For most of its 26 years of business, Exp has been activating live one-to-one engagement programmes through Roadshows, Woman's Groups (more recently Stokvels too), Clinics and Schools.
Clinic Marketing
A large number of adult woman, particularly mothers, spend long hours at clinics waiting for assistance. Exp trained ambassadors give 20 - 30 minute lectures and sample the audience, and not only do the audience welcome the opportunity to learn and participate in the educational programmes, but the nursing staff also recognise the opportunity of an informed out patient.
Schools
Our Schools programme appeals through the educational needs of the community and children at large, engaging them with the brand through projects and activities off an educational platform. Activities include:
'Collect for Progress' - pack collection
Social responsibility - Industrial theatre
Hygien education
Environmental issues
Ambassadors work with school educators and present projects and activities to the children during assembly, that are designed against the Brand experience and to deliver educational messaging.
Woman's Groups (Stokvels)
As per the clinic programme, Exp ambassadors deliver communication that emotionally connects with the target audience, giving them a better understanding of the Brand message with a opportunity to ask and answer questions relevant to the topic. The audience are sampled for use in their homes, taking forward the brand message of the presentation to a personal in-home experience.
Case Studies
The Stimorol Brand Requirement
Drive loyalty for the Brand proposition of "intense refreshment to seize the moment".
The Stimorol Activation Strategy
Target consumers at Sun City's Spring Break with a "Stimorol Chew Life Zone" to personally engage through meaningful experiences.
The zone consisted of a chill-out and refresh area, a Stimorol "water mister" and a Stimorol water slide. Brand ambassadors engaged consumers in a "truth or dare" challenge for them to win Stimorol merchandise. Samples of Stimorol's fruit variants were available to ensure confidence of mouth refreshment.
What Stimorol achieved?
One-to-one engagement of a defined Brand experience that built equity for Stimorol's value offering of "intense refreshment to seize the moment".
MTN Community Connect
For the third year, Exp Nigeria activated MTN’s Community Connect programme with the aim of reaching consumers with clear targeted messages to communicate the benefits of being on the MTN network, especially in rural areas –this to upweight MTN’s grassroots penetration. The activation had to build local relevance for the MTN brand via initiatives that were exciting, engaging endearing and experiential. The activation had to achieve a minimum 75% comprehension and positive response to the communicated messages.
Exp Nigeria’s solution was to connect with the target audience at the right time and place, with all activities, capturing the 4 E’s of:
Engage: Deliver an experience in an environment that the consumer is comfortable with.
Excite: Create a passion link between the brand and the consumer.
Experience: Enable the consumer to touch, taste, feel, smell, see and live the brand.
Endear: Ensure that the brand remains relevant to their life values.
The activation consisted of “town storms” and a MTN carnival that resulted in the Brand interacting with consumers in their neighbourhoods. The “town storm” activation team handed out leaflets, attracted consumers to attend the carnival, created visibility in the retail trade and activated demand for MTN, while the carnival consisted of MTN relevant experiences, games, consumer promotions, product demonstrations and education around MTN.
In total, 36 states (6 regions) were visited over an 11 month period, reaching 5.6 million Nigerians in 1,450 Brand experiences that achieved sales of new subscribers (Sims sold), Blackberry handsets, low-end phones and FastLink Data Cards.
It’s Spread Time! With the Blue Band Spread Squad!
EXP recently launched new Blue Band Spread for Unilever in Kenya.
When: April 2009
Where: Kenya – National campaign.
The objecetives:
1. Launch the new product, Blue Band Spread for Bread.
2. Communicate the value of the added fats and vitamins and how they are good for children.
3. Educate consumers on the benefits of Blue Band Spread and the improved spreading qualities it is now offering.
4. Excite the market and initiate trial and purchase.
The Challenge:
As Mums would like their kids to have the best in life, the challenge was to assist Unilever in positioning the new variant as a affordable bread spread specifically formulated to help with their children’s growth – Mums now have a affordable choice to give their children a specially formulated product with added fats and vitamins for their growth.
The Activation Strategy:
It was important to build off the existing Blue Brand equity, showing Mums that there is now an affordable choice for their children. We also had to appeal to the youthfulness of the Brand, which is about having the right nutrition for kids to grow up strong and healthy.
After a few immersions and insights from the target market, Exp Kenya developed a Brand Experience around a “Blue Band Spread Squad”, who were tasked with engaging consumers through various sampling and edutainment activations, educating them on the new variant, offering them a personal taste experience and rewarding them when they purchased for product trial.
The Activation Tactics consisted of:
1. Media Launch for immediate launch awareness.
2. Internal Launch – driving internal advocacy and word of mouth through Unilever staff.
3. In store sampling to promote trial and usage with target consumers.
4. Direct Sales to promote trial and awareness with target consumers.
5. Road shows to drive education, awareness and trial with target consumers
