'Venues steer the experience' agree experts at TAVF

A light and sound show that portrayed a myriad of exclusively Indian emotions--- homage to the brave jawans of India, a rendition of Atithi Devo Bhabha, a promotion of Swachh Bharat--- all clubbed together to represent Incredible India, would be an apt way to touch hearts. And this happened at no other place than the Gateway of India to drive home a strong message.

Therefore the venue matters a lot and finding a suitable venue is probably the toughest job for an event organizer, insisted Mr. Harindra Singh, Chairman and Managing Director, Percept Limited. The pioneer of the festival Sunburn, walked the audience through a series of obstacles that presented themselves in the way of getting permission for the venue, including Single Window and time constraints.

And that is where malls come into rescue for the regular event planner. Mr. Kalkar, as the guardian of a large chain of malls, could not stress enough on the importance of malls as a venue for experiential marketing. People of diverse age and professions, go to malls. They go to malls when they are happy, stressed or sad. They go for a stroll, they go for shopping, they go to hang-out with friends or enjoy time with a loved one. Malls are an integral part of cosmopolitan life and host to a multitude of the target crowd that every brand looks for.

“Statistically, they really provide the best consumer ratio per square-foot as compared to any other venue you would think of choosing, “ said Mr. Kalkar. Malls already have that content, they already have that connect, and they already have events which happen in the mall. In the last couple of years they have evolved and they have learnt this art of giving experiences,” he added.

LG took a novel initiative to launch one of its products only in malls, and it produced a favorable outcome. Paul Smith aired the comfort of their suits by a display of acrobatics in formals, and where better to engage audience, than the mall again!

Star Wars went live for kids, complete with Jedi swords, at a Phoenix property.
And the best part is the social media active population propagates word of the experience exponentially through tweets, post and selfless .

Mr. Puneet Verma, ‎Associate Vice President - Head Marketing & Corporate Communications, ‎Inorbit Malls, outlined the strategies to add value to a mall property as a venue. In order to project the brands whose marketing campaign the mall is hosting, the venue itself must be leveraged for the ingenuous attractions it might have to offer.

PinkPower was an initiative taken by Inorbit to assist women with a dream to build start-ups , by providing free space to their business for six months. “The thought was how we can build a community, how we can build a really great experience for our customers,” he elaborated. Inorbit also holds a property in fashion, called InTrend, that allows the launch of the latest fashion by retailers, with customers as part of the experience. Speaking about it, Mr. Verma said, “We create an experiential event about fashion, what is the latest in the season, what is new after the end -of-season sale and brands get very excited, they give us full support.”

The take home message- The promise of delivering an experience is an aura that is essential to create around a venue, to make successful events.