Creative trend: How savvy ad agencies are tapping into experiential marketing

With the continuous development of innovative new technologies, creative agencies are under pressure to raise the bar with more innovative and engaging campaigns than ever before. Experiential marketing, largely happening in the real world but enhanced by advances in augmented and virtual reality, demonstrates the rise in consumer demand to be more involved in how they are marketed to.

So what is experiential marketing?

A combination of innovative, out-of-the-box ideas and emerging technology, experiential marketing directly engages consumers to make them active participants in brand experience. No longer passive message-receivers, potential customers are encouraged to participate and interact in order to create an emotional experience with the product or brand.

Memorable experiential marketing makes consumers a part of the brand story when they’re not expecting it – such as engaging them on their commute to work, or while out shopping. It often works well when it’s shocking, clever, a bit weird, or serving a need, and even more so if it’s a combination of these. For example, Coca Cola’s giant block of ice containing 500 cans of their signature soft drink dropped on a beach in Brazil, or Lays’ (Walkers here in the UK) pop-up human crane machine in Japan. Bizarre? Perhaps. Memorable? Absolutely.

The use of new technology is a common denominator across successful campaigns, tapping into what’s new and exciting for consumers. Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are huge in experiential marketing, and mean that you don’t necessarily have to pull a big (and expensive) stunt to take advantage of this high-impact marketing trend. Whether they’re used as part of a simple iPhone app (such as the IKEA Place app, allowing you to see what pieces of furniture would look like in your home) or a larger experience (check out some of our picks below…).

According to the Event Marketing Institute, 77% of brands now see experiential marketing as essential to their marketing strategy, and for good reason – roughly two thirds of brand marketers see increased sales thanks to their experiential campaigns. The successful marketers of 2018 and beyond will be those who recognise the rise in the desire for an experience-driven lifestyle (partly attributed to the millennial market, but this shift can be seen across all demographics), and can tap into that desire to promote brand awareness.

How creative agencies are using experiential marketing

The Purina ‘Up to Mischief’ campaign, by AFG Europe in partnership with Momentum, has been using AR and OOH (out of house) marketing in an imaginative way to engage and entertain commuters and shoppers across the country. At Waterloo station in London, members of the public would see Felix the cat gate-crashing other advertisements on digital billboards, and could interact with Felix himself in an AR experience.

An illustrated pop-up of the black and white kitchen scene from many of the Felix cat food ads was set up in the station, and commuters could walk around the space picking up props (such as cat toys). From various camera angles on a 40-metre screen above the space, they can see a 3D model of Felix jumping on their shoulders, playing with the toys and generally ‘causing mischief’, reacting in realtime to people at the station.

“It is really exciting to bring [Felix] to life through emerging technologies in marketing,” says Alex Gonnella, Nestlé Purina regional marketing director. “We believe the disruptive and interactive nature of the activity we have planned will resonate with consumers in a refreshing and fun way.”

The shock value of Felix’s apparent disruption of other ads, coupled with the interactive AR experience, has paid off for Purina – reports suggest an 18.7% engagement rate online, and a 7% increase in brand consideration after the campaign. It even won in the Campaign Tech Awards ‘Best Use of Experiential Tech for Physical Experiences’ category for 2018. Not bad for a fictional feline.

As well as emerging technology, brands are tapping into current social and political trends in their experiential advertising, in order to align their brand values with those at the forefront of customers’ minds. Schweppes’ ‘The Dress for Respect’ by Ogilvy Brazil conducted an experiment in response to the #MeToo movement, where three volunteers wore a touch-sensitive dress at a nightclub in São Paulo. The fabric picked up when the women were touched without their consent, and data was then sent in realtime to a control unit over WiFi. Over the course of three hours and 47 minutes, the three women were touched a total of 157 times – more than 40 times an hour.

The drive of this experiential campaign might feel removed from the product it’s supposedly advertising ­– the only link being that Schweppes drinks are served in nightclubs like the one the experiment takes place in – but experiential marketing is often not about direct product promotion.

“We can no longer ignore harassment. We want to use our brand´s strength to raise awareness around this situation. Through this action, Schweppes wants to invite men to act with respect with women at nightclubs and bars, where the brand is very present”, says Vinicius Limoeiro, Coca-Cola Brazil’s integrated marketing and communications manager. The primary aim of the campaign is not to push product, but to convey the Schweppes brand philosophy of respect, and make a more personal connection with potential customers.

Another example of experiential marketing that taps into the current social consciousness is Adidas India’s interactive billboard for the Fifa World Cup 2018 by OOH agency Posterscope. The billboard, encouraging passers by to ‘team up to score a goal’, had a rope hanging down that needed several people to pull on it – and when they did, the ‘O’ in ‘goal’ lifted up and an Adidas football popped out, rewarding their team spirit.

Aditya Goel, assistant vice president, Posterscope said, “We wanted to fuel the passion of the fans before the kick-off of the Fifa 2018 World Cup… this idea is an amalgamation of emotions like joy, happiness, team work and hunger; the ingredients needed for a team to win.” The month-long campaign was able to ‘piggyback’ on the collective excitement and euphoria of the World Cup, with themes of community and coming together aiming for a positive impact on Adidas’s brand identity.

The tech: Embracing AR and VR experiences

Sometimes, experiential marketing works best when low-tech (pulling on a rope to release a football being one of them), but many brands who embrace emerging technology are finding success with experiential marketing. And while you might not find Schweppes’s touch-sensitive dress available on the racks, there are plenty of tech options available to marketers for developing AR and VR experiences for consumers.

Apple’s ARKit 2, to be available on iOS 12, will bring multi-user options and real world objects to AR on iPhone. Apple collaborated with animation royalty Pixar to develop the usdz format for developers, with Adobe supporting the format in Creative Cloud. Designers will be able to create AR content using familiar tools such as Photoshop CC and Dimension CC, converting assets into usdz for use on Apple devices.

In June, Adobe also previewed their new AR authoring tool Project Aero. This new tool allows developers to create immersive content, laying out and manipulating designs in physical spaces to make AR creation more fluid and intuitive – and all while working within their favourite Creative Cloud apps. Their machine learning technology, Adobe Sensei, ensures that creatives can focus on the task at hand without being weighed down by technical complexity.

Why do it?

With consumers becoming more resistant to online ads (Rakuten Marketing reported that the rate of ad blocking is rising, costing the industry more than $20 billion in ad revenue), creative agencies are looking for more creative and innovative ways to speak to potential customers. 88% of consumers in the UK say online advertising interrupts their online experience, and 71% say they associate online advertising with other disruptive content online, including fake news.

Experiential marketing engages and impacts consumers in two ways: the initial experience, involving a small number of participants that would spread the experience through word of mouth; and the viral effect of the campaign, widening the reach those who may not have experienced the campaign directly. In some of the videos of the experiential marketing campaigns discussed above, you can even see people with their smartphones out, capturing the experience to share to a wider audience, and ‘behind the scenes’ elements of putting the experience together to further bring secondary viewers into the experience.

This viral nature is what makes experiential marketing extremely cost effective for agencies, with social shares boosting your reach for no extra effort. It allows brands to be part of a wider, socially relevant conversation, and helps marketers with consumer profiling without being invasive and turning potential customers off from the brand.

Next steps

To market successfully in an experience-driven age, campaigns need to strike the balance between disruptive and engaging – or to put it more plainly, annoying and entertaining. Website pop-ups and pre-roll video ads are no longer going to cut it, and brands are now looking to embrace technologies such as AR and VR to target consumers in a way they are more likely to respond to.

With this exciting technology now available in consumers’ pockets, savvy marketers have the opportunity to create engaging, immersive campaigns that foster positive feelings and loyalty towards their brands. If you haven’t already, we recommend investing in Adobe Creative Cloud for its incredibly powerful AR tools, and keeping an eye out for the availability of iOS 12 with ARKit 2 – in the meantime, why not get in touch to discuss the scope of your next project, and we can recommend the kit, software and accessories you need to get you up and running.

Ready to get started with your next experiential campaign? Give us a call on 03332 409 204 or email DandP@Jigsaw24.com. For all the latest news and insights, follow @WeAreJigsaw24 on Twitter, or ‘Like’ us on Facebook.