Staying ahead of the Experience Economy effect?

How your brand can benefit from a strategic partnership?

The ‘Experience Economy’ has been an unrivalled trend for some time now. And it’s certainly one marketers cannot afford to ignore. It is affecting everything consumers do – socialising, traveling, shopping – which has ultimately had a knock-on effect on marketers. Consumers now share and communicate their experiences in interesting ways via social media and by using physical emotion. Marketers need to take heed of these behavioural changes. With roots in festival and experiential marketing, it’s nothing new, but the speed at which the trend has grown and evolved has surprised many. 

In order to keep pace, brand marketers must ask the question; How do I incorporate this into my wider marketing plans, will it cost me more, what are the longer term effects on my brand and product sales?

Setting the scene

In the last year, numerous brands, from Next to Co-Operative have moved their marketing spend away from traditional tactics to spending more on ‘experiences’. They’re prioritising giving customers the opportunity to experience and share meaningful physical contact and interactions with the brand. This shift has been driven by millennials. Technology, the shareability of experiences and the ongoing need for innovation. Marketing budget spend in the entertainment sector has shifted with multiple brands driving new ways to engage their customer base. The result is a reinvigorated, competitive category.

Consumer expectations of socialising is changing. They want more memorable moments, which is an opportunity for brands to offer up new ways to promote their products. In return for these unforgettable experiences, brands are now able to curate and co-create memorable content, with their most loyal customers. It can be shared and amplified by them too, and is a great two-way relationship that builds loyalty, trust and delivers engaging content in a cost-effective way.

Just a marketing gimmick?

The short answer is no. It is here to stay, so get on board or get left behind.

There are numerous ways to do this, whether that’s through cutting edge tech like virtual reality apps or tickets to a sponsored event.

Some brands, however, are offering experiences of such magnitude that they no longer count as gimmicks or perks, but whole new businesses. These can be seen as a big bet on changing customer behaviour and draw heavily on branding. But can pay off in bucketloads. So, the question is, just how far can brands go in embracing the experience economy?

For younger consumers, it’s all about challenging experiences. The rise of Triathlons and other sporting experiences has, inspired new ways for Millennials to compete and test their levels of fitness in an electric atmosphere– sometimes for fun, sometimes a bit more seriously. The most famous by far is Tough Mudder. An endurance obstacle course set over 13 miles.

It’s a catch-22, because on one hand, your average Brand Manager has multiple opportunities to partner with new age content houses (Jungle Creations, Ladbible etc.) and on the other, they find it difficult to chose and understand which opportunity holds the least risk to their marketing spend.

Where is the opportunity for my brand?

Sponsorship would have been the traditional route to market for sporting events. In today’s market, there are numerous, more engaging ways to promote your brand and products. It’s got to be experience driven to drive dwell time and creates noise both online and via word of mouth.

It’s cross-sector too. Take travel, brands have lots of opportunity to embrace experience in Airports and Travel Retail. And just look at traditional retail too, shopping centres and high streets all offer rich environments for consumer experience.  Pop-ups such as Street Feast, Dinerama, John Lewis’s store of the future and Amazon’s new age store are all good examples. The well-trodden festival market must not be ignored by brands looking to create something meaningful for an untapped audience.

Who is doing what, where and well?

There are a few brands out there, that seem to be excelling in the adoption of the experience marketing channel. One of my favourites is, Co-operative’s exclusive partnership with Live Nation to become the first UK food retailer to have a supermarket at four major summer music festivals. It creates a unique opportunity for the ‘high spending’ consumer to experience a so-called home-like experience with the products they know and love everyday in a festival environment.

Another is Virgin Holidays’ partnership with Next, aiming to target families, The two brands have set up a series of Virgin Holidays pop-ups within 20 of the retailer's outlets. This facilitates more dwell time for both brands, each able to leverage the other’s brand identity to draw in the consumer and enhance customer experience. It’s a natural step - when booking a holiday, most consumers quickly think about a ‘holiday-shop’, driving sales and offering the chance for some nice co-created content.

The opportunity to partner with brands to cross-collaborate

What should brands bear in mind when they create these types of experiences? Firstly, they need to keep it real and authentic. It is essential to find ways to add value without it feeling forced. Whether that’s by offering convenience or teaching new things; because inorganic experiences will just result in driving your audience away.

In terms of a marketing approach, it is important to seek out your customers and go to wherever it is they want to talk you. For many events are a good option, as they are built around visual experiences, and could be hosted across multiple platforms i.e. Instagram or Snapchat, as much as Facebook.

Finally, brands need to assess how they can invite Millennials to make an impact and bring them into the product creation process. Much of this is about creating opportunities for content creation and make it easy to share, which will then help extend the reach of the event.

Partnerships are the key

So, there’s a lot to take in and consider…

My final thought is regarding who you should partner with to drive the experience. Brands should consider a collaboration to not only share the costs of this campaign but to enhance the overall experience for the customer.

Our recent experience with our client, Thorpe Park (Merlin Entertainments) has seen them reap the benefits of a strategic partnership with ITV’s hit show, Love Island. We have supported them by creating a third party platform for numerous brands to coexist and support one another whilst piggybacking on the enormous reach of the programme. This will prolong the life of the marketing campaign, even when the show finishes.

Ingenuity London is the UK’s leading new business consultancy and its Brand Partnerships division has grown rapidly over the past two years. It has established itself as a trusted, outsourced, strategic partnerships expert for ambitious brands who want to meet other brands to create value for their customers in a cost-effective way.

If you have a desire to create unique experiences for your brand with strategic partners and wish to hear about our hero case study, please drop me a line.