplewho want to give something back.Give attendees the opportunity to findthe thing they’re ‘born for’ – and enablethem to realise their full potential.Create Hillary Scouts. Send them outaround the country to dig out exceptionalpotential in a range of fields.Pluck these budding talents from their
Being There
To help launch a new version of its “Home buyer’s and seller’s guide”, Westpac recentlyremodelled a Ponsonby bus stop to resemble a suburban living room.The bank says the objective was to bring the Westpac experience to the public – takingit out of the bank and on to the streets.Where does this rate on the experiential marketing scale of excellence? “Full marksto Westpac for having a go,” says Chisel founder Jake Pearce, “but this is really just alaunch tactic and not a prolonged experience of the brand.“After the launch is over they’ll remove it all and move on to something else. So it’sfar from true experiential marketing.”
Continued on page 15 
of 00

Commenting has been disabled.