WELCOME TO THE EVOLUTION
By Dan Hanover - General Maneger of Red 7 Media, publisher of the Event Marketer & Event Design Magazine in the USA
The world of brand experiences is getting a huge upgrade around the world by marketers that are getting more strategic and bold about their events.
At the heart of the evolution is a ‘revolution” that is changing how leading brands leverage the power of face-to-face marketing to connect with consumers. Live experiences are helping these companies use those connections to increase sales and build lifelong customers. A look at seven top trends and some examples to prove each point.
TREND 1: INFLUENCER MARKETING EVOLVES
EXAMPLE: Ford’s Fiesta Movement put 100 young trendsetters behind the wheels of 100 Fiestas for six months. As part of a social media initiative, they received gas and insurance, test drove and “lived” with the car, traveling as “agents” on special “missions” who then related their experiences through social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. The missions were designed to be fun, take the agents to new places and let them experience new things, like training with U.S. Navy SEALS, hiking in the mountains, spending the day shadowing a stunt driver and learning to cook, um, with bugs, all while driving the European version of the Ford Fiesta and providing feedback to Ford on the product. And they all—especially Ford—lived to tell about it.
The Fiesta Movement took the car company into the realm of the ever-expanding social media space, a strategy that proved to be successful even before its official start. More than 4,000 applications were submitted by would-be agents, with more than 640,000 views of applicant videos on YouTube explaining why they would be the best representatives for the brand. Applicants cited online followers, blogging experience and even a thirst for adventure. Many were auto enthusiasts and all were comfortable sharing their opinions online.
Which they needed to be since the Fiesta Movement was aimed squarely at millennials who use social media daily and offered a prime opportunity for Ford to tap into a group that hasn’t yet established brand loyalty. According to a Microsoft study on millennials, each day 77 percent use Facebook, MySpace or other social networking sites.
The 100 chosen agents had established social networks with a strong web presence. Most had hundreds, if not thousands of Facebook friends. Most also had thousands of people following them on Twitter. After meeting their fellow agents at regional vehicle delivery days, a sense of friendly competition developed, turning the monthly video submissions into non-stop tweets, Facebook postings, Flickr photo uploads, blog posts and in some cases local TV interviews. But even more important, people were watching and paying attention, leaving comments, replying to videos, linking to content and praising Ford for taking a brave step into social media.
At the end of the six months, the agents gathered in Los Angeles for a post-event celebration where consumers could tune in and watch the 2011 Fiesta revealed on TV. The celebration was well deserved: those 100 agents created more than 50,000 pieces of original content, 212 million impressions on digital press and blogs, more than six million YouTube views, and four million impressions on Twitter. Party on!
TREND 2: MARKETERS PUSH DEMO AND TRIAL
EXAMPLE: Hyundai’s heart-pounding Adrenaline tour put drivers behind the wheel and the Korean automaker top of mind among new car buyers as it generated test-drives, media and consumer attention, interest and brand perception for the high-performance 2010 Genesis Coupe.
In February 2009, Hyundai announced its partnership with Rhys Millen Racing and Red Bull Energy Drink as part of a strategy to connect the Genesis Coupe to drift racing, the high-energy motor sport best known from Universal Studio’s “The Fast and Furious” film series. The excitement continued with the eight-city Adrenaline Tour, a fast and furious experience that put consumers inside the 2009 Genesis Coupe and the competitive motor sports world in ride-and-drives that spoke to the performance excitement of the brand.
Rather than being a part of a larger lifestyle event, the tour comprised a series of invitation-only experiences that gave Hyundai maximum control over the environment while surrounding guests with the Coupe and the exciting, high-performance culture of drifting. Before the event, a dedicated microsite, coupeadrenalinetour.com, served as home base, delivering information about the tour along with photos and videos featuring the Genesis Coupe and a special racing section highlighting its performance in competitive Time Attack and Drifting events. A Coupe Performance Parts Sweepstakes drove traffic to dealerships and dangled a package of high-performance components for the Coupe valued at more than $6,000.
Every component of the Adrenaline Tour experience built excitement for the car. A Formula Drift Series Coupe was the focal point of the “Drift Lounge,” an area celebrating the car’s dive into motor sports. On-track videos of the Coupe whipping around the track, animations of the car in a drifting dreamscape, a “flipbook” giveaway and an interactive iWall that engaged guests with computer animations and product information revved up guests’ interest. Every hour, on a closed driving course, professional drivers delivered tire-screeching, tread-smoking drifting demos that sometimes included guests on their wild rides. The climax occurred as guests chose between a four-cylinder Turbo or a 306 HP V6 Coupe to drive around the course with a professional driver riding shotgun to describe the car’s acceleration and handling attributes. Everyone who registered for the event received a follow-up email that reinforced the experience.
The tour results were as heart-stopping as the rides themselves, delivering 7,258 test drives and 190,000 positive word-of-mouth conversations; 55 percent of post-event survey respondents indicated they were highly likely to recommend the Coupe to others; 36 percent opted to receive further information.
TREND 3: LONG-TERM EXPERIENCES HEAT UP
EXAMPLE: Year after year, TV ads try to sell the benefits of one paper towel over another. And year after year, those ads fail to deliver the one thing that can cause a consumer to pick a particular brand over a lower price point: relevant, memorable hands-on experiences. Last year, P&G’s Bounty brand broke the mold and ventured into the experiential space with its first branded semi-permanent family experience called Make-A-Messterpiece (MAM). The program will change the face of CPG marketing forever.
Housed in a 10,000-square-foot studio in an affluent Chicago suburb, Glenview, IL, the branded environment invites moms and kids up to age 12 to embrace the “Thrill of the Spill” by making it OK to make a mess. Part kids museum, part pop-up experience and part opportunity to make a mess somewhere besides home, Make-A-Messterpiece offers stations and activities where moms and kids can play, create and get dirty, no holds barred, and then clean up with the help of nearby Bounty clean-up stations. MAM brings Bounty’s brand purpose to life by “taking the brand from being in the business of cleaning up messes to putting them in the business of inspiring messes.” It also aligns with every mom’s passion point: unleashing her child’s potential.
Staffers (everyone at MAM is a certified teacher) greet visitors and invite them to get messy at any of several activity zones. At Drum Roll, kids put on a raincoat, boots and goggles (because the drums have paint in them) step into a sound booth and drum to the music, making the paint fly. The Little Sprouts area invites younger kids to paint with spaghetti. At Bubble’ology, colored bubbles explode on paper while staffers explain gravity and color mixing. Other stations let kids create slime balls, bug splats (with yogurt and berries) and finger painting. All the while, moms and dads can hang out in Club M, a living room with Starbucks coffee and snacks.
When the messes have reached their maximum, kids and moms head to the clean-up station that resembles a huge roll of paper towels to soap up and dry off with Bounty towels.
The campaign kicked off in September going after 250 million media impressions and a boost in brand equity. Due to its popularity, it extended its run and to date has exceeded 640 million impressions—more than 256 percent of its goal. The MAM studio’s qualitative and quantitative results are cleaning up, too, boasting average visit times of 1.5 hours, 74 percent repeat visits, 10 birthday parties per week, 28 percent coupon redemption and a 90 percent favorability rating.
TREND 4: EVENTS INVADE HOUSEHOLDS
EXAMPLE: Ford last year tied the fun of having a neighborhood party with its sponsorship of “American Idol” to create 1,000 in-home events where women (and a few men!) got to watch the first night of the show’s two-day finale with their friends. Some even took a Ford Fusion or Fusion Hybrid for a spin around the block. As a result, more than 17,700 consumers experienced and learned about Ford Fusion while watching one of the most popular shows on TV on one of the show’s most exciting nights.
The house party hosts met specific profiles defined by Ford and were deemed to be passionate advocates for the brand. They invited friends and family to join in the fun. Their experience was shared by millions via a custom-branded website deployed in the weeks before the parties, as well as on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks.
Local dealers delivered vehicles to 319 hosts’ homes, giving those hosts and guests a hands-on look at the Ford Fusion. Hosts that did not receive a car learned about the Fusion through a DVD starring former “American Idol” contestant Ace Young driving and touting the features of the new vehicle. Hosts also received a branded party pack that helped them create a memorable party experience as well as generate post-event buzz and ongoing consumer engagement. The party pack consisted of a tote bag, Ford logo napkins, plates, coasters, cups, balloons, a set of cookie cutters, a Ford “American Idol” welcome sign, “American Idol” pens and more.
In addition, the event offered hosts the opportunity to participate in the “Idol Rocks. Ford Rolls” sweepstakes. Hosts were encouraged to set up a voting page online and direct family and friends to vote for them. Each vote gained the host an additional entry into the sweepstakes and increased the viral impact of the event.
The 1,000 parties helped Ford reach a total of 2.9 million people via partygoers, viral pass-alongs and social media interaction. The event achieved incredible engagement, scoring well above average in blog posts, photo/video uploads, page views, favor downloads and poll votes. Through 319 hosts who had a vehicle at their home, more than 6,300 partygoers directly experienced a Ford Fusion for the very first time.
Even Simon Cowell would have to approve of these results: Thousands of partygoers either test drove or looked at a Fusion; more than 10,000 people opted in to being contacted by Ford.
TREND 5: COMBINING ONLINE AND OFFLINE.
EXAMPLE: Some people see romance in the moon and stars of the night sky. Sony had a different vision: Twilight Football, a series of seven matches that took place on Sept. 22 as the hour of twilight moved across the world, in stunning locations that included Iguacu Falls, Argentina; the Pinnacle Desert, Australia; the site of King Arthur’s castle in England; a Spanish bull ring; a pitch in the snow in Switzerland; a floating pitch in Venice; and the grand finale at Soccer City, Johannesburg, the venue for the finals of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. But the real romance took place in the stands, where fans witnessed the beauty of the game outside of the floodlights and photographers shot the scene using Sony’s new range of cameras that capture exceptional detail in low light conditions.
The challenge was to use soccer to build a digital imaging experience that had never been attempted, an experience that would promote a visually stunning and creative approach to photography for three target audiences: innovation enthusiasts, who would be interested in the innovative way of celebrating a new technology; status seekers, those who would see the ideas as “cool,” making the products and technology feel “must-have”; and experience embracers who crave a one-off experience. To support local press and manage VIPs that attended each event, an on-site “Camp Twilight” provided refreshments and served as a media center for live reporting on each game. A total of 700 guests came for a three-day hospitality experience that included the game and cultural tours.
The campaign was divided into three phases: recruitment, experience and celebration. Recruitment took place a few months prior to the main events to find the best players and amateur photographers via local partnerships and social media platforms such as goal.com and Twitter. A team of bloggers called Twilight Hunters served as ambassadors for their country’s team and ignited online chatter. A viral video of daredevil players breaking into a bull ring and kicking the ball around a bull also helped raise the campaign profile. During the events, content and conversations on YouTube and other social media sites and a downloadable Sony Twilight widget kept consumers up to date. Images from each location were incorporated into advertising during the celebration phase.
Twilight Football delivered some of the most incredible soccer moments played in the most unexpected and beautiful low-light locations. And that is in addition to the marketing results: the viral video achieved 2.7 million views (the target was 1.3 million) and the widget, 1.4 million views.
TREND 6: DATA-COLLECTION AND LEAD-GENERATION
EXAMPLE: Signing up recruits during time of war is a challenge that the U.S. Air Force is overcoming by reaching its target (17- to 27-year-olds) through engaging experiences and cutting-edge technology. Its mission is to educate potential recruits about all aspects of the Air Force and show them that the Force is about much more than flying fighter jets.
The program, called Project Supercar, paired Air Force mechanics with Galpin Auto Sports (featured on MTV’s “Pimp My Ride”) to create two high-tech vehicles—a Ford Mustang “X-1” and Dodge Challenger “Vapor”—that showed young men and women how a career in the Force is like a career working on the sleekest and most technologically advanced vehicles on the market. Thanks to Galpin’s participation, the campaign gained instant street cred with its target audience. And the technological aspects of the program facilitated drive data collection that has helped the Air Force meet its recruitment goals early.
The main target for this particular program was a category the Air Force calls “Tech Tinkerers,” who thrive when given the chance to work with mechanics and technology. The experience started in a non-traditional way—it collected data first, before consumers entered the footprint. Attendees registered by taking a “What’s your ride?” survey, a fun interactive quiz that matched their personality with a type of car. The survey segmented kids into three buckets based on their level of technical propensity, and they got colored wristbands based on that information. They could scan their wristbands at a digital rewards kiosk or send content to their phone, including ringtones, car specs and wallpapers. Recruiters could also engage with them based on their wristband color.
Inside each mobile tour was a 42-inch touch-screen TV that visitors could use to explore videos documenting the building of the supercars. Guests could then explore Air Force careers using five touch-screen kiosks that navigated like iPhones. The experience extended online to a robust website that provided fans with more behind-the-scenes video and downloadable content, like stickers, posters, DVDs of the documentary and much more.
The on- and offline program was a success with more than 16,000 people having face-to-face contact with the cars in six months; 4,834 (30 percent) of those turned into qualified leads. And 65 percent of visitors who experienced the tours last year claimed to have an increased perception that the Air Force is technologically advanced; 40 percent reported learning more about the variety of mechanical careers offered by the Air Force. The program also crossed continents and has been covered by more than 130 media outlets in six countries.
TREND 7: LARGE-SCALE EXPERIENCES BECOME POPULAR
EXAMPLE: Slick venues. Sophisticated drinks. Unforgettable nights. That’s what Smirnoff Experience was all about, as well as injecting some new life into its Smirnoff 21 Vodka and Smirnoff Ice brands. Both Diageo products had seen better days in terms of consumer awareness until the Smirnoff Experience, with its rockin’ party atmosphere, changed all that. For Smirnoff Ice, events targeted 19- to 24-year old Canadian males who consume beer, rum and vodka; Smirnoff 21 aimed at 24- to 29-year-old male spirits, beer and wine drinkers. The Smirnoff Experience targeted both groups.
To reach them, Smirnoff focused on online influencers, bloggers and musicians who shared the experience with their fan base through social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Local promoters leveraged their networks of hip, young males who fit the demo to help sell tickets and drive awareness for the events.
The Experience consisted of four Tier 1 events, executed simultaneously on a single weekend in key cities across Canada. The events then rotated from city to city and were executed three more times over the course of a year, for a total of 16 Tier 1 events. Each event included an internationally recognized artist that complemented its theme.
Themes included: Future Now, a retro-futuristic party that fused the technology of tomorrow with the nostalgia of yesterday creating a surreal time-warp into a world of fantastical possibility. Electro beats, laser lights and robot chic brought the theme to life. The Warehouse theme was an old-school, warehouse rave party brought to life via industrial décor, break dancers, music mash-ups, video production and light shows. A House Party theme incorporated skateboard shows, interactive graffiti walls, video game rooms and a hot tub filled with plastic balls where attendees could chill. Carnivale featured a circus theme with dark clowns and contortionists, aerial silk performances and cotton candy. Teaser events at smaller venues in each market complemented the larger event, garnering interest and excitement with smaller components of the central themes, branding and signature drink sampling.
A Smirnoff Canada website, Facebook page and other social media sites amplified the program, while personnel in each city worked with artists, promoters and bloggers to disseminate content from the events online and place ads in key online locations. A street marketing campaign and ads in local newspapers also hyped the events.
The results were just what the doctor ordered: 8,000 target consumers were immersed in the Experience over two phases in four Canadian cities, and more than 22 million impressions made. Even better, 80 percent of retailers agreed to purchase Smirnoff in the next four weeks and 76 percent of consumers said they would return to a Smirnoff Experience.