Are marketers playing it safe? Unleashing the next level of experience

As the year 2015 is drawing to a close, it is safe to say that we have pretty much seen all the experiential marketing campaigns that brands rolled out for their TG throughout the year. Yes, we have seen a significant increase in the investments being shifted towards the domain of experiential but has any brand rolled out a campaign which can be termed as an inspiration to follow over the years by others? Well, sadly the answer to all such questions is no. And the ‘No’ shouts out an important question, “Are marketers playing it safe when it comes to experiential?”

Experience driven campaigns are not a new marketing practice for brands anymore. Local hatts, exhibitions, sampling and mall activations have always been a part of their selling practices. I still remember stalls of Lux soaps and Medicare hair care oil at local exhibitions, complimentary Milo shakes by the brand on annual days, Maggi and Colgate activations in school during festival times, being a popular practice by brands in the year 2000. Cut to 15 years later today, the brands have pretty much continued with the same practices to give an experience with their products. Clearly marketers are playing it safe when it comes to experimenting with experiential.

Brands like Cadbury which recently created a giant Christmas calendar in UK, Red Bull which has made its presence felt even in the space, Starbucks which created a multi-sensory red cup installation, Heineken which has its own star constellation now are some of the most popular brand names in India. India is definitely an important market for them as it contributes majorly to their global sales figures but do these brands invest the same amount of money for experiential in the country as they do outside it? No they don’t.

Marketing gurus believe that experiential is still at a very nascent stage in the country but have no concrete idea on the reasons behind it. Is it technology? Well, it can’t be. Is it the lack of resources? No, it isn’t. The main reason behind the reluctance of marketers to invest and experiment with experiential is deep rooted in experiential’s inability to calculate ROI and thus it not being seen as a direct contributor to the sales registered for the product. Hence, most marketers tick off experiential from their long list of “to be used marketing tools” by opting for mall activations rather than doing something thoroughly engaging with the same budget.

What brand custodians do not understand today is that much the clutter in ATL, BTL too is filled with malls having brands lining up next to each other with fancy kiosks and shiny lights. As a result, even most mall activations are going unnoticed by audiences today as it is very difficult for them to distinguish between which mall activation to pay interest to as they all have the same style, same location and same strategy.

For an experience to truly engage a consumer it has to be innovative at first and innovation can only come when a brand allows agencies the authority to go all out on creativity with a firm belief and a generous budget on the offer. Event agencies too, have a big role to play here as they need to make marketers understand how experiential is the only practice which will help a brand to create a difference in the minds of consumers.

No matter how much does a brand pumps money into experiential but without innovative experiments with it they cannot expect it to churn out ATL benefits for them. A consumer is very smart today and in order to wow them a brand marketer has to be smarter