Innovations and clutter-breakers are the need of the hour in an environment which is thick with hundreds of brands screaming ‘look at me’. Conventional forms do not always make an impactful impression. Marketers are always scouting for unique opportunities to grab eyeballs. EE identifies some creative instances of brand communication where experiential is used as a medium by brands to influence the consumers. KELLOGG’S AND MERU CABS Kellogg’s in partnership with Meru Cabs launched an experiential campaign which was run through cab advertising. This activation targeted audience who start their journey early morning during 5AM to 9AM. The campaign focused on the message – ‘Importance of having breakfast everyday’ and induce Kellogg’s into the daily lives of the people. The customers were given a box which consisted of a Kellogg’s Muesli packet (new variant) along with 100 ml milk carton. Chauffeurs were trained to make the passengers comfortable and provided customers with sanitizers and scissors. HUAWEI-AIRTEL AND EASY CABS Huawei in partnership with Bharti Airtel provided free 3G internet services via Wi-Fi to commuters using radio taxi service EasyCabs in Delhi-NCR. The Wi-Fi offer was available from 28 June to 27 September 2013 in 100 Easycabs. Huawei had installed its E355 Wi-Fi data card combined with Airtel 3G internet services in the select cabs. Users were able to access the web on devices like smartphones, laptops, tablets and gaming devices during their commute. Huawei wanted commuters to utilize their valued time and make the most out of their journey by enjoying faster emailing, surfing, gaming and movies. SHOPPERS STOP AND EASY CABS Shoppers Stop partnered with En Route Media for its in-cab interactive TV network Flo. They launched a campaign that presented a special discount offer exclusively for EasyCabs passengers watching Flo. They designed a captivating digital ad which had an audio visual, touch screen interface that allowed passengers to interact with Shoppers Stop during their cab journey. Shoppers Stop used an interactive advertisement that asked passengers “When was the last time you treated yourself?”; interested passengers were redirected to a page specially created to give out SMS codes that they could use to avail the exclusive discount. BOARDWALK EMPIRE AND UBER To promote the premiere of the third season of “Boardwalk Empire”, HBO partnered with Uber in New York. They let a fleet of a dozen of 1920s Rolls-Royces and Cadillacs, 1928 Packards and Hupmobile cars which spent two days transporting people to their destination in Manhattan, New York. To get a ride in the vintage cars people had to just download the company’s Android or iPhone app to schedule a free spin, the timings were between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m and to keep the cars’ workload manageable, rides were limited to the borough of Manhattan, from Canal Street to 57th Street. HEINEKEN AND STAR CABS Heineken in partnership with Star Cabs is currently offering customers in London a chance to get a free taxi ride. On the first Saturday of every month, a fleet of Heineken-branded cabs will transport customers across the capital. Customers have to download the new Star Cabs app and use it to buy a Heineken at one of the 30 ‘destination bars’ located in Brixton, Clapham, Shoreditch, Angel, Camden, Notting Hill and Balham. They then are able to request a Star Cab and share the request on social media, before being alerted by SMS if they have won the taxi trip. NEWCASTLE BEER AND TAXI MAGIC “DON’T BE A WANKER. TAKE A BLOODY CAB” Newcastle Beer which was introducing a new brew, Newcastle Cabbie Black Ale, decided to promote the product in partnership with Taxi Magic. They offered Los Angeles bar-goers a free ride to their home in authentic British black cabs, on one condition—that they advertise the new brew through a roof-mounted megaphone for the duration of the ride or ‘get kicked to the curb’, the passengers were given a script. They proudly claimed, ‘Cabvertising’ racked up 67 noise complaints in its night of mischief. - See more at:
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Indian Literature Festivals have been the hub for great authors, their readers, extensive media coverage and advertisers. With the influx of writers, people and eminent figures, corporate sectors have increasingly shown interest in these festivals. Let’s look at some of the most prominent literary festivals in the country. Jaipur Literary Festival One of the biggest literary festivals in the world is the Zee Jaipur Literature festival. As an eminent festival of national and international repute, it is open to all. An array of activities such as readings, talks, debates, performances, children’s workshops and interactive activities are organized and supervised at this event. The annual event is held at The Diggi Palace Hotel and is a cluster of literary talent from around the world to address a huge audience encompassing intelligentsia, celebrities, policy makers and enthusiasts. The event is hosted by Teamwork Events and now the festival has become so popular that UK has planned a one day event in London. This year’s festival that was held from January 17th to 21st had a line-up of authors and speakers numbering to 240, with debates and discussions lasting five days. The topics ranged from fiction to biography, history to music and catered to all age groups. Nicholas Shakespeare, Jonathan Franzen, Richard Holmes, Kabir Bedi, Ray Monk, Jhumpha Lahiri, Joseph O’Neill, Shobhaa De, AN Wilson, Javeed Akthar, Salman Khurshid, Geoff Dyer, were some prominent authors at the venue. The sponsors for the event were Zee, Google, Vodafone, Ford, Dove, Kingfisher, Coca Cola. This year’s festival included Geetu Hinduja [Contemporary Folk, Pop & Soft Rock], Vidya Shah [Indian Classical], Rajasthani Folk Musicians, Sonam Kalra [Sufi & Gospel], Sumitra Kamad [Folk Music]. Hyderabad Literary Festival Hyderabad Literary Festival (HLF) is an annual event that honors creativity in all forms. The Festival started back in 2010 and it attracts over hundreds of Indian and International artists, writers, publishers and scholars each year. It is a multilingual event that focuses on writing in Indian languages. This year’s festival happened on 24th-25th January and the inauguration was done by Chandana Khan, Hon. Chairman of Hyderabad Literary Festival and I.A.S., Andhra Pradesh Tourism. There were workshops on Haiku & creative writing, book fair, special events for college and school students. This year’s festival had a line-up of prominent authors and speakers like Anand Gandhi, Mahesh Dattani, H.E Feilim McLaughlin, Mridula Garg. The Partners for the event were Ireland Literature Exchange, Alliance Française, National Arts Council, Oxford University Press, CitiBank, Roli Books, State Bank of Hyderabad, University of Hyderabad, Harper Collins etc. Kolkata Literary Meet Kolkata Literary Meet (KLM) is an annual literature event, the third edition was held this year at Taj Bengal from 25 to 30 January. KLM had tied-up with brands such as SREI, Google, Exide, NDTV and Tata Steel. The event included literary stalwarts such as Ramchandra Guha, Jhumpa Lahiri, Javed Akhtar, Adrian Levy, Shabana Azmi, Peter Godwin, Ian Jack, Aditi Mangaldas, David Godwin, Siddiqi and Sadaf Saaz. Speakers included national and internationally reputed literary geniuses. Favourites like Sharmila Tagore and Vikram Seth were back and the event was hosted by Naseeruddin Shah, Gloria Steinem and Mark Tully. The event was organized and executed by Gameplan. The first two editions saw writers like Valerio Manfredi, Vikram Seth, Amitav Ghosh, Pico Iyer, Alessandro Baricco and including Amartya Sen, Nobel Laureate winner. Lit For Life The Hindu’s Lit for Life 2014 was held in Chennai on January 11 to 13 and in Delhi on February 8. The event witnessed animated discussions, book signings, drama and music. The event saw well-known authors like Dr. Abraham Verghese, Amandeep Sandhu Samantha Shannon, Ashwin Sanghi, Naomi Wolf, Jim Crace, Rana Dasgupta, Shovon Choudhary, Ira Trivedi, Sam Miller, and Manu Joseph. Gulzar, the national award winner recited his poems and was surrounded by a huge crowd in the event. Its first edition was held in Chennai in 2011 that had poets Arvind Krishna Mehrotra and Jeet Thayil, authors Devdutt Pattanaik Jerry Pinto, Nilanjana Roy, Ashok Ferrey, Gopal Krishna Gandhi, and fashion designer and author Wendell Rodricks attend it. Lucknow Literary Festival The second edition of the annual Lucknow Literary Festival was held on the 1st and 2nd February 2014. The 1st edition of the festival was held from 23rd to 24th March, 2013. It was a big success and widely appreciated by everyone. The festival is an effort to bring forth the ‘lutf’ of languages – Hindi, Urdu, Awadhi & English on a common platform. This year’s special award ‘Pride of Lucknow’ was presented to 7 people; Padma Shri Raj Bisaria, Shri Bekal Utsahi, Gopal Das Neeraj Vinod Mehta, Malikzada Manzoor Ahmed, Padma Shri Runa Banerjee, Jayant Krishna. The Literary festival main motive is to invoke the creative spirit of the city and bring together the authors and scholars from all over the country. This year’s festival included cultural events like Dastangoi on Kabir, Sufi Qawwali, Mushaira and Live Concert by Faridkot band. Well-known people like Naseeruddin Shah, Dolly Thakore, Padma Shri Bekal Utsahi, Amaresh Mishra, Veena Talwar Oldenburg, Padma Shri Gulzar Dehlvi were some of the participants of the festival.
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OOH advertisements including billboards and interactive campaigns may have seen their best days already and with the onset of digital age, primarily social media – the interest in OOH billboards has declined as more brands have shifted their focus to digital. Other than the rise of digital space, the economic downturn that hit India and elsewhere post 2008 has also contributed to the overall decline of OOH activities. This doesn’t mean that OOH campaigns are no longer relevant and the consumer impact has diminished. It just means that now advertisers have to make their outdoor campaigns even more interactive and experiential than ever before. Some of the world’s most creative experiential campaigns have shown that outdoor activities can be very powerful. As the marketers realize that the future of advertising doesn’t rely solely on digital but a mix of traditional and new medium – referred to as tradigital (traditional + digital). If advertisers can create an offline experience that is worth talking and sharing about, people can’t help but talk about it to their friends and family, and the advertiser’s goal is met. Let’s take a look at some of the world’s most creative OOH experiential activities followed by examples from the indian space. This OOH campaign comes from France for a calcium rich mineral water brand called Contrex. The campaign included placing a set of pink exercise cycles equally spaced next to each other, at a public place where people gather and take a stroll – surrounded by french architectures. Contrex’s mineral water bottles were placed just below these exercise cycles. As soon as the curious onlookers, primarily women sit on these cycles and try it, a neon light starts to light up on the floor, just below the front tyre of these cycles and the light would travel further from these machines as the women continue to keep pedaling. When more women join, the lights travel all the way to the architecture in front them, at a distance and a neon male stripper appears and music begins to play. As they keep pedaling, the stripper dances to the tune and starts stripping. At the end, a message is displayed how easily they have burnt 2,000 calories. The women then get off the bikes and drink Contrex’s mineral water. This particular type of risque campaign may not strike chords with the Indian audience but such ingenious offline ideas help a brand capture people’s attention more than anything else. APPLE MACBOOK AIR SWING – BUS STOP SHELTER This ingenious experiential advertising idea comes from Apple brand for its MacBook Air, where it places a swing instead of the usual bench you find at bus stop shelters. What could stimulate best than an experience that reminds you of your childhood, especially as most women can relate to swings. CYCLE BRAND INCENSE BUS SHELTER CAMPAIGN It is an experiential promotional campaign by the Indian incense brand Cycle brand Agarbatti. Six bus shelters and one hoarding were converted into mini pandals (structures usually built for placing Hindu idols) branded with the brand’s posters and a cut-out of the Hindu god Ganesha. The shelter would have incense being lit from 8am till 9pm everyday, so the people could experience the fragrance of the brand’s incenses and an audio of Aarti (devotional songs) would be played along. If that was not enough, the shelters were bluetooth enabled and anybody could use their phone to download lord Ganesha-themed ringtones, wallpapers etc.
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As long as our planet will have women, the cosmetic companies will follow. These brands can be very tenacious when it comes to reaching out to their target audience – women, perhaps more persistent than men. The cosmetics industry in India is currently estimated to be around $950 million, which is likely to become threefold by 2020. It is growing at an accelerated rate of 15-20 percent each year. The country’s FMCG industry has witnessed a foray of global cosmetic brands in the last decade, which has also resulted in a healthy competition. It is no surprise to see cosmetic campaigns running round the year in most malls that serve as activation points. Physical activations by cosmetic companies are quite common and visible these days, but, most of the global brands have also taken their touch points online, taking experiential online. To some of those women who do not prefer getting makeovers or touch-ups at public activation booths, which cosmetic brands usually set up in malls and other public arenas, online is an alternative place to experience the brand and its offerings. Let’s look at some of the global brands in India and how they provide experiential interaction to potential customers. Lakme The cosmetic brand Lakme was the first to launch India’s virtual makeover application called ‘Lakmé Reinvent Studio. The application is meant for women who can upload their photo on the application’s online page – http://www.lakmeindia.com/Studio then they can create a new look for themselves using Lakme’s extensive range of products and colours. The application covers everything from face, eyes, lips to nails. It is also smart enough to suggest products and shades. Once done, the user can email the new reinvented themselves back to their email id. It is an interesting way to engage women, especially those who are shy to try a product virtually before they buy it. Loreal Paris The well-known brand has a dedicated site on cosmetics and fashion, covering interesting categories such as news, fashion, stars, makeup, hairstyle and Cannes. The most important of them all is the ‘makeup’ section that further has four sections, namely – makeup tips, makeup trends, red carpet makeup and makeup tutorials. The most interesting of them all is makeup tips section, which features photos of popular celebrities followed by tips on how to get their look. Mabelline New York Yet another popular brand that has created online touch points to engage consumers. On its website, it has created a section called ‘How To’, which features 3 sub-sections – ‘Beauty Tips’, ‘Step-by-Step’ and ‘Tutorial Videos’. The Step-by-Step section shows photos of different women wearing latest makeup looks, linked to detailed pages that show how to get a particular look. The ‘Tutorial Videos’ section has a collection of tutorial videos on topics ranging from nails, eyelashes, lipsticks and more. One can spend hours engaging with the site learning. Mabelline has another dedicated site called ‘InstaGLAM’ that has all the tips and tutorials but in a more blog/article based format. It even features ‘Blogger Reviews’ that collates articles and reviews that people write on various fashion blogs in the country. In a similar approach as Lakme has, Oriflame has its own virtual makeover site aptly named ‘Virtual Make-up Studio, which lets one upload a photo and discover new looks and colours with Oriflame products. Oriflame Oriflame also created an interactive site called ‘Dreamboards’ for its target audience. The aim is to promote dreams of women. It encourages women to go to http://dreamboards.oriflame.com/#en and browse through thousands of pictures to create a dreamboard, save it and share it with friends on social media. The idea is to allow visualization one’s dreams and goals, put them in a photo format, print and then put them near you, so one gets always reminded of their dreams, encouraging them to achieve it.
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In the last 5 years, the world has witnessed the internet exploding with social websites and apps that have revolutionized the way we accessed and shared content with each other. With the explosive popularity of social sites like Facebook, Twitter etc., every mainstream brand wants to get on the bandwagon and lead the change. It is only recently that new job titles like ‘social media manager’ started to make rounds on job portals, a job profile that is primarily targeted by young graduates who are savvy with web 2.0. It was time that everybody thought traditional mediums of brand communication can soon be found only at a graveyard. Then came the statistics, TV is not dead. Traditional mediums such as TV is still powerful and social media is not going to replace it anytime soon. In reference to this new understanding, a term was coined – ‘tradigital’, which combines traditional and digital together as a strategy. This means, displays still offer not only an effective way to display ads but they can engage people too. Only recently, India is witnessing high-quality displays popping up across cities, especially in malls, both outdoors and indoors. Without realizing it, many electronic stores in the city inadvertently been engaging masses whenever there was a TV coverage of an important event or sports. Just think about all those days when there was a big breaking news on TV or a high intensity cricket match between India and Pakistan, it would have been a common site in India to see people flocking outside stores with glass windows, with multiple television sets playing the events. Although, the electronic store isn’t intentionally engaging people, but from this phenomenon, we know that content that generates curiosity, content that is good and content that generates interest can draw people’s attention. When we imagine huge, high quality LED displays showing attractive commercials and engaging ads, New York Times Square intersection is what comes to our mind. The buildings across the intersection are littered with bright and beautiful displays showing latest commercials and interactive videos. Times Square Dunk Tank is one clever interactive campaign that Clear Channel Spectacolor did to showcase how advanced their products and services were. To do this, they utilized a huge display that would let people passing-by see themselves on the screen, to get their attention. Then a male and female protagonist appear on the screen encouraging people to tweet live and vote for either of them. This follows by an interactive game with motion sensor – ‘Dunk Tank’ in which, people have to raise their hands and hit a ball towards a target. This followed by online engagement where people would discuss, share and even upload their photos to get featured on the screen as next protagonists. India may be far from such initiatives but marketers can always be the first to back such bold experiential activities using displays. Similarly, creative agencies can device something unique using high-quality displays that Indians don’t generally find in the public. Although outdoor high-quality displays may seem improbable in India at the moment, some malls have already started to use them for indoor localized advertising. Ambience mall in Gurgaon, Haryana has a running display that shows brand advertisements. The long, lean and stretched display is bright and captures people’s attention. However, this probably isn’t the ideal display to do something experiential. But for high-quality displays in India, this can be a start. The mall also has another display that is relatively bigger than the stretched display. Provided, the display is backed with audio and a compère is able to pull the crowd in, this could become a medium for an engaging campaign by a brand. Like the Dunk Tank experiential game, some of the other ways a brand can engage people could be a motion sensing games like what we used to have in India when some of the first webcams arrived here. Brands like Compaq introduced add on software with their Presario desktop computers, which turned the web camera that came with it, into a motion sensing device that would let users hit a ball on the desktop screen with their head. Other interesting engaging activities can include asking participants to take part in popular games like ‘Just Dance’ that involves actual dancing by people on motion sensing floor pads, while the video gets projected onto a huge screen for people to see and cheer them. They could also have live quiz competitions that can involve people tweeting answers live to questions that gets projected on a huge display, giving out instant results that they can share with their friends and so on. When EE reached out to an outdoor and indoor panel supplier, Ashok Kayada of S K Impex, he said: “There is a healthy demand for large display panels by brands, especially indoor panels for various activities. The business is good and we expect it to grow.“ The ideas are limitless when it comes to displays. Visual display is already an effective engagement tool that humans are accustomed to. All that a marketer needs to do is device a way to make engagement experiential, using modern tools that people already carry, and with the right content they can get people brand activated.
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In this race of events, shows and activities, it has become necessary for agencies to spark their events with something new every time to hold the attention of their attendees. An event can successfully manage to get huge footfall but what after that? What matters is not only the number of people attending the event but how many of them takes something from there. Thus comes the idea of investing in attendee engagement and customer encouragement. There are a lot of factors that collaborate in executing an ace event. Great planning and execution are the two key factors as we all know but going in the depth of it, there’s a lot more to it. At EE we throw light on some of the basic yet important aspects that deal with attendee engagement. Kile Ozier a Disney Imagineer and Itinerant Creative Guy rightly said “Don’t hand everything at once, keep giving more.” The art of storytelling plays a very essential role in the execution of an event. It should be molded in a way that allows slow sharing, generating curiosity and thus with every next move, enhancing the depth of experience. It is very important for brands to not serve everything in one platter. From the first string of the activity, the attendee should wait in curiosity to build a chain. All events that manage to associate their initiative with a story or a cause, are good to go and gather huge footfall. It is a great way to grab consumer attention and build better recall. Also brands with the help of event agencies should go deep in their chosen themes of the event and embrace research as a critical aspect of storytelling. Now has come the time to integrate traditional forms of media with new ways of reaching out to customers. Social media adds immense value to an experiential event and helps in generating viral content for the brand. With the help of social media, event planners tend to engage in lasting discussions with their attendees. Social media trending is a vital tool for amplifying brand presence and increasing sales. Either tweeting about the event or broadcasting messages, social media platform has always been a great friend to marketers. Elucidating on the importance of social media, industry experts believe that it’s a great way to reach out to maximum in minimum time span. What cannot be spread through physical presence should take no time to expand through digital space, and social platforms thus become the right marketing tool. From the consumer’s perspective, they are evaluating every investment they make through safe and sound decisions. Therefore brands should create opportunities to communicate directly with customers. Hosting personalized workshops and demonstrations, brands can engage attendees at a much deeper level. Providing your guests and potential buyers with personalized sessions, can prove to be a great marketing tool. There are several events hosted every now and then. What can probably differ one from another is the quality of communication it develops. All customers expect to be engaged and understood at an event. Elucidating on attendee engagement through conversations, Nilanjan Mukherjee, Head Marketing (Personal Care) ITC, believes “Create conversations with them wherever you find them; find out what they like, what they want, what they feel, etc. An interaction with attendees helps in gathering useful insights along with building brand connect. The art of storytelling is very important in an event as we all know and that, if spiked with technology, has the ability to amplify it to the next level. ‘Digitizing experiences’ have become an agenda behind events for agencies. Technology integration in an experiential activity, is a great way to beautify and amplify an event. Brands have realized the need for digital innovation in their experiential campaigns but it still remains in its nascent stage. Talking about events, Managing Director of T.I.C, Gaurav Dhall added: “Every event, be it corporate or social, demands unique way of presentation, thus posing a creative challenge in front of event companies to bring never heard before experience in the event. T.I.C has always known for bringing innovative concepts which becomes a trend, not just following the tried and tested way of storytelling in an event. The usage of surprise elements in the event which can go viral on the internet is definitely a trend. As much as you are talked on social media, better chances to get noticed and success of event is guaranteed. The idea that is not stand alone but involves audience in an engaging way, surely helps the attendees to be a part of the event rather than only be spectators. Social media act as one of the most critical element which no event planner would like to surpass. Use of content marketing is also very popular these days which attracts attendees.” There is a lot to explore in this domain, amplifying our events through technological integration. Presence of digital wide screens and iPads, selfie booths and much more helps in enhancing connection and communication with the attendees. The integration of digital into experiential has thus become the need of the hour and should be paid heed to.
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[caption id="attachment_2103" align="alignnone" width="300"] A beautiful woman holding shopping bags in the mall[/caption] Experiential marketing that also goes by the name, engagement marketing is a form of marketing that lets potential consumers experience a brand personally. The engagement takes place through one of many human senses like emotions, smell, etc. Although most experiential activities take place outdoors at malls, stores and public places, many brands have taken it online with the rise of social media users across the globe. As the internet adoption by users globally grows at a lightening speed, especially in developing countries like India where it is expected to reach a whopping 500 million by 2018, as per some forecasts. More and more retailers and brands have taken the online route to sell their products, by introducing apps and websites. They primarily target smartphone users who are increasingly becoming internet savvy, as many of them do their shopping from their phones – call it a natural evolution. In fact, even Google has taken note of the fact that by year end, 50% of internet users will access it from their mobile devices. As our lives get increasingly busier in the the cost-cutting era, when it comes to shopping, we tend to channel our limited time shopping online. The convenience it offers is incomparable with the ability to place an order with few button presses, 24/7. We do our own research online or we tend to ask our friends for recommendations, rather than depending on advertisements entirely. We also go to review sites. But, there is a shift where consumers increasingly want to know what the product actually feels like when used, how it fares and what are its strengths and weaknesses. Even retailers benefit from putting their products online, they get to reach out to wider audience base and tap into the benefits of email marketing through discounts and sales. Does that mean the retail stores will soon be dead? Absolutely not, as long as we remain social animals, we would always want to interact, feel and experience products we use through experiential engagements. It is just that retail stores need to evolve with time and offer products through experiential channel. The craving for experiences such as touch, feel and smell will always influence our decision making. We would want to know the product better, how it relates to us and our needs, the story around the product etc. As online purchasing becomes more and more common, the retail stores need to get more creative in order to make customer interaction and purchasing, more experiential – than simply doing transactions. The stores need to make their space more social where potential buyers can come and experience the brand come to life. To cite an example, some of the Apple stores do not have a fixed cash counters, instead sales representatives roam around helping out people and when they buy, they can do so with an interactive bar or self checkout, making them feel more empowered that they hold the power from experiencing the product till buying it, just the way a buyer feels while doing online purchase. This is just one creative way to make a store interactive and engaging. The takeaway that experiential marketing brings is the surety that a consumer knows the value that the brand or a product will add, which brands are increasingly realizing. One such example to cite in India would be the Ford EcoSport Urban Discoveries campaign, where a brand directly got involved to make one of its products launch experiential. The people who took part in the campaign shared their likes, dislikes and everything else about the car while they actually traveled in it and experienced it. The users not only got a chance to participate in the campaign but to see, read and hear what common people like them thought of the product. This created a lot of excitement and buzz around the launch period. Even though product information such as reviews, specs etc. could have been made available online, getting first hand experience and opinions of those involved in the campaign adds value and personal connect with the product and the brand. As the phrase goes ‘survival of the fittest’, brands may not need to flex their muscular strength to keep up with the evolution in marketing, but their creative prowess.
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“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.” – Steve Jobs. Famous quotes like this one leave a lasting impression on our mind. The reason why such contents strike us hard is because we somewhere, somehow relate to what the content conveys and expresses. An experiential campaign is no different, it aims to create an experience and connect with its target consumers who get some takeaway from it. If the campaign achieves its intended goal to create a brand or product experience with consumers, which they can relate to or that which evokes positive emotions. It is very likely that the brand recall will be more often and consumers will go through positive emotions associating with the brand or its product. If we simply study our lives, we constantly go through events that primarily dominate how we think, feel, do, interact with etc. These events consists of moments, memories and experiences. Most of our engagements happen over the TV with films, serials and textual contents like newspapers, books etc. And then there are some contents from one of these forms, which will stand out and we tend to remember them longer. These longstanding contents leave a mark on us and are very powerful. These days, if we talk about content, the first thing that comes to any marketer’s mind is social media. And, the most outrageously overused expression in the social media domain with respect to content is – ‘Content is King’. A king may be really worthy of praise and valour, but that may only as good as a regional folklore if the word about him doesn’t even get beyond his kingdom. Similarly, experiential marketing may create positive connect with selective audiences at a mall or an event, but the number of people getting impacted directly, first hand with the engagement is not even a fraction compared to the population of a city. It is the social media that propagates and propound such experiential engagements to millions of users who are sitting online and consuming digital data every minute. An experiential activity may be limited geographically, demographically but through social media, it can be brought to huge number of people at once, which helps in advertising and promoting the effort, which in turn can lead many to the brand that is doing the marketing activity. Social media may not alone bring the entire gamut of experiential element to a brand’s campaign but it certainly acts as an amplifier as well as a supporting experiential add on. Although there have been online engagement activities that have been conducted entirely using social media, but it is the content that always makes it interesting, creating an instant connect with the users. So, can good content alone fill for a mediocre on-ground experiential activity? No, it will not. A great experiential activity that evokes positive emotions will encourage people to happily contribute online on its own. Such initiatives will create enough buzz that they would want to generate great content for an upcoming event as well as after the event. Either ways, content is created that cuts through the complex web of information out there online and when personally shared by users with their friends, they tend to get more notices. So all in all, it is important for brands to not just run and complete a great campaign offline, but create enough excitement around it online using good content, which has the power to cause a chain reaction where consumers go on creating content for the brand on their own while engaging and sharing about the campaign, which they just experienced or are anticipating for. The experiential marketing initiatives and great content will always go hand in hand.
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