Parle Products, yesterday announced its partnership with KidZania Mumbai, a Global Indoor Theme park that inspires, educates & empowers children, helping them understand & manage their world better. The collaboration has established first Kids Parle G factory in KidZania Mumbai. The Parle G factory experience at KidZania will allow kids to have first-hand experience of various biscuit making processes. This will help kids to understand and appreciate how their favourite Biscuit is made by Parle Products. The process involves measuring the wheat and sugar in two beakers which will be given to the kids. They will experience how to operate a flywheel and flatten the dough, post which they would be trained in pulling the lever to bring down the molding and cutting dye. Training kids on baking, cooling and packaging processes will also be covered at the establishment. Kids will also perform a nutrition test on the Parle-G biscuits and will scale the size of the biscuit to check if it fits the particular standard laid down for the biscuits. This popular household biscuit at KidZania Mumbai is a step closer to teaching kids the intricacies involved in its production and thus will enhance the cognitive, psychomotor and emotional skills of kids. As a part of its consumer engagement program, Parle aims to provide first-of- its kind experience that will allow kids to understand the procedure of biscuit making as well as form a closer bond with the brand. Mr. Mayank Shah Deputy Manager Marketing, commented, “Parle has been one of the favorite biscuit brands for various generations. We are delighted to be associated with this innovative concept as this will help us target the newer generation. We at Parle Products believe in giving children free hand to explore world on their own, nurture creativity and follow their passion. Given this great fit with our Brand philosophy, we are excited to be a part of such an initiative. Parle has always been on the forefront when it comes to consumer engagement and satisfaction. Unified with reality and entertainment, this initiative will provide guidance to kids on the biscuit industry in an informative way.” Speaking on the new launch, Viraj Jit Singh – Chief Marketing Officer, KidZania India said, KidZania is all about empowering children through hands-on experience and open doors for them to new opportunities. The scaled down size of the Parle G biscuit factory will teach the next generation of bakers the intricacies of the biscuit making process, the independence of being creative and the importance of understanding the nutrition value of what they consume..”
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In a strategic alliance with Everything Experiential, EEMA (Event and Entertainment Management Association) is all set to launch the EEMAX GLOBAL Experiential Black Book on the day of EEMAX GLOBAL 2015 on 21st September in Mumbai. The Black Book will feature leading experiential agencies in India and showcase the best of their work. It is slated to be an annual benchmark publication that will define the growing nature of the Indian event’s industry. Through this partnership EEMA empanelled agencies can look forward to reaching out to Everything Experiential’s expansive network of brand-side marketers and, as a result, reside on the desks and display shelves of the clients and advertising fraternity. The book will also be promoted online to reach the global community encouraging partnerships between featured agencies and international event management companies This initiative is being co-produced by EEMA in association with Everything Experiential to be circulated with their latest publication BW APPLAUSE that was launched recently on 5 September 2015. The EEMAX GLOBAL Experiential Black Book will feature: Special coverage on the events industry and its aspirations. Special features on the industry and the services provided. Focus on EEMAX GLOBAL shortlisted entries The EEMAX GLOBAL Honours that are being presented to global events and projects. Focus on the EEMAX GLOBAL Jury and their thoughts about the industry. Focus on key clients and understand from them what Events and Experiential Management needs to focus on. Focus on celebrity artistes and understand what event managers do, don’t do and should do. Plus more All EEMA agencies are being offered equal opportunity to showcase themselves in a standard prescribed format created by Everything Experiential that will feature an overview of the agency, its philosophy, key clients, national and international operations, contact details and a visual display of some signature projects. Agencies can look to be featured by way of a one page creative advertisement, a one-page write-up or a two-page write-up. The last date for confirming a feature in the Black Book is 10th September. To know more about securing a space in the Black Book please write to sunil.mehra@eemaindia.com or vishakh@everythingexperiential.com
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Audience relocation from manual ticketing to online ticketing platforms is strongly being felt as sports and entertainment centric events steadily burgeon nationwide. Offering consumers easy access to all forms of ticketed entertainment with multiple payment options across retail, mobile, social and box-office distribution channels, online ticketing platformsoutgun manual ticketing simply by enhancing the purchase experience while democratizing access for consumers to world-class events. In India, Kyazoonga is one such online ticketing company that has managed to brave its way to the major league through a sea of similar platforms. Besides qualifying as a finalist for an Olympics ticketing bid, it is also the only ticketing company in the subcontinent to have ticketed a major international event – the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011. Neetu Bhatia, CEO, Kyazoongais of the opinion that “online ticketing is soon going to wipe clean every other existing alternative”. Observing the transformation in the event ticketing industry,she talks about traditional mindsets and futuristic solutions. Q-What are some of the challenges when providing online ticketing solutions for a large-scale sporting event? A- Sports and leagues that are seeing success with live audiences will contribute to the online ticketing pie. Demand often exceeds supply and hence people flock online to ensure they have booked their spot in their favorite match. For example, last year most of Pro Kabaddi tickets were sold online. If the event is hot, tickets will get sold out online in no time. In such cases, geography or demographics of a particular region does not matter. Of course convenience and paucity of time are other major drivers. However, there remains a final frontier to be captured– and that is smooth and seamless access using Print-at-Home technology or using the barcode on your phoneto gain access to events. This is generally constrained by the regulatory environment that insists on paper tickets and the lack of robust access control infrastructure at the venues. While we have successfully developed and implemented our systems to work effectively with these challenges, fundamental changes in some of these areas will help in realizing the true potential of the market. Q-How do you market Kyazoonga for a wider reach? A-Our major brand asset is our name and what is represents. The founding team figured that having a ‘different’ sounding name would stick with customers and result in greater brand recall. Over time, the Kyazoonga brand has associated with high profile events like the Cricket World Cup, the Sachin Tendulkar 200th Test match, the CPL, the IPL or the Jaipur Lit Fest, the Bryan Adams concert, the Guns ’N Roses concert, and also smaller events such as the local Cathedral School reunion or the MIT alumni club get-togethers. The name gives us the flexibility to operate the business and build to scale while customizing individual experiences rather than a “one size fits all” approach that a pedestrian name may signify. We continue to push the envelope on ATL and BTL alike. We are also constantly analyzing our database, north of 5 million users, with the use of big data analytics tools as we are on the constant lookout for trends in customer behavior and buying patterns. Q- But why should an event organizer sign a ticketing deal with one platform while it can have itself featured on numerous platforms through ticket selling? A- I fervently believe that if a ticketing platform is centralized end-to-end and enables all the complex requirements of event ticketing, it obviates the need for another platform to be used simultaneously. In fact, doing so will make the ticketing less seamless as the inventory would then not reside in one place centrally and in fact would necessitate offline inventory management which is not desirable if one wants to optimize supply and demand. Furthermore, ticketing isthe first customer touch point for an event and is a key revenue source for an organizer. Hence it is in the best interest of the organizer that they pick the one platform that caters to all the ticketing requirements for the event. With one able platform the effort is focused and the message to the end customer is unambiguous and it also allows the event organizer undivided focus on the content and quality of the event. Q- How has the method and procedure of ticketing in sports and entertainment events grown over the last decade? A-Ticketing continues to grow ever more complex at the back-end in an effort to keep it simple for the end customer. The introduction of real-time social media interactions and feedback has necessitated that ticketing systems be fully real-time and accurately predict the status of demand and supply. As events grow in size, so do their complexity levels. Traffic conditions for large events as we saw during the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 and the Sachin Tendulkar farewell 200th Test Match reach peaks that demand scalability of server and cloud infrastructure, accelerated content delivery networks, and the ability to sustain peak demand for limited inventory residing on the database. Q-Are there any significant changes in the ticket system technology being used in India and abroad? A-Speaking only forKyazoonga in this matter, since inception, it has been our endeavor to offer world-class services and products to our customers and clients. To that end, our products compare with the best in the business globally. Our making it to the very shortlist and being a finalist at the Rio Olympics ticketing program is testament to the fact that we are leading the pack in terms of technical, system and operational capability and have been validated at the highest levels by a global body that runs the most complex ticketing exercise on the planet. This is also testament to the fact that we’ve leapfrogged some of the legacy systems of companies operating in more mature markets of the West while others in emerging markets have yet to catch up. Q-What changes do you foresee in the online ticketing space in the next 5 years? A-Online ticketing is still only about15-20% of the overall pie, which means that we are only scratching the surface. A recent Bain report mentioned that every month India is adding 5-6 million Internet users and about 650 million users are estimated to be online by 2020 – of which 250 million will shop online – spending over $50 billion. The report also suggests that mobile phones will dominate 70 per cent of the total number of Internet users. We believe that these are extremely positive trends and that online ticketing will become the norm in 5 years. We are well positioned to capitalize on this trend both domestically as well internationally.
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The 2nd Edition of India Gadget Expo (IGE) will be held in Hyderabad from the 18th to 21st September 2015 at HITEX Convention Centre. IGE is an initiative by IGE Ventures LLP which is a consortium of Moksh Events Pvt Ltd, Catpro Events and Skits Events India Pvt. Ltd . Government of Telangana has also extended its support to this significant event. Moksh Events, based out of Kolkata, West Bengal has been in the events industry for over 15 yrs. The agency has been instrumental in providing end to end solutions to its client’s ever evolving marketing and branding needs. Moksh Events boasts of having a super and versatile collection of Artist and performer tie ups all across the world and is often known for the usage of the latest technology and innovations in all their events. India Gadget Expo is country’s international gadget show which serves as a platform to showcase innovative gadgets and technologies. IGE will bring together major stakeholders of the tech community comprising of technology providers, gadget manufacturers, technology innovators, bureaucrats, government officials, entrepreneurs and startups. The expo will showcase around 1000+ gadgets from 300+ manufacturers from 12 countries including Israel, China, Korea, Taiwan, Japan to name a few. The event will include a series of seminars on current, engaging and much talked about topics. The ‘Knowledge Conclave’ will have 9 sessions covering Smart Cities, Mobile technology, Future gadgets, Gaming among others. The ‘Master Class’ will showcase pioneering technologies and products to the audience. The ‘Inspiring India Innovation (I3)’ will provide a platform to startups to showcase their innovative gadgets to a wide audience that include both consumers and angel investors. The event will also include the presentation of ‘NDTV Gadget Guru Awards’ - the much awaited annual gadget awards of the country. Special events like 5@5 will have 5 product launches every day at 5pm with an allotted time of 5 minutes which will provide an opportunity to exhibitors and manufacturers to launch their latest gadgets / products. Hackathon Carnival- a two day 30 hours carnival that will provide a platform for hackers to pitch their prototypes and solutions to the industry leaders, investors, IT professionals and public at large. The Flash Sale by e-commerce between 1pm to 4pm will offer massive discounts on the featured products from top brands. In the Battle of Gadgets, brands will participate to take on the rival products in a combat to outsmart each other. The 4-day event is expected to witness an enormous footfall of around 1 lakh visitors and participants across the world from varied segments including Global Investors, CEOs and Managing Directors, Technology Professionals and enthusiasts, Dealers/ Distributors, Government officials, Consumers and students.
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In a gripping finale, Nandini Diwakar and Sanjeev Gakhar beat six other finalists in a live-cook out session to win India’s one of a kind online culinary talent hunt, Lufthansa #cookandfly contest held in partnership with The Leela Palaces, Hotels and Resorts. Nandini and Sanjeev were announced winner at the grand finale ceremony at The Leela Ambience Gurgaon. Rajni Kaura (Paneer-e-husn) and Simmi Sareen (Upma Polenta cakes with mushroom coconut sauce) won the first and second runner up titles respectively. The winning recipes – Nandini (Murgh Noore Bahara with Mawa Pulao) and Sanjeev (Masala Aloo aur khatte pyaaz) will be featured in Lufthansa’s inflight menu. Lufthansa #cookandfly contest is Season 2 of Star Chef Contest where the nationwide hunt for India’s largest online culinary talent is conducted by MasterChefs Kunal Kapur and Vinod Saini of The Leela and Lufthansa’s culinary expert for the Asian region, Chef Thomas Brockenauer. Conceived under Lufthansa’s “Non Stop You” positioning and “More Indian Than You Think” philosophy, the Lufthansa #cookandfly contest celebrates India’s cultural and cuisine diversity and aims to engage with target audiences on a topic close to their heart – their food preferences. Hosted on Facebook, the contest also harnessed the power and reach of social media and received overwhelming response with entry submissions pouring even after the submission timeline was over. Mr. Wolfgang Will, Director, South Asia, Lufthansa Passenger Airlines, said, “Lufthansa’s presence in India of 60 years gives it an unparalleled understanding of the needs of its Indian customers. The brand has made huge progress towards embracing Indian culture and its needs and the contest provides the right opportunity to not only help us understand India’s food preferences but also help our Indian customers see the brand’s “Indian” side and connect with the brand even more. We are also happy that our decision to host the contest on a social media platform helped us reach out to a wider target audience especially the younger audiences and connect with a new target group. Our brand philosophy of “Nonstop You” gets very well integrated with the contest as the winning recipe becomes a part of our inflight menu. This definitely goes on to reflect a more Indianized version of the brand. We are also very pleased to partner with The Leela for the second season of the contest and are thankful to our esteemed jury members, MasterChef Kunal Kapur, MasterChef Vinod Saini, and Lufthansa’s culinary expert for the Asian region, Chef Thomas Brockenauer, for their invaluable expertise and advice in planning and putting together this contest.” Commenting on the contest, Mr. Rajiv Kaul, President, The Leela Palaces, Hotels and Resorts said, “We are delighted to expand our partnership with Lufthansa to showcase the hidden culinary talent of India and help them spread their wings. The Leela reflects the essence of India and our Master chefs Kunal Kapur and Vinod Saini take pride in bringing the finest Indian culinary experiences from our signature Kitchen – Jamavar - to the skies. We have brought this ethos to the campaign to help celebrate the diverse culinary heritage of India.” Kunal Kapur, Executive Sous Chef at The Leela Ambience Gurgaon, added, “I am really happy to be associated and judge the Lufthansa CookandFly contest, as I believe it's a great platform to bring in the hidden talent and gems from all over India. As I believe cooking is the only art which evolves all five senses and a great meal needs to impress them all.”
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SagarBoke, the Head of Marketing for Bunge India, is a happy man today. The marketer takes great pride in expressing how the brands primary product,Dalda edible oils,made an impact at the JagannathRathYatra in Puri this year through the innovative concept of 'Bhajan se BhojanTak'. Often known as one of the biggest congregations of pilgrims across the world, the RathYatra this year was attended by over 15 lakh devotees who came from all nook and corners of the country to witness Lord Jagannath’s majestic journey from JagannathPuri temple to Gundecha temple. Carrying out a BTL engagement at such a massive scale can be challenging for any marketer or execution agency, but through the campaign ‘Bhajan se BhojanTak’, Dalda managed to not only create awareness about its edible oils but also successfully become a true companion for the pilgrims in their holy journey. Interestingly, this is not the first time that Dalda managed to emotionally captivate its target consumers through its experiential efforts. In the past too, be it the activations at NauchandiMela in UP or ‘Meri Mom Sabki Mom’ campaign in the metros, the brand has regularly invented innovative concepts to engageits target segment. Boke is vociferous about how important experiential marketing is for Dalda as a brand.He states, “We compete in the commodities category. While the awareness for any product is created by the mass media, the emotional connect for a brand will only happen through activations and creating experiences. Dalda has always been associated with Vanaspati oil and now since the brand has also extended in terms of edible oils it is important for people to be aware about it, which can only happen through these diverse experiential campaigns and activations.” Openly and unabashedly excited about the future of marketing, Sagar feels it is integral for a brand today to look beyond the embedded features in its products and try to forge emotional relationships with its customers. He says, “I strongly believe that in the current times one cannot sell a brand only on the functionality of its product or the product attributes, beyond a point all such practices are bound to fail and it is only the experiences that customers have with your brand will help you sustain.” This year Dalda edible oils activation at JagannathRathYatra in Puri featured Dalda creating their own rath at Puri from where they distributed a mixture of uncooked rice and dal sourced from the temple raw materials. The mixture was packaged in Dalda branded bottles and were distributed to over 1.5 million devotees. A highlighting feature of this activation was the fact that the plastic Dalda bottles with uncooked dal and rice in them, created a musical sound and hence were used by devotees as a percussion instrument that facilitated ‘Bhajans’. Apart from this core activity the brand had also created various installations and collaborated with noted Indian sand artist, SudarsanPattnaik to create a life size sand art illustration of the deity Lord Jagannath at Puri Beach. Revealing the real statistics of the brand impact, SagarBoke explains, “Our activations at RathYatra in Puri is going to be our annual property which is going to have a new theme every year. Official number of people that have been touched through this activation this year stands at 1.5 million however the unofficial figures estimate that a further 1 million people were touched through it.” The Brand Brewery won the mandate to execute this campaign for Dalda. While most brands are still hesitant to experiment with experiential campaigns Sagaropenly admits that 20% of the marketing budget for Dalda is allocated exclusively for BTL activations and activities. He also agrees that the brand aims to come up with more IPs in the future to further engage consumers through experiential. More experiential by marketers directly rings money bells for event agencies as well. So what are the qualities that Dalda looks for in event agency before shouldering them the mandate for a campaign execution? Sagar responds to the question by stating, “The most important characteristic that we look for in an event agency is the ability to whip up a path breaking idea. Currently a lot of brands are experimenting with experiential and unless and until you have something clutter breaking you cannot expect to be noticed.” As he predicts the future of marketing in India, Sagar says, “I think marketing has a lot to do with the kinds of media platforms a consumer is exposed to. Earlier most consumers had access to only TV and radios and hence the marketing strategies so far for most brands have been focused around the two. With that being said, today and even in the future the most used media device by consumers is going to be the smartphones so that is going to be center of marketing attention in the future I believe. Also we cannot overlook the fact that a lot of purchasing for consumer products is going to happen through e-commerce so that is bound to impact the overall marketing strategy for a brand.”
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When it comes to influencing your customers, there is nothing better than making them experience your brand! It’s the best way to have real engagements with your audience. While traditional advertising lets you communicate your message, experiential marketing allows you to interact with the consumers on a one-on-one basis. Marketers are now bolstering the effect of their experiential campaign by enhancing it with digital marketing as it provides them the perfect platform to add to the overall engagement. This convergence of digital and experiential marketing is also allowing marketers drive conversations offline and online, simultaneously. Here’s a campaign, FoxyMoron conceptualised and executed that showcases how a brand can marry social media with experiential marketing. Maybelline Colossal Kajal was launched in 2011 and 2012, at a time when the Kajal market in India was cluttered. The brand ushered in a revolution with the Colossal Kajal. But while there was high awareness for the product, the trials were relatively low. Staying true to the young, cosmopolitan and contemporary brand that Maybelline New York India is, it only seemed fitting to develop an innovative mode of engaging its fans offline as well as online. Maybelline New York India realised that during the monsoon season in India, girls are apprehensive about their make-up getting smudged. Hence, the brand decided to help them keep their make-up smudge proof by integrating online and offline marketing and at the same time enhancing brand experience with the Maybelline Colossal Cab! The campaign presented a solution to save the everyday Maybelline girl during the rains. This also happened to be the season of College Festivals and the girls wanted to look their best inspite of the rains. So the Maybelline Colossal Cab provided them with an opportunity to travel from their college to the nearest station hassle free. To add to this, the enthralled passengers were even given a chance to experience the brand and the products, getting a free makeover while reaching their destination. Extended over various contests, Maybelline girls were encouraged to share their selfies, get product discounts and not to mention a free ride. During this ride, the girls were also introduced to the new Colossal cluster which included the improved Colossal Kajal, the Colossal Kohl Turquoise and the Colossal Mascara. Maybelline New York India, being the strongest women centric digital community in India, added a digital twist to the Colossal Cab. The fans online were given a chance to select a location for the Colossal Cab via an interesting contest- With the War Of The Colleges. The college with more tweets and comments would emerge 'Colossal', giving girls a free ride. Social Currency became a medium for girls to call the Colossal Cab to their colleges. Girls online got a chance to select the Colossal Cab Playlist, as well as use exclusive online code words to claim free Kajals at top Malls. It didn't just end there! Bloggers all over got a chance to hail the ride with their top readers as well. Moving from Mumbai, digital fans were given a chance to get the Colossal Cab to their city as well with another similar contest - War Of The Cities. Visiting a total of 58 Colleges, 5 popular malls and 2 Metro Cities, the cab was all over, creating super strong visibility and brand awareness as well as generating product trials. Overall, the impressions at the colleges and malls were 3 Million, while digitally; we garnered a whopping 10 Million. Becoming a one of its kind mobile branding vehicle, the eyeballs that the Cab garnered were countless. Over 8,000 girls shared their selfies with us and we got over 21,000 Twitter Mentions. Thus, you can see how amalgamating experiential with digital marketing creates exciting engagements and enriches consumer experience. The more personal you get with your fans, the more brand advocacy you are likely to attract!
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Today T.I.C. has successfully completed 23 years in the industry and I owe it all to my experimentation with new concepts, learnings from experiences and of course the dedicated and hard working team members I have had till date. Although T.I.C. is 23 years old, my relationship with the industry dates back to my school days. It was in my school days itself when I was able to bring to life the concept of getting sponsors for events, which no one else was doing at that time, as this was the time event ‘industry’ was in its inception period. My interest in organizing school events moved to college and its then when I realized my strong passion for creating events and therefore decided not to enter into my family business. I took the risk of venturing into an industry which was not even recognized. However I also knew the fact that if you are convinced with your thoughts and have the ability to make people see that your dreams hold possibilities, there is no way that you will not succeed. I always remembered this thought especially during my initial days as an event manager where I faced tremendous difficulties in setting up the business. However I held on to this philosophy and successfully laid the first foundation of T.I.C. I pledged that whether I earn a lot of money or not, whether I become a corporate honcho or not, I will always stick to doing what I enjoyed most, which was events. That’s how T.I.C. was born and its tagline ‘Fun @ Work’ came in existence. In its foundation year itself, I introduced ‘Cornucopia’, India’s first talent hunt show. The idea came from my experience in schools where music was a rage but the budding singers did not have a platform to showcase their talent. The idea for the event was also originated from the fact that brands were also looking for innovative options to promote their company and products to the school audience. Thus, I decided to capitalize on the situation and made these brands my sponsors. In the year 1998, we introduced Dell Direct and Michael Dell, its owner, to India. The event was organized at a large scale and for the first time in India, we used surface projections on a curved dome structure to introduce Michael Dell. Year after year since then, we delivered innovative concepts that elevated the standards of events in the country, be it India’s first ever fund raiser event or introducing a brand in form of a 3D live e-puppet, be it India’s first musical Broadway to introduce a range of heavy commercial vehicles or India’s first promotional remix music troupe/group in place of celebrities for an Integrated launch campaign. Be it South-east Asia’s biggest MICE movement or India’s first ever Truck Racing championship, T.I.C. has always taken pride in walking the road less travelled. And as today as I write this memoir on what brought me success, the only reason for that I can think of is T.I.C bringing innovation in everything we organized. Every event was a new learning for us and from every mistake we only improvised. The trait, which we rigorously follow at T.I.C, is to accept mistakes. Not just rectify them but also see how we can overcome the challenges the next time. When I started T.I.C. all I wanted to do was to bring to life innovative concepts and thoughts. Make people see and feel things beyond their imaginations and that is something which still remains my success mantra till date. I fervently believe that if you as an event manager can bring to life imagination coupled with surprises, you can win anything be it a client brief or an audience’s trust. I believe that you should not follow success, instead do the kind of work that makes success follow you. At T.I.C. we never bother about the scale of the event. Instead what energizes us the most are the exciting things we can do with the event.
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Philips India recently unveiled a new product category for men within the Philips body grooming range at a high-profile launch event in Delhi. Everything Experiential’s Shantanu Jain discusses with Anurita Chopra, Director Marketing, Philips Personal Care, the importance of experiential for Philips and the need to keep its TG engaged. Q- Tell us about the new product category? A- So this particular product is something that we came as a solution to men for their body hair problems below the neck. In our research we clearly discovered that there were enough men who were using razors, scissors and creams which were painful and temporary solutions to their body hair problems. Getting rid of body hair gets messy, dirty, is unhygienic and leads to body odor and we found out the majority of men were struggling with it. And here we smelt a strong sense of opportunity and hence the genesis of body grooming came up. We thought of keeping it very simple by launching one product for the sensitive body area and making the life of men simpler. Q- How important is experiential for Philips? A- Experiential is integral actually because the entire personal care category is such a new space and we have been actively working on it. One can obviously do traditional marketing and send out a one-way message but these practices do not really give the consumers a flavor of what our product is all about. Q- What are the key elements common to all your experiential endeavors? A- Innovation is imperative to any experiential campaign we design. We always seek out fun and engaging ways to connect with the consumers. Our main focus is that consumers should have as much fun with our products as we have coming up with it. Q- Is experiential part of the marketing mix in the launch of this product? A- Men who face the issue of body hair are often hesitant to openly ask for a solution to their problems so the idea is to reach out to them digitally with a solution. Instead of going through traditional channels to promote we plan to make them experience the product. We have planned a Google hangout with Arjun Kapoor where he is going to be talking about the use of product in a really fun way and then there is also a radio activation that we are doing at a mall where he will engage with the youth. Q- Is there anything particular that you look for in an event agency before you partner on a campaign? A- Ideation is the core of any campaign that we want to execute at Philips any event agency that comes to us needs to have a stunning idea in place. The power of execution comes next because an idea can only be powerful if executed a certain way. You can have a great idea on Powerpoint but really struggle in terms of execution. Overall I think it is also the attitude of the agency and the partnership spirit in them that makes us give us a final go ahead. Q- Any experiential campaigns by any other brand that you’ve loved? A- I think Lakme has emerged with some really interesting campaigns in the past. As a brand we at Philips continue to take inspiration from interesting campaigns by different brands all the time.
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Consumers today are bombarded by advertising noise. It is in their everyday lives, their social lives and their virtual lives. This noise is everywhere. It is inescapable and it is unavoidable but yet, it has become invisible. Evolutionary animals as we are, consumers inundated by pushing, nudging, look-at-me messages are adapting. We have learned to screen these messages out and concentrate on what we really want to know about and who we really want to engage with. This new generation of street-wise, tech-savvy consumers has created a real problem for the marketing industry. How do we penetrate the protective carapace in which consumers have shrouded themselves? How do we create exciting promotional campaigns that will grab attention and capture imagination? How can we be heard above the noise? The answer is experiential marketing. Over the last few decades – in which TV and print have dominated the media landscape – the value of experiential marketing has all too often been disregarded. Brands hoping to launch effective advertising campaigns were assured that traditional broadcast media was the future, and a lot of money was spent in order to perpetuate this myth. The ‘AD men’ would justify their billings by quoting TV viewing figures, and explaining how these figures would translate into an impressive ROI. At its heart, experiential marketing is about value driven interaction. Traditional marketing channels push the consumer; this is our message – listen to us. Experiential marketing pulls the consumer; see what we’re doing – what do you think? A good experiential campaign will pique interest, drawing consumers to ask ‘what’s going on here?’, and consequently encouraging them to engage with a product or an idea. The aim of an experiential marketing campaign is to create emotive experiences, drive quality engagement between brand and consumer and – as a result – harness the immense power of word-of-mouth. Those who enjoy a positive experience are highly likely to share it with others, directly or indirectly endorsing the associated product and thus increasing brand advocacy. We call this advocate a brand champion: an individual who has the ability to influence perceptions and shift purchase behaviour across peer and tribe groups – but how can you ensure that your carefully planned experience will resonate with your target audience? Experiential marketing is sensory driven. We as humans need to feel something before we act, and to draw consideration we need to create experiences that involve consumers in honest, authentic and imaginative ways. Other marketing disciplines often focus too heavily on words and 2D images, forgetting about the other – equally important - 4 senses; touch, taste, sound and smell. Brands that are able to stimulate more than one of these senses are more likely to be recalled at a later date and evoke an emotional connection with the consumer. This connection is what will eventually drive purchase decisions or influence perceptions. According to a study done by the Sense of Smell Institute, people can remember around 50% of visual stimuli after 3 months, compared with remembering 65% of what they smell. For example, you only need to be within 50 feet of an Abercrombie and Fitch store to smell that it is there. Today, people are constantly sharing their life stories and the growth of social networks such as Instagram and Twitter means that brand experiences have the chance to become part of this real world story telling - if they are carried out effectively. People share positive experiences in seconds and thousands can engage with the post, however consumers can share a negative experience just as quickly, instantly tarnishing the brand you have worked so hard to build. As much as you can create a tidal wave of new brand fans off the back of an exciting experiential campaign, if executed poorly you will quickly spread the wrong word. With experiential marketing so closely linked to social media and online interactions, it’s no wonder that the number of brands utilizing experiential in India is on the rise. The marketing landscape is packed full of articles and opinions on engaging with Millennials and more recently, with Generation Z – those born from the late 90’s to the mid 2000’s – and 50% of India’s population falls into one of these categories. India is quickly catching up with the likes of the USA in terms of connectivity, so it makes sense that they are also catching up in the way that companies communicate with their customers. Whilst traditional, predictable and measurable advertising such as TV broadcasting still accounts for a significant portion of India’s marketing spend, there is a growing consumer demand for advertising to become a 2-way conversation – something which can only happen when a brand has something interesting and engaging to offer. It’s no secret that a huge number of people literally live their lives through their phones and that social media has a massive influence on the way we conduct ourselves and the decisions that we make. For these reasons, bridging the gap between physical experience and the online social space is imperative for success. Virtual and augmented reality are two up and coming technologies increasingly enabling this bridging, however the power of photography is not one to be underestimated. With images accounting for around 90% of all interaction on Facebook, technology which can produce sharable branded photographs of customers enjoying their experience is invaluable for producing genuine user-generated content. When it comes to structuring marketing spend, businesses need to shuffle the deck. Broadcast media has become so deeply embedded, that breaking free from the typical advertising model can be difficult, but we believe it is necessary to do so in order to challenge the status quo and create truly memorable campaigns. Instead of beginning with broadcast media, and working down, it’s time to start designing campaigns from the ground up. Experiential marketing allows a business to look their customers squarely in the eye, and generate a mutual rapport. The campaign messages disseminated by experiential marketing can then be repeated and reinforced through traditional media outlets, such as TV and radio. Experiences inspire us to create, or to change, to question our beliefs, to embrace new ideas and find new passions. Experiences are the basis of human existence and, as such, they are an incredibly powerful marketing tool. About Mark Mark Evans is the Managing Director at UK based experiential marketing agency 'Kommando'. With close to 20 years of experience in guerilla marketing he boasts of a sizeable list of international clientele and campaigns that stretch across 17 countries. Twitter Handle- @kommandogroup (The article has been extracted from BW APPLAUSE)
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