2007's media darling: experiential marketing
By Josh McCall
Look over the pages of the business press for the first weeks of January 2007, and it's hard to escape the fact that so far the top stories of the year have one thing in common: events—and in particular, their power as a marketing medium.
That power can be negative, as in coverage of Robert Nardelli's departure from The Home Depot. From The Wall Street Journal to The New York Times, many articles cited a particular event and its staging as a nail in the now former CEO's coffin: the 2006 stockholders' meeting with "enormous digital clocks" that further alienated key constituents and a mysteriously missing board.
More happily, the power of events can be extraordinarily positive. Consider some of the top stories in the business press in January 2007 and note that all of them occurred at high-profile industry events: the North American International Auto Show, the Consumer Electronics Show and Apple's Macworld.
It's a fascinating paradox. Though our world is increasingly digital (thanks in part to their products), the best-known executives still choose events as the medium to build buzz. Though they're arguably the most "old fashioned" form of marketing around, events can be the pivotal centerpiece to telling a story about a product or brand in a way that creates broad media awareness and, more importantly, inspires people to become word of mouth advocates—and there's nothing more "contemporary" than that.
The fact is that face-to-face marketing, the most "analogue" medium, is also perfectly suited to our digital age. Events can generate extraordinary media attention, as witnessed by the almost 7,000 credentialed press attending the Auto Show in Detroit, and CES coverage by everyone from the San Jose Mercury News to Stephen Colbert. (CES earned Colbert's "tip of the hat"; Macworld a "double finger wag.") News of the "death of the tradeshow" now appears to have been greatly exaggerated. Many of the key conferences have in fact grown. CES, which one blogger simply called "enormously huge," claims 150,000 attendees; it's now the biggest tech show in the world. The resulting critical mass of media attention is invaluable.
Events also deliver on two of the most sought-after qualities in marketing today: the ability to reach the right audience while they are in the right frame of mind — ready, willing and interested in listening; and the ability to deliver and track measurable results. Again, it's an interesting paradox that these two qualities are so prominent at both ends of the digital-analogue extremes, online and experiential marketing. Interestingly, best practices for standing out online and on the floor of a show like CES are also parallel:
- Make it easy. Industry events can be a brutal sensory overload, and therefore brands should respect attendees' patience through user-friendly clarity of presentation, information, navigation and overall brand experience.
- Engage me on a human level. Staff acting as "brand ambassadors" in a booth must welcome and steer attendees—providing the offline equivalent of online's split-second clarity of navigation.
- Measure, measure, measure. Tracking and delivering ROI is easier when you're obsessive about data capture, a common practice of the most effective exhibitors.
- It's never too soon to make adjustments. Exhibitors are using video analysis of their stands to monitor high traffic areas and dead zones within the exhibit space, thereby enabling immediate improvements by reassigning booth staff and adjusting signage and media.
- Orchestrate touchpoints. So much of the actual deal-making at large-scale events occurs on a more one-on-one scale of engagement that it's absolutely critical to think beyond the show floor and integrate hospitality events, speaking engagements and other face-to-face interactions.
- Leave no stone unturned. It is nearly impossible to attend a major event and not see a moment waiting to be branded. Cab lines, luggage claim areas, you name it—whatever is relevant to your needs is likely to be there for the taking (especially if no one else has thought of it yet).
With so much coverage of events in the business press, why the relative absence of experiential marketing coverage from the top marketing and communication trade publications? Particularly given the fact that applying events in the most impactful way requires smart integration and synchrony with PR, online and traditional marketing? Based on what our clients are reading about in the business press—and more importantly, what they're actually doing—it's time to shift our focus.
At CES Bill Gates talked about "delivering on connected experiences." If the marketing community needed any further prompts to shift our discourse from hirings, firings and seven-figure Superbowl ads, let "delivering on connected marketing experiences" become our mantra.
Josh McCall, CEO, Jack Morton Worldwide
josh_mccall@jackmorton.com
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