Is it enough for a business to merely be there for consumers?
Once upon a time people made things or offered a service and then you created a logo that represented that product but over time, that’s evolved into something altogether more sophisticated.
These days you have brands, something all-encompassing that represents the very feeling of that product, something that consumers can not only see but can touch, even smell, and most importantly they can experience.
Increasingly so, brands are looking to create meaningful interactions with ‘consumers and potential consumers alike’ and the way forward seems to be experiential brand activity. Brands are even starting to engage with customers in bespoke, exclusive and unique ways that are often personalized to make the recipient feel special. This in turn becomes a social media ‘winner’ for the brand, cleverly driven by the customer themselves and not the brand.
So who’s doing it well?
AB InBev-owned ‘super brand’ Stella Artois marked its sponsorship of Wimbledon this year with a link-up with the innovative theatre company Les Enfants Terribles to create The Time Portal experience. A traditional bar from 1877 (the year Wimbledon started) was created in Dalston, East London where customers lived the brand in a completely different, theatrical era … about as far removed as possible from some of the negative perceptions that have encircled the brand for years.
Likewise, we’ve had Co-op taking to the streets in an American Airstream trailer offering passers-by a mystery food box. People were asked to try something different when they cooked at home before posting the results on social media with the hashtag #unpredictablesummer. All it seems, very successful stuff, from innovative brand owners.
‘Brand provocateurs’, Absolut Vodka, have put an interesting twist on the well used marketing phrase ‘return on investment’, referring instead to brand activity as having ‘return on involvement’.
So how can you get in on the act?
Experiential activity such as this doesn’t have to be the exclusive right of B2C brands, it is possible for B2B brands to get in on the act. Why shouldn’t local law firms be targeting CEO’s of major clients by having some creative concept, that demonstrates the law firm’s worth, occur right outside the CEO’s office, or for individual Fleet Service managers be individually targeted by car dealership in a clever, unique way … there’s a whole wealth of creative targeting that can be considered.”
Just Enough Brave and our working partners have had plenty of results delivering these meaningful experiences for our clients, so if you’d rather do more than merely exist as a brand, let us help you start creating those experiences.