Top 10 Ingredients for a Successful Live Brand Experience

There are several factors you will need to consider when planning and activating your next event marketing program from location, brand ambassador selection and onsite communication.  Use the following tips to help increase the effectiveness of your next event.

1. 1. Focus on your target audience: One of the best parts of running livemarketing events is the ability to directly talk one on one with your target audience. Many people look for the largest audience. In our experience spending the extra time and effort up front to insure your product is in front of the “right” audience will pay incredible benefits at the end.
   2. Location, location, location: A second key ingredient is your location at the event. The most obvious is not always the best. Depending on the crowd and how you have designed the experience, the best location might not even be on the event footprint. Don’t forget to look outside the event, to where people may be gathering and relaxing. It is important to catch the consumer in the right frame of mind when they are open to the engagement. A relaxed and extended conversation is always better than slapping a coupon in someone’s hand because they are too busy, or the event is too crowded to initiate a quality conversation.
       
   3. Engage the 5 senses: Touch, sight, smell, taste and sound. We all know them, and use them every day. It is the most basic of human instincts. Create the brand experience that can bring all 5 of these into play, and it will always be memorable.

4. Create a “warm” and “comfortable” atmosphere that is intriguing and inviting: Intimidation is just that…intimidating. And intimidating is not what you want when trying to introduce a new product to a wary user. The entire reason for the live experience is to allow a potential customer an opportunity to try (experience) your product in a low/no pressure, fun and memorable way.

5. Design a fun, engaging interaction… This is not a Sales Pitch:Yes, end goal is to showcase the product. But the real goal is to get the crowd interested in first viewing what you are showcasing, and then trying it with an open mind. We are creating the first impression of what we hope is to become a long term customer, not a one and done. So make sure the potential customer’s wants and interests are catered to, not the brands.

6. Brand Ambassadors seal the deal: Find the right people to hire as Brand Ambassadors on your street team. They should have high energy and integrity and show an interest in your product or industry to work at the events. For example, we once sought out interior decorators to represent our client’s paint brand. If the people talking about your product have a “genuine” interest…the conversation is real! Since people are natural skeptics, anything not real….is…well its fake!

7. Allow for an unbiased trial, but one that is designed to naturally showcase benefits: If the experience is going to be real, it needs to be unbiased. But unbiased doesn’t mean that it can’t showcase the products benefit. To give an example, for theBosch Power Tool Big Blue Mobile Tour, we created the Bosch Drop Zone, where we dropped a Bosch Power Tool from 10’ off the ground to demonstrate its durability, a true benefit and point of difference for the brand. Completely unbiased, but when people saw that the tool could withstand this sort of fall, they suddenly didn’t mind paying a few more dollars for the high quality Bosch power drill.

8. Capture everything… good and bad: Everyone knows, content is king. Use pictures, video, testimonials, complaints, laughter, etc. This is a great opportunity to capture an incredible amount of content that can be used in several platforms down the road.

9. Give guests a way to “share” their experience with friends, family and co-workers: The entire world is one big viral pot. Make sure to include a way to allow attendees the ability to share their experience. According to a 2007 Event Marketing Institute study 80% of consumers share their experience with friends or family members and consumers’ top 2 purchase-influencers are personal experience with a product and recommendations from friends and family.

10. Design a way to continue the conversation: Again, this is the first impression of a potential long term customer. The initial impression was great. Now make sure you have a way to continue to communicate with this customer for many months to follow. This final ingredient is a key to ROI. What’s the lifetime value of one of your customers?