Our philosophy at Blazinstar Experiential is to design, create and implement strategic experiential marketing campaigns that are built around a live brand experience and involves two-way communication between the brand and the target audience in real time, therefore featuring a multisensory ‘big idea’ at the core of the campaign. The other marketing communication channels that are selected and integrated are the amplification channels and we see ‘Digital’ as the future to leverage interactive live brand experiences.

As the consumer spends more time on social media sites, the opportunity for effective marketing becomes limitless to companies in search of consumer connectivity. Therefore the technological landscape has designed innovative mechanics to drive people to social media sites. To reinforce this we have noticed that the majority of the campaigns today, integrate Apps, Smartphones, QR Codes, Blippers etc, which in our eyes have become more rich in content and more interactively faced.

Because of this reason, it is obvious to see how there is an inherent relationship between the digital channels and live brand experiences. Together they act as an engagement platform empowering the consumer to have a voice, creating a dialogue between the brand and consumer, thus fully cementing a deeper relationship with the brand. Therefore a shift is evident with more and more brand marketeers dropping the traditional marketing strategy perceived to create a one-way interruptive conversation, in favour of a two-way interactive response approach which is more cost effective, more engaging and garners word-of-mouth. This approach has been widely accepted by the marketing world using it as a long-term objective to ensure the customer experience is at the core of their brand.

One of the most interesting trends that we have spotted is the rapid use of Apps. They have recently shown enormous amount of growth in the experiential marketing strategy as they are designed, to help people perform an activity and can be used as a form of a two-way entertainment. This means that it is highly interactive to the user, and therefore extremely beneficial to have as part of their integrated Experiential Marketing Campaign to gain further reach.

As an example our very own campaign ‘face-of-JD’ was developed as a two-way interactive campaign. Using a digital platform as the centre of success, an online app and a customized Facebook page was designed giving the contestants the opportunity to enter into a competition, which ultimately resulted in becoming the Face of JD.

Another trend that is starting to heat up is the rapid use of QR codes to increase marketing efforts. This is simply a low cost method of interaction applied in marketing as a touch point used to drive consumers to experience their brands in an innovative way. The retail marketplace has been quick to adapt QR codes, as it allows for an immediate experience with tangible results directly at the point of purchase.

A great example of the QR Code working as an integrated format within a live brand experience was the ‘Tesco QR Code Subway Store’. They decided to bring shopping to subway stations to make it convenient for people to shop whilst waiting for their train home. Users simply scanned QR codes with their phone, which represented a food product and the product automatically landed in their online shopping cart. When the online purchase was complete the products were delivered to the customer’s door before they got home!

On a smaller scale, but still an innovative example was the use of QR codes executed for a recruitment drive. The ‘Pizza Digitale’ created by Sholtz & Friends (one of the biggest Ad agencies in Europe) worked in conjunction with a pizza delivery company, who were on the search for Digital Creative’s, they sent out pizzas to rival agencies allowing their target audience to view their vacancies through a ‘QR coded pizza’!

A creative execution using a simple mechanic, creating an experience by bringing the job right to your mouth so to speak.

Brands have also jumped onto yet another opportunity ‘Digital watermarking’ which are invisible/visible marks on an electronic image embedded in pictures and articles, creating a hyperlink from the printed page to online content.

‘House Beautiful’ magazine implements this nicely by placing digital watermarks on certain ads, allowing their audience to view Glidden’s ‘My Colortopia’ site where they can learn about choosing and combining different paint colors for their homes.

In this ever-evolving marketplace, we are excited to see how the digital landscape is breaking new ground for the experiential industry from interesting Apps, Blipper Augmented reality to watermarking so what’s next on the digital curve.

Any ideas????

Written by:
Dani Caplin
Kike Omisore