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The last few months are abuzz with news stories across the digital and technology businesses, as Dmexco 2016 and the annual Social Media Week London has spanned the headlines of the advertising trade press. From Twitter reclassifying its own limit to Facebook Live taking centre stage at lender and Burberry catwalk show , Emirates NBD launching AI robot in-branch assistants, 1 thing is definitely clear — the way we convey is evolving, as well as quick!
As imagination and technologies continue to develop together in the marketing space, and the way consumers can interact fluctuates that are online as fast as the platforms themselves , the question now is?
Brand storytelling is not a concept that is new. If anything, it’s a cornerstone of modern-marketing that’s drummed into practitioners from the crib (well, university) nowadays. But as platforms and new technology across the space continue to shape where and how consumers engage with brands, the issue becomes how to stay ahead of the game in a special and appropriate way so as to be heard.
The answer is for manufacturers to start thinking of their advertising narrative as a living, breathing thing and begin planning activations that allow themselves to participate and immerse with them.
When it’s through VR, AR or AI, the wealth of innovative, creative technology we’ve seen coming is making it easier for brands and marketers to create and invent innovative user experiences, both off and online, which may offer something genuinely different and enable consumers to really understand and feel just the way the brand needs its products to be perceived. By the planet’s shop-as-you-see catwalk show being launched by Burberry through Facebook Live into Taco Bel hosting a pop-up VR arcade adventures like this offer brands a tangible way. Which in turn helps to build higher brand loyalty, stronger relationships, and drives ROI for electronic activation.
Thus if it’s this simple, why is not everybody doing it?
Well, it is actually far more complex than that. Like all advertising activity, it is about ensuring the brand in question has it correctly. Employing the right technology, at the right time and in the ideal means to achieve the desired result. Rather than just undertaking an activation for the interest of ‘being seen to do it’.
In a manner that content, data and personalisation have been the last few years’ marketing buzzwords, brand encounters are becoming the term de jour and we’ve seen many new successes — and failures. Yet, as with all these other tools of this trade, it is not only using or having them that counts – but doing them in the right way and with the right objectives in mind, to make sure that the right technology is used for the activation to drive the intended response from the end consumer.
We’ve all read the posts criticising using the field of personalisation and data for data’s sake, and it is no different with new experiences. Activations are as great as the marketing strategy behind them and an understanding of what you are trying to attain. Are you wanting to capture data? And also you seeking to drive involvement? Can it be media manipulation or as PR stunt? The answers to these may seem obvious, but they will not reveal at the end result if they are not considered at the preparation phase.
What planned and implemented is take all this one step farther. In a similar way our industry is starting to talk about ‘smart marketing’ over doing something for the hell of it, we will need to begin thinking about ‘smart experiential’ and also the effect it could have on assisting customers to live the new narrative, as well as simply telling them. This then provides smart brands with countless opportunities to not only build strong relationships with their target market, but to also build on other needs such as information capture, customer loyalty, and social media engagement by feeding their aims into the development of the activation from the start.
This shift from manufacturer storytelling to brand ‘story-doing’, a term coined by Beto Nahmad – executive creative director of VCCP Spain, offers a exceptional chance for those brands (and marketers) looking to get ahead of the game to actually stand-out in their market and make the most of their respective budgets. For brands this usually means that ROI is maximised and campaign objectives are struck within an innovative and attention grabbing manner. And the chance for a tailored and engaging experience, which enables them to connect with their favorite brands and receive a more lively brand experience develops.
