What’s Trending – More music and cultural festivals than ever before (>850 in 2015)! Branding of products and services at an all-time high, and so many ways for those brands to compete. More technology used in every segment of life, and business models and marketing campaigns are changing to adapt, using new communication technologies to reach consumers. Brand Experience has high value now, one of the metrics on the scorecard. What makes a good Brand Experience? Brakus, Schmidtt & Zarantonello illustrate the dimensions of brand experience in the Journal of Marketing (2009). These dimensions are useful when planning your sponsorship marketing efforts and live events:
- Sensory – see, hear, taste, touch, smell – does the brand convey these factors?
- Affective – feelings, sentiment, emotions – does the brand induce an emotional response?
- Behavioral – physical actions, behaviors, rituals – does the brand result in bodily experiences?
- Intellectual – thinking, curiosity, problem solving, storytelling – does the brand interact with my cognition?
The goal of a Brand Experience is to leave people with a more positive attitude about the brand, so they choose it over its competitors when making purchase decisions. There is also a lifetime value for both the brand and the consumer, that is an accumulation of all brand experiences and transactions a person has over the interaction lifetime. In non-profit circles, this is called donor lifetime value (DLV). For consumer products, its customer lifetime value (CLV). Many factors impact this lifetime value, especially cause tie-ins and community goodwill. Corporate citizenship is important to millennials, as is transparency. Another trend I’ve spotted.
What is it that attracts people to a place and time for a brand, like >100,000 people (mostly millennials) to EDC (Electric Daisy Carnival)? And if you couldn’t get there, you could watch live streaming free – but that doesn’t get you the “experience” of being there. I know, I watched some of EDC NY, and it looked fun – but it’s not the same being in my living room instead of among thousands of pulsating bodies dancing. It was for the experience that those folks congregated and gave the brands a willing audience. How did those brands interact with the audience and how much data/insight did they get as a result? Did they engage to support loyalty or were they just there observing the wonder of it all? Brand Experientials are trending for live events and festivals this year. My hope is we will get the insights we need to create more safe, fun, meaningful events in the future. I am piloting some new technology this year, and will keep you up on my journey as we incorporate it into our sporting and cultural festival known as the Coastal Edge East Coast Surfing Championship, August 16 – 24 at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront.
Tricia Wilcox Almas 