How experiential marketing can be embedded with new technologies ?
Today, branding content is more and more important for companies. And there is a reason for this : customers’ eyes are far sharper than before and their expectations towards brands are higher than ever. The evolution of the customer behavior has led to new ways to think marketing and branding. For instance, it has created interactive dialogues between a brand and the people who consume their product(s), new forms of influence for selling or brand new means of branding expression.
If the branding expression has evolved, it has been possible thanks to high technologies and experiential marketing. Experiential marketing is some kind of a trendy word but too many people tend to forget what it really is. To make it simpler, let us consider experiential marketing includes all forms of marketing that appeal to — more than one — of your five senses (sight, smell, touch, taste and sound) at the same time.
Retailers understood very early the importance to offer « something new » to their customers.
The article will try to give some important concepts to mix new technologies and experiential marketing in order to understand how companies make the best out of high technologies to enhance their branding content.
In order to have a better understanding of what is at stake, let us start simply. First, let us take retailers as an example. Retailers understood very early the importance to offer « something new » to their customers.
In order to give an illustrative example of such incentive, the Bon Marché’s use case is relevant. Le Bon Marché is a Paris luxury mall famous for its quality of products and offers. This is one of the oldest shop in Paris (1838 !) and was first renowned for the innovative architecture and display. Indeed, Aristide Boucicaut (the original owner of the mall) decided to work with Gustave Eiffel to create the first large patio doors that were used for selling purposes. This work of two complex materials — glass and iron — was a prowess at that time. For the first time in History, people penetrated in a mall that also was considered as a museum ! Retailers always understood the benefits they could take from the experience of the customers. But would that glorious initiative be possible without a genius like Gustave Eiffel… ? Probably not at that early time anyway.
In a more theoretical way, let us consider that experiential marketing found its roots in incentives that could be considered so simple today, that it would not stand for pure experiential strategy.
The first experiential marketing actions can be dated to a worldwide and famous category of events…World Fairs !
Indeed, these fairs were the opportunity for companies to propose new content to tell stories or to place their product above the others. To prove that World Fairs were pioneers, we could highlight some examples, such as the first advertising of History made by Mercier (French champagne house) in 1900’s World Fair, which told the story of its creators and founders through a short ‘clip’ (of course, this word did not exist at that time) called « De la grappe à la coupe » (that could be translated as « From the grape to the glass »).
Another example is incarnated by the very popular car shows in the 1920’s. Even though these campaigns would not be considered as experiential today, it was high-end during that time. A simple question, what do all these actions have in common ? Technologies ! As a wink to History, the latest World Fair that took place in Astana in 2017 had two major sponsors in the names of Samsung and Cisco…new technology companies !
If technology today is considered as a major asset for marketing, it has only been 50–60 years that this role can be devoted to it.
Forget about the past and let us come back in the present where technology is the core of most experiential marketing strategies. If technology today is considered as a major asset for marketing, it has only been 50–60 years that this role can be devoted to it.
For instance, every viral video needs a strong technical organization with technology activations. Each innovative event activation found its technical feasibility in technical possibilities.
To give a glimpse of some successful stories, there are some non-exhaustive examples of amazing experiential marketing campaigns that put technology in the center of their reflexions :
*Oreo was a pioneer when they decided to take advantage of the worldwide growing interest for 3D printing. In 2014, they organized an event where attendees could be able to receive ‘deliciously hyper-personalized and customized snacks based on real-time data collection’ as they tweeted their made-to-order request from over a dozen options and finishing the tweet with #eatthetweet, the hashtag that was especially designed for the event.
*To give another example, it is foreseeable to mention Ikea. As augmented reality has recently become a popular trend in experiential marketing, Ikea chose to promote it through their new catalog-based application. This application was designed to replace the visit of real shops. The user was able to scan pages in the catalog and place virtual furniture in users’ homes to determine which pieces they wanted to purchase and assist in the buying decision. Two pros for this incentive
- By understanding the needs of their consumers, Ikea was able to bring the store to them and make the process easier for those who prefer to prevent the chaos during an in-store visit.
- Moreover, Ikea proved itself to offer a new range of services to its customers; which is the customization of the app throughout the different choices they customers made.
*For now, the given examples were mostly dealing with B2C companies. Here is a counterexample with the acclaimed General Electric B2B campaign. They have launched a campaign in order to promote global healthcare solutions, especially in developing countries. To help attendees evaluate the impact of their initiative, General Electric decided to work with an agency to create “movie sets” that represented different healthcare environments: a rural African clinic, an urban clinic, and an emergency room. The idea was that doctors would share their stories in live, in front of the attendees. And of course, doctors emphasize the importance of General Electric’s role and solutions in order to resolve the problems they faced.
These examples are just some random successes that can be found on the Internet. It is up to any other brand to build a coherent dialogue with its customer and to take advantage of the full potential of experiential marketing and new technologies.
Ok, so it is pretty obvious that new technologies are able to customize brand content thanks to the aid of ground-breaking possibilities. The WOW effect we see today will not the 2025’s WOW effect as technologies are growing fast and are changing every year. Who knows, maybe someday, new technologies will allow us to pay a virtual visit to the moon… ? Yep, no one knows indeed.
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