How significant is experiential marketing for VIP?
Experiential is the only medium to demonstrate what you preach. It is the most effective means for a brand to connect with its consumer. We have a team of eight people across the country focusing specifically on BTL marketing; needless to say it is extremely critical for us.
How do you embrace it?
Besides associating with various college fests, we are the associate sponsor of Sunburn for last three years. That’s a big chunk of our spends we direct there. As part of this association we do several activations within the festival. We have installed a mechanical bull that is very popular with the youth, we have also created a maze that leads up to goodies from Skybags, similar to this we have several engaging games that encourage conversations with our target segment whilst enabling a memorable brand experience. We also make it a point to add social media to all our experiential campaigns in order to expand our reach because experiential spiked with social is a proven potent mix. Media amplification is very important for us in all our experiential initiatives, else the cost per contact becomes very high.
What is the response you have seen from your partnership with Sunburn?
The response from Sunburn has been phenomenal. We spend a quantum of money there.
What’s in the pipeline?
In line with our latest communication we are creating events in malls where you will see our brand ambassadors coming out of Skybags. Last time we launched a campaign named ‘Back is the new front’ where representatives wearing our backpacks drew attention by walking backwards in malls. The upcoming campaign will be an extension of this.
Where does experiential stand in your marketing mix?
We spend 4% of our total marketing budgets in experiential marketing. Our budget this year is close to 100 crore.
Any pain points?
We’ve been trying to activate in airports but unfortunately due to safety and security protocols we cant really do much. We’d love to do more stuff at airports, some innovative activations by the carousel etc. because that’s where the truth for a brand like ours lies.
